Cultivating Your Own Personal Style On A Budget - An Introduction

I suspect that many of my family and friends will be amused that I have decided to write a blog about clothes.  Seriously surprised, if not alarmed and wondering what form of madness has possessed me this time.

Well, partly the inspiration came from a wonderful blog by a very stylist and well-dressed man, Rev Dr Calvin Samuel whose blog ‘The Five Year Project’ can be found at http://5yearproject.wordpress.com/ and is, I think, essential reading for anybody looking to build their own gentleman’s wardrobe.  I know Calvin personally, and he is one of the best dressed men you will ever meet.

Partly the inspiration came from the fact that I have also let my personal style slip overt the past year.  I am currently coming to the end of my first year as a Probationer Presbyter in the Methodist Church, which means that the two previous years I had been a Student Minister, with the emphasis on the word ‘student’ in that I have pretty much worn jeans for the past three years, in combination with an open necked shirt and jacket.  Those of you who know fashion will know that this look is known as a ‘Jeremy Clarkson’, not a man generally known as a style icon!

I have therefore taken the decision that I have to get back to my own personal style.  I still have most of the clothes, though some are a little on the snug side and will need temporary replacement until I’ve lost weight.

So, by way of introduction to the blog, what is my own personal style?

I am, it has to be admitted, not a gentleman; at least not in terms of the way I dress myself.  I have a loathing of personally wearing ties, with the exception of bow ties, which are cool!  Neither am I a slave to fashion, indeed I spit on fashion, fashion is for sheep who don’t have minds of their own.   I like to think I have a unique style of my own, influenced by the way several of my personal fictional and real life heroes have dressed over the years.

I guess the earliest influence, and indeed on going, influence on my personal style is that renegade Time Lord from Gallifrey known only as The Doctor.  Not all 11 of them, but the 3^rd,  4^th, 5^th, 8^th , 10^th and 11^th Doctors.

Now I have to emphasise that I never dress in an exact replica of any of the Doctor’s many costumes, but the way they have dressed has had an influence on my personal style.

Other influences on my personal style include Elvis Presley, Hawkeye Pierce (Hawaiian shirts) and Pierce Brosnan’s version of James Bond.

That’s my personal style influences, and I’m not for one minute suggesting that you would want to copy them in any way, you almost certainly wouldn’t want to.

But perhaps you might like to reflect on who your personal style influences are.  If you are cultivating your own personal style, as opposed to following the rest of the fashion sheep, who has influenced you?

In my next blog I will be looking at how you begin to develop your own personal style on a restricted budget.