A few weeks ago I found myself 600 coats deep on ASOS looking for an embroidered leather jacket, as someone who already owns over 30 coats/jackets I had to stop and ask myself – how did I get here?

Style can encompass anything and everything – your hair, make-up, clothes, accessories and even how you hold yourself.

It’s fair to say in nearly 20 years I’ve made some interesting fashion choices, we’re talking anything from green hair to tan coloured leggings, why I ever thought that was a good idea I’ll never know.

Without years of questionable choices, and receiving worried looks from strangers dressed better than me, I wouldn’t be able to walk into a shop and know exactly what I want to wear to make myself feel good.

In my eyes there isn’t one perfect formula to finding your personal style. For me it was a long, painful process of trial and error.

Countless amounts of time were spent flicking through the pages of magazines, watching YouTube videos and scrolling through Pinterest trying to mimic people I thought looked chic.

In the present day I’ve pinned it down to two not-so-simple steps:

The first step to anyone feeling comfortable and happy with their style is first feeling comfortable and happy with yourself, yes I know, what a cliché, but in this case a very true one.

Accepting yourself is the first step to finding your personal style. You’ll never walk into a shop and know you’re going to love something on if first you don’t love yourself.

Loving yourself is easier said than done though, isn’t it? For me it was all about finding what works best for me and not listening to what all those magazines said I should wear for my height, weight, body type, star sign or whatever other stupid theory they could come up with.

Go with what you love, the fact that a floor length coat isn’t portrayed to be for your height doesn’t mean it can’t be.

The next step for me was experimentation. Still to this day I probably couldn’t define my exact personal style, one day I want to look professional and preppy but still wear a miniskirt, the next I want to shove on leather, studs and a band tee.

This difference now is that maybe I know how to do it a little better than when I was 16.

My main tip would be try everything. If you’re five foot but want to wear a maxi dress to uni, go for it. You won’t know what you feel best in until you’ve tried it all, no guarantee you’ll love it all but at least there’ll be some laughs along the way.

Over summer this year I decided that upon arriving back in Glasgow for third year I would throw style expectations out the window and say ‘who cares?’.

Finding your personal style might take a while (and I may not be the biggest expert in the field, more than once I’ve tried to fight the side of miniskirts being appropriate for every occasion) but accepting yourself, experimenting and dressing for you not others’ expectations are all key to the process.

So go out there and rock a miniskirt and leather jacket one day then a pantsuit the next. Most importantly, you do you.

Feature photo courtesy of Flickr user kasiQ kmjw