How to Make Something Trendy Part of Your Style

No matter if you call yourself on-point or if you like to watch fashion from a safe and comfortable distance, we all like a good trend. It's hard not to get swept away if you see hoards of girls playing with a new idea. You notice a bunch of girls wearing flower crowns in their hair and having maxi dresses whisper around their ankles, and you suddenly want to become an extra out of a Free People catalog. Or you see how leather jackets make girls' shoulders look city-ready, and vampy lips make them feel martini thirsty, and all of a sudden you want to give your whole closet some dark, moody edge.  If you see enough people wear one thing, you start imagining yourself wearing that one thing, too.
But the issue is, sometimes you hop on and it just looks flat our wrong on you. Anyone have that happen to them? You got yourself a tutu skirt thinking you'll look classy, but instead you end up looking like the five year old version of you. Except this time instead of crossing the street to ballet practice you're crossing the street to go pay your rent.
We've all been there. But I have found that it's not that you can't pull off the trend. You just can't pull off the styling of the trend. Meaning, take the piece and make it yours- don't copy how others are wearing it.
 This revelation hit me after I had this fur vest hanging in my closet for two years and worn a grand total of two times. It hurt me every time I ventured to the back of my wardrobe. It was so, so pretty, but I felt so, so ridiculous wearing it. I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb every time I wore it out- I'd fidget in my plaid shirt, or I'd pull on the hem of my pencil skirt, making it obvious I was about to break out into a stress blush at any minute. So I gave up on it.
That is, until last week. I was aimlessly scrolling through Pinterest one afternoon when I fell upon a picture of a girl in a long Free People bohemian dress and this thick, almost beastly fur vest. And I heard myself sigh.

This. This is what I like. Not the plaid and statement necklace version (when do I ever wear statement necklaces?), not the pencil skirt and chambray shirt version (why did I forget I hate anything that's not a midi?) but this dark-floral-gypsy-accents-fringe-and-velvet-everywhere version. Radically different from the looks I have been trying to pull it off with, and just right. 
So my point is this: you can pull anything off, you just need to translate it into your own, specific style. Trial and error my friends, trial and error!  


PS: Want more posts like this one? Then see how I finally cracked the code with blazers in How to Style Fall Blazers. And to get more fur vest ideas, check out 10 New Ways to Style Fur Vests
.

DRESS: Urban Outfitters (vintage similar: here, here, here, here)
FUR VEST: Marshals (store similar: here, here)
BOOTIES: Marshals
TURTLENECK: thrifted (store similar: here | vintage similar: here)
PURSE: thrifted
HAT: thrifted (similar: here)
NECKLACES: Urban Outfitters and Cocorrina
BELT: Banana Republic