apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

nina garcia had something to say about a sense of style on this season of project runway, "style isn't something you can learn. style is something you are born with."

Ooh, I like that quote.

I think style is something you develop over time. True, it may seem like some people are just born with style, but I like to think that they just developed more quickly than others. :)

I think a lot of us are born with an innate sense of style, but like a lot of things it doesn't always manafest itself until adolescence, like puberty and exploration that often begins during the pre-teen years.

Now it does not say that each and every one of us has "style" for a "no style" is a style of sorts. :-)

I happen to have developed a style towards modern, in particular, mid century modern predominantly along with Art Deco, an appreciation for Tiffany lamps, to some extent, Art Moderne and 60's-70's mod begining in and around my pre-teen years and it's grown and developed greatly since then.

I think it is something a mixture of born and developed....

Style involves both your taste, the things you like, and the confidence to be able to commit to owning that taste/style/way of doing/being.

For example: I may love love love brilliant jewel-toned walls, but because I've always grown up in a house with white walls, I have two options:
a) decide that the white walls are a good safe design choice, and that the west elm catalog helps me work with white walls by buying a bunch of dark wood stuff. It looks classic, if a bit boring, but my mom won't disapprove when she comes over
b) say screw it to what I've always known, and take risks based on what I like - so, just because I hear "oh, dark paint is so hard to do right" doesn't mean that I shouldn't try a deep turquoise wall with a hot pink sofa and lime green trim. It makes it my sense of style, and figuring out what does, and doesn't, work is all in the risks you take.

Finally, you can put effort into studying what others do, to have a sense of what seems to work. The more solid your understand of 'the rules', the easier it is to break them.

This is a purely theoretical example, and any bearing it has to real life people or designs is purely coincidental. I make no judgment on cream and brown palettes vs brilliant colors.

I think everyone is born with a sense of style, but many are afraid to just go with it OR they get influenced out of it by society. Style isn't what we see in magazines or on showroom floors or whatever "what is old is new again" style is being discussed in design blogs (there IS more to style than mid-century modern...ahem). Style is personal, it's an expression of who you are. My style has *always* been colorful and courageous. I don't have a single white wall in my apartment...I also don't own a single white shirt! My living room was teal before teal was popular! But too many people question their own style as 'not good enough' and try to copy whatever is in vogue at the moment...and more often than not...fail. I stick by the old adage 'buy what you love and you will always find a place for it.'.

Style may be something that you're born with - but it's easily stolen away by people saying things like "Oh, that color is way too bright/dark", "That's Ugly", "That's weird", "That clashes" or even "You spent how much on that?!?!"

Then there's the folks who instead of trusting their own judgment, instead reply upon the ubiquitous retailers and think that if their room is full of stuff from this or that catalog or have a designer name, it will make them look like they have style.

I think people overall definitely are born with "an eye" for design, but no f'ing way a kid comes out of the vajayjay knowing Hermes chair models and what Warhols go in that same room. So "style isn't something you can learn. style is something you are born with."... that's utter and complete BULL. Now some people TRULY swear that their style's god-given, when in reality it's god-awful... Then you have to moderate Style vs. Taste... how much is too much style and how safe are your choices... I think that's most of what people learn. Hence, some just emulate and say they've "style", when in reality they just saw something they liked and stole it.

Style (and taste, too, I would also argue) is indeed something you can learn. You could bet your bottom dollar that the best designers have gone to school, studied other designers ad nauseum, and have practiced, practiced, practiced.

But first you have to care a bit. If you're more interested in spending your time and dollars on travel or rare books or tech, then so be it. But great style does not come to those who don't have any interest in aesthetics.

I'm sure great style also comes easier to some than others. Just like math or music or gardening or cooking. I've been a pretty good cook most of my life, and it came easily. It took a lot longer to cultivate what I'm told frequently is great personal style. As for interiors.... I'm learning! And the latest results bring me lots of compliments.

Now that I think about it.... food and clothing are best showcased in contrast. So why not interiors?

The best design advice ever has been Maxwell's 80/20 color rule. It's changed my home more than anything else. And for the much, much, I cannot emphasize this enough, much better!

As I once said to my husband after he told me his sister's taste was just different than mine (when talking about her new home) "You're right, her taste IS different than mine, it's bad."
My poor husband had the unfortunate luck to marry a successful interior designer who loves to point out the obvious and whose clients love to pay her for her sense of style and taste.
I firmly believe that style and taste are something that one learns, but at a very early age, so that it mostly second nature.

I know that sounds snooty......sorry......I know I'll pay for these remarks!

Style, it seems, becomes ignited at some indeterminable time. I've known people who just suddenly begin expressing a great sense of style and confidence about it. They could have always had it, but had not found a way to show it.

I agree style is a skill that can be learned or honed; but I think it's also something that some are born with, a strength. It comes easy to some, others have to work harder at it.

You can't teach good taste.

Design sense is an observational skill and a memory skill. It's being able to see spatial relations in your mind or observe whether something looks "nice" but does not balance, if something just would look better if it were moved a couple inches or needs to be replaced with something a different size. It's being able to notice the effect a color has, and being able to see that it is different however slightly from another color, if it's warmer or greener or darker or muddier but lighter, etc. It's not just liking a color you saw and repeating it, it's knowing what you might need to adjust to get that pleasant effect you want to emulate. It's also being able to remember and recognize things, objects, to recall them for a project, and being able to discern quality.

I have recently realized I have expensive taste - which isn't the same as good taste, but I have no idea where I might have learned it. It may be an aversion to shoddy or cheaply made things I grew up with. My mother seems to have no such skill, so I would say this was something I was either born with or developed independently, leaning more heavily on the latter.

A sensitivity to things being just so, sometimes a rejection of things I found foul without having the tools to know why, and a healthy imagination, etc. I know most people think young kids can't have good taste and shouldn't have a say in decorating their own space. I wasn't given choices in decorating my room, either, but I knew what I did and didn't like about my room, our house, and the homes of friends and relatives.

I wouldn't say you're born with style, necessarily, but it's something you hone in on and recognize as something you like to think about, like being good at sports or having wonder and curiosity about animals or ecosystems, etc. It feeds your mind and you learn it more readily.

I believe design sense, specifically design aesthetics, is a learned skill. We're talking about the manifestation of the symbolic dimension of society – the definitions of cool, beautiful, clean, classical, busy, ugly are all based on cultural references we share. The rules that guide styles are also based on mutual agreement produced from our cultural environment. What characteristics are present in Baroque, Kitsch and Postmodern architecture and art?

That's something you learn. Don't forget that anyone can learn what terms like balance, tension, grouping, polarity, symmetry, regularity, emphasis, and stability (and so on) mean. I just looked in Dondis to list them here. Took me a minute.

Applying this aesthetic knowledge in ways that meet with the approval of others requires an understanding of aesthetics and, just as importantly, what society approves of. And this – understanding concepts like value, importance, good, bad, right and wrong – is a basic premise of culture. Our daily environment has a direct influence on the learning process, as do books, web sites, and magazines.

Of course, the rules that orient functional design are somewhat different, and certainly more objective. But I don’t think that’s what is being discussed here.

advice i didn't know i needed at the time...

nothing really needs to match in the traditional sense... just work.