How to find your style? (in 2025)

Hello, I'm Benoît, co-founder of Bonnegueule. Yes, you've just received a Minute Selvedge newsletter. It's been a few years since we stopped it and we thought it would be a good idea to do it again.

The format has evolved: we now offer you one newsletter a month, where we give ourselves carte blanche to share with you the ideas and discoveries that fascinate us.

Expect to hear from a number of contributors, either members of the team or people we like in a sphere close to our own.

For this first edition, David and I wanted to get back to basics, on a question that can take a lifetime to answer: how do you find your style?

After almost 20 years of writing about clothing, let's see where we stand on this reflection...

The power of inspiration, by David

I'm sure you've already encountered someone and said to yourself, "I couldn't see myself wearing that, but those clothes look great on him, they look natural on him."

I often get this impression when I see Shuhei Nishiguchi's looks. It looks so easy to dress well when you see him.

For me, that's what finding your style is all about. Wearing clothes that feel natural, that are aligned with our personality. In short, clothes we feel good in.

And I think inspiration plays an essential role in this quest. To find your style, it's crucial to have role models: looks, brands or people whose style really speaks to you, who make you say "that's exactly how I want to dress".

Spend time on Instagram or brand websites, chat with enthusiasts (on our Discord for example), until you find those inspirations.

From there, analyze and deconstruct what you see. Why do you like this look, this brand? Do you like the color palette, the materials, the cuts, the combinations? Are there certain garments that come up frequently? (highly textured jeans, short jackets, shoes with a particular shape).

Personally, the brand that fascinates me most is Stoffà. I love their vision of subtle, nonchalant, relaxed elegance, with garments that drape harmoniously around the wearer, in a very neutral, natural range of colors, almost always in monochrome or tonal hues.

In fact, what I'm looking for is to be elegant without overdoing it, without becoming too sartorially sophisticated. In my opinion, Stoffà is the epitome of this vision. Just look at these silhouettes:

The real power of inspiration is that it gives you a direction, a road to follow, a way to stay on the path of style.

Here's a common mistake made by clothing enthusiasts: spreading yourself too thin. Buying pieces in very different styles and having trouble putting them together. Thinking of the garment individually ("I like this piece") and not enough in a global approach ("Would this piece fit in well with my looks, does it correspond to the stylistic direction I'm pursuing?").

And I know what I'm talking about, I'm the first to be affected by this problem. But over time, I've learned to be more aware of it, to think more before buying. For example, take a look at these Beams+ pants:

Well, I think they're great. There's a real purpose to them, they're paisley corduroy pants with double pleats. But the truth is, if I bought them, I wouldn't wear them very much. It would look good in my dressing room, but it wouldn't look good enough on my legs. I'm a big fan of the proposition, but I accept that it's not for me.

Anyway, in the background, there's an idea of consistency. I think that finding your style means finding a coherent universe that suits you, and managing to stick to it.

Style as a saga, by Benoît

After all these years, I've had to come to terms with the fact that style is more a matter of personal universe (= your tastes, your lifestyle) and aesthetics than a purely rational science, although a beginner will always need rules and guidelines that are easy to understand.

For me, the first thing to do is to know what you want to convey: elegance? Casual? Minimalist? Workwear? Technical? Consensual? Singularity? Or all of the above?

For example, take a look at this photo by Robert Spangle for Hondikee:

He mixes vintage military (the camo shirt), and tailoring (the suit). It's an outfit that perfectly illustrates his background as a Marine in the U.S. Army and his tailoring training at Savile Row. This is how personal history translates into clothing, not to mention Robert Spangle's mastery of his stylistic vocabulary.

This is where inspirations and your culture of beauty come into play. Instagram and the social networks are full of gorgeous outfits, but look at your favorite movies and artists too. It's a process you can't cheat on, there are no shortcuts: it's bound to take time (but that doesn't mean you have to wait years before having fun with the garment).

Then, you have to put all this "culturo-personal stuff" through the mill of your lifestyle.

For example, I really like tailoring and suits that fit well, but I have to be realistic: my lifestyle, where I carry a backpack almost every day and like to travel light, isn't necessarily compatible with wearing a suit made of canvas and a fresh shirt that needs changing every day.

That's how, little by little, you'll make aesthetic choices that are more and more refined and coherent.

Another thing that took me a long time to understand: clothes are like words in a language, with their own meaning, which you can use to your advantage or not. Nicolas Gabard, founder of the Husbands brand, explained this concept to me at length.

For example, a military jacket conveys a vintage, raw edge, while a blazer is directly in the language of elegance. And what happens when the two mix? Is it cacophony or poetry? You tell me!

This cult photo by John Wrazej is a good illustration of how an outfit can cohabit several languages:

If clothes are a language, then it's up to you to develop your aesthetic vocabulary, and we're back to the important role of inspirations, and more broadly, of having a cultural and aesthetic curiosity.

As clothing is a concrete, tangible object, you're going to have to try it on and touch it! You can't develop your style without trying on clothes and experimenting. Experimenting only with clothes via the Internet gradually leads to a disconnection from reality, where people nitpick over details and fantasize about the ultimate garment - what I call "overthink".

So get out, try on, buy, ask the advice of passionate people whose style you like, go to reputable boutiques and see what happens. Between second-hand and the information (and inspiration) available on the networks, it's never been easier to make informed choices at all prices, new or not... or to make a mistake and resell without worry.

And above all, enjoy the journey: I remember a time when the offer for men was very limited and knowledge was not globalized (in the best case, it was hidden in the depths of a not very ergonomic forum).

And finally, an important lesson for people who absolutely want to have a style that everyone can agree on: a good style is often polarizing, and also depends very much on the context and the way others (and their social group) look at it.

A perfectly executed sartorial style may be seen as too classic or too rigid by some. I love this Peter Zottolo outfit, but is it the right style for a party with friends? Not sure.

A style that relies solely on basics, no matter how well chosen, will be perceived as too dull and lacking in personality, while others will praise its "minimalist" vibe.

In short, since you can't please everyone, the only way forward is to create a style that appeals above all to you.

Because life's too short to live in clothes you don't feel good in.

(And if you really want a style that is the most socially valued, I invite you to watch David's and my video on casual chic )

Thank you for reading this first Minute Selvedge, new edition. We hope you've enjoyed it. If you did, please let us know by sending us a message on our networks or joining our Discord here.

David and I would love to read your thoughts on this issue!

We wish you all the best.

Thumbnail photo credit on the media section: Casatlantic