The more you learn about it, the less you seem to need.
At first, fashion can feel like a never-ending list of things to want. A new collection, a new designer, a new silhouette, the shoes everyone suddenly has, the bag that appears on your feed five times a day. You save it, screenshot it, add it to a wishlist—and two weeks later, you barely remember why you wanted it. I think most of us have been there.
But something changes when you spend more time with fashion. You start noticing things. Not just what you like, but why you like it. Maybe you always choose oversized jackets. Maybe you feel best in simple trousers and slightly strange shoes. Maybe you keep reaching for the same shade of brown without even realizing it. You start noticing fabrics, proportions, details. You start recognizing what feels like you.
And suddenly, shopping gets a little harder. Not because you like less, but because you like more specifically. You can walk into a store, see ten beautiful things, and only one makes you think, Oh, that’s so me. And honestly, I think that’s a good thing.
Your style doesn’t have to be a “signature look.” It can change. You can go through a black-everything phase and then suddenly want ridiculous amounts of colour. You can fall in love with something you never thought you’d wear. That’s part of the fun. But even when your style changes, there are usually little things you keep coming back to: a certain shape, a fabric, a way of wearing something. Those patterns become your own visual vocabulary. And once you recognize them, you become much harder to sell to—which, in a world constantly telling us what we need, feels quite nice.
Fashion is very good at creating urgency. This is the shoe. This bag is everywhere. You need this. And sometimes you genuinely do want it. That’s fun too. I’m not here to pretend buying something beautiful isn’t exciting. But knowing your own taste gives you the option to pause. You can look at something and think, It’s beautiful. Just not for me. You don’t have to dislike something to not buy it. You can love a runway collection without wanting a single piece. You can think a trend looks amazing on someone else and know it isn’t for you. Not everything has to come home with you.
And I think that’s where knowing more about fashion becomes interesting. The goal isn’t necessarily to want less. It’s to know what is actually worth wanting. When you don’t know your taste yet, everything can feel like a possibility. When you start understanding it, possibilities become choices. You stop buying something just because it’s new and start choosing things because they fit into a world you already have. Maybe it’s something you’ve been looking for forever. Maybe you’ll still love the shape years from now. Or maybe it’s completely unnecessary and simply makes you ridiculously happy. That counts too.
Because this isn’t about owning less or building the perfect capsule wardrobe. Fashion is supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to surprise you. It’s supposed to make you want things sometimes. But there is something really nice about reaching a point where you don’t feel like you have to keep up with everything. You can scroll past. You can wait. You can change your mind. You can want something and decide you don’t actually need it.
Maybe that’s what knowing your style gives you: not less curiosity, not less fashion, just a better filter. Because the more you know about fashion, the less you need it to tell you what you like.
MOTTO MAGAZINE
