0:00 From copying someone's style to buying the wrong pieces, I want to talk through six style mistakes we can leave behind in 2026. I love wardrobe pieces and I love outfits that are fun, that are versatile, and just make us look and feel our best. But then there are certain traps that we can fall into that are expensive, that cost a lot of money, and really just don't do anything for our wardrobes. So, let's avoid these to up our style in 2026. If I look back, one of the most expensive style mistakes is copying someone's signature style and buying all the pieces that they are wearing without understanding why it works for them and why it doesn't work on me. The thing I didn't understand is that when we look at someone with iconic style, their style is iconic not just
0:47 because of the outfit pairing, but because they've perfectly aligned their style to their own unique features. Everyone has a body structure, so bone structure. Everyone has different facial structure, different essence, even the way you move, it all comes together. And I think when your style aligns with all of this, it creates something magical. And we see this out of a lot of style icons. The major mistake is that if I try to buy those exact pieces to try to recreate the look, I don't have the bone structure or the same essence to support it. So that look doesn't really translate in the same way. This is a huge waste of money because we set out wanting to create a look and we haven't really achieved it even though we've bought a bunch of pieces. So, here's my
1:33 solution to this tip. Firstly, understand your bone structure, your yin and yang balance. And we all fall somewhere on this scale. And then I'd like to look at my inspiration, my style icon, which in my case, one of them is John Damas. And I can see that she has a lot more angularity in her face and in her body structure. She's taller. She's got stronger definition. So, what I need to do to achieve this style instead of going for those dramatic pieces is to soften everything a little bit more. Slightly lighter fabrics, more curved, softer shapes, less drama, maybe a little bit more daintiness to get to that effortless um [music] style that I love of hers. Something else I find helpful is to find people with similar features or similar structure to my own.
2:20 I really like Kami Y your lane. I hope I'm saying that right. She's quite petite. I find that her features are softer and she wears a lot of the things that I know from past experience. Tends to feel quite harmonious on me. She wears a lot of crew necks. She wears a lot of these puff sleeves with these round details. She wears clothing that has small accents, not so dramatic. And I find all of this to be very approachable if I wanted to create that effortless kind of French style. When I first learned this tip, I thought it was going to be creatively limiting because there's a correct way to dress. But that's actually not at all what this is about. It's kind of just understanding whatever look you want, you will need to figure out for yourself the pieces you need to get there. Another way to think
3:07 about this one is with the Scandi girl modern style. I think this style has been popular for a long time. This is a look that is usually seen on girls with a lot of angularity. Um, dramatic yang. If you fall elsewhere on this spectrum, the best way to achieve the look is to soften it till it gets to your balance. It might mean that you can keep the oversized silhouette and go for a softer fabric. It might mean that you have to go less oversized and softer, but we need to make adjustments to get to that modern cool girl scandi look. Another thing here is that if you fall in love with an item of clothing, this doesn't apply. You can just wear that item, it will achieve something different, but that's not an issue. The thing is, if
3:53 you want to recreate a vibe, a feeling, a kind of personal style, and it's not working out with certain pieces, that is when this one just applies and is a complete game changer. One expensive soul mistake to leave behind for good in 2026 is to buy expensive basics that don't support your personal style and isn't a problem solver in your wardrobe. The thing about basics is that they need to solve style problems and make it really easy to put together good outfits. Good outfits that feel aligned. The other day I was making a real and I put together this outfit and look, I like both of these pieces very much. The yellow cardigan, great. The corduroy trousers are a new piece for me and I
4:39 love them. They are my favorite wardrobe piece right now. But together, it's giving rustic. It's giving very earthy. It's giving a lot more boho than my style. So then when I change into these outfits, it instantly felt more aligned to my style. And it's no coincidence that this white long sleeve with the pointel and this navy cardigan are my tried and tested staples for many years. They problem solve so many outfits and just instantly aligns a look to my own style. It brings that femininity to those corduroy trousers which I really really like at the moment. The mistake here is when I buy wardrobe basics and they don't problem solve in a situation like this. Had I put on a white t-shirt,
5:26 if it's boxy and oversized, it's going to push this outfit into a very modern look, which is not my own style. So, that would be a fail of a basic. If I had this really oversized sweater, it would make this outfit very oversized, very effortless, but again, not my style. So much money in my past has been spent on pieces that don't support my style. um they don't problem solve in situations like this. [music] And even though they're simple, they were not really workhorse pieces that I could reach for realistically all the time. And this is not to say all basics need to be elevated basics. Some basics can be simple, some can be more elevated with nice details, but the thing is they do have to align to your style. So it
6:12 can sometimes mean pointel t-shirt instead of plain. it might mean that super oversized t-shirt and we just want to get it right here to support everything else we wear and we style in 2026. Another sub mistake I want to quickly add on here is that don't create outfits for the sake of having another look um another outfit idea but create them so that they feel fun, they feel aligned to you. They feel good on. And with the yellow sweater with the green pants, I think this is technically a pretty nice outfit. A lot of people would prefer it to the ones maybe I would wear. However, my goal is always to create outfits that I'm excited about that feel aligned to my style. So, not losing sight of that when I'm putting
6:57 together outfits. It's not quantity and having a million looks. It's actually just having the ones that I feel inspired by that feel fun for me to wear. Something the beauty and fashion industry absolutely thrives on is trying to fix our perceived imperfections. For everyone out there, there are things we like about ourselves and there are things um maybe that are not our favorite feature. And what happens sometimes is that we start dressing to fix those things we don't like as opposed to trying to amplify the things that are great and that we love about ourselves. I often speak with my mom about this and she's always shopping for clothes through the lens of finding things that just look okay um and is
7:44 going to conceal her stomach region a little bit. And when buying clothes, this is such a priority in what she looks for. And there are certain things I do as well maybe in beauty where it used to be all about like skin and coverage and making sure you just could not see through um to the acne and whatnot. And this way of styling ourselves, whether that is in fashion or in beauty, means that we just gloss over the things that we should be amplifying. And we're so focused on the things that we feel are in our eyes, in our eyes only, our imperfections. So instead, my solution to this is always to think about your favorite features and then to try and amplify that because in amplifying that, it also distracts from
8:30 anything we may perceive to not be [music] our favorite. A very expensive soul mistake is when we buy the wrong clothes for our wardrobe and then we never end up wearing it. This year I made 101 videos about clothing that I no longer buy for one reason or another. And there are things I really struggle to explain. Why does this work but then this doesn't? How do I explain this? And something I needed to understand is the relationship between fabric, you know, whether it's sheer, whether it's opaque, the weight of the fabric, and the structure that the fabric creates, as well as scale, print, color, texture, and more. And how all of these connect with each other. When I make broad overarching statements like I'm not
9:17 going to wear oversize anymore, it doesn't always end up being the case because a lot of things can change how oversiz. If I take this dress as an example, it's loose and it's relaxed and it's kind of oversized. But because it's not opaque, because it's sheer, it counteracts some of that oversized drama. Because there is a very small scale print on this oversized silhouette, it makes it more wearable and less oversized feeling on me because there is this lace um see-through detail. And because there is like quite a lot of skin um showing, it counteracts that oversized shape. But if I wore this in like a long sleeve shirt dress, it would not work at all. And all of these details end up coming together to shape
10:02 the vibe and the fit of a piece of clothing. Even in cardigans, there are certain cardigans that I adore and certain styles I don't wear. Usually structure and fabric weight plays a huge part. Often time the scale of a pattern can completely change the vibe. It can suit us more or less. And even like things like the amount of skin showing. So if something is very crisp in cotton popppllin and it's like long sleeve um covering everything it usually drowns me. Whereas if I have a cotton popppllin in like an singlet or a tank top it can be a lot more wearable. So if we want to avoid the mistake of buying the wrong clothes in 20126 we need to understand all of these details. Once we develop a better eye for this, we take a look at clothing and
10:49 it becomes so much more obvious whether it is right for us or whether it's something that isn't really going to work out. I also wanted to take the time to explain this one because it can feel a bit contradictory otherwise. Like I'll say things like I don't really like oversized, but then I'll I'll also wear a lot of oversized. And I'll say things like I don't like structured things, but sometimes I will opt for them. And it's because of how the little details come together. When I look through periods and eras where I am dressing well, I am always prioritizing life clothes over occasion clothes. A major soul mistake um that happens usually around new year is that I'll think about elevating my style this year. And I won't be realistic about it. I'll go from
11:36 sweatshirt vibes to thinking I'll wear a blazer like everyday. And the thing is that I can wear a blazer, but if I'm being honest with myself, that's not what I'll wear every day for my lifestyle. So instead of doing that, um I love to find some middle ground of being able to elevate the clothes I actually wear dayto-day because this is what is going to be the best value. This is what's going to make me actually feel stylish um on the typical day and what's going to improve my style because I'm going to wear it. My favorite examples here are elevated t-shirts. Um, so going from like simple t-shirts to pointel t-shirts. It's going from basic cardigans to more elevated cardigans because they're like easy to wear. I mean, it's a cardigan, but they have
12:21 nice details and they're much more likely to wear this than like a proper jacket. No matter how casual it is, I can still wear a cardigan. having nice like casual trousers. Um, that's a step up from like the PJ pants. And then of course having cute midi skirts in a straighter silhouette that still falls in that everyday silhouette and style when we try to elevate our style, especially in the new year, um, new, you me, we can go way too far and then into that fantasy self that we're always hearing about. So then trying to find realistic pieces that still elevate is the thing that will actually help us achieve that better style we want in 2026. But um just being honest about it. I also think it's so much fun to romanticize everyday outfits. There are
13:09 so many cute like everyday outfits using casual pieces. And the more I get in the habit of saving these on my Pinterest and finding ways to make everyday outfits more chic, the more this sometimes feels even more stylish than those fancy pieces. I've completely transformed my mood board, my inspiration board to these really casual, cozy items that I can reach for everyday. One expensive soul mistake I will always avoid is buying too much too quickly and trying to match everything together. So these are kind of two separate things but they kind of tie together as well. So the main thing here is that right now um this era of fashion the trend is for things to feel a bit
13:55 more mixed and matched or unexpected. In previous decades, I think there was a lot of matching, like a perfectly matching suit and the shoes match the outfit and there was a lot of cohesion in the outfit. Right now, I think the thing that feels the most stylish is when we're pulling from different styles, from different vibes and we're mixing and matching it into an outfit. It's why we can have like bits and pieces of '90s fashion or '7s fashion and mixed in with the modern style and that is what feels really chic within this. There are so many micro trends going around. So things like wrong shoe theory, things like unexpected red theory. Um I think there was like an unexpected blue theory as well. But we like this eclecticness and we like this mix and match approach to fashion. And
14:42 because I like this look so much, I would say a mistake is to buy everything too matchy matchy for my wardrobe. An example of this is um these red Corell shoes. I really like the way these look and I do wear them. They're such a cute shoe, but sometimes what happens is that I'm wearing a girly dress and I'm wearing these like very feminine shoes and everything is too matchy and it's too much. So, I always like to wear this type of feminine dress with a more masculine chunkier shoe and that to me just always feels a bit chica. We have different personal styles. So our balance of this might be different. But I think always something a little bit unexpected, a little bit mismatched feels very chic. So the very expensive summer is building my wardrobe too
15:29 quickly within a season. And what happens is that everything can feel matchy matchy. Everything feels one-dimensional and part of one particular trendy aesthetic. Even if we don't shop for trends, there are always trends. even in classic pieces, trendy fabrics, trendy neutrals, trendy shades, and you can just still feel the currentness of that item. Whereas, if I'm building my wardrobe a little bit slower, then it's easier for me to mix and match more to have pieces that feel unexpected with an outfit as opposed to everything perfectly matching. This is kind of two mistakes in one. I want to avoid perfectly matching outfits and I want to avoid buying too much too quickly. that kind of sometimes causes
16:15 that perfectly matching look. Tying on to this, I also feel like with trends, it is so hard to be above a trend and not influenced by a trend at all because trends go both ways. They usually reflect the times we live in. And if we're just picking up one or two trends here and there, it can lead to a very beautiful wardrobe. It's more when we are buying trends too quickly and we're buying too much of it that I think it becomes too trendy looking and not timeless enough. I've been thinking about this and how sometimes it is actually quite interesting for a wardrobe to feature past and present trends because it does reflect the reality of building a wardrobe over time. So those are the mistakes I wanted
17:02 to talk about in today's video. These I want to leave behind in 2025 and not do in 2026. This is going to be my last video for this year. I hope you guys have an incredible holiday season. Um a very nice start to your new year. I'll be traveling a little bit over this time. So, I'll be back with new videos um at the very start of next year. So, I will see you then. Bye for now.
