Hannah

When we rely on “taste mimicking” in whatever form it takes, we might find that we ultimately aren’t satisfied with how our taste, or rather how the way we are approaching taste, is influencing our personal style. Because we are chasing a feeling or quality that we think the aesthetic, the item, will give us. If we sit too long in being informed by... See more

You can live for years with events that don’t speak to one another, but then something happens, and suddenly your story has structure.

what taste is:

• Personal opinion & a discerning eye (can interplay with the other pillars of personal style... example: taste can be influenced by your environment, but shouldn’t be defined by it entirely. Which leads me to...)


• Exposure, experience (broadening your worldview)


• Aesthetic/design awareness


• Contextual understanding


• A skill that can be

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The more ignorant we are, the more likely it is that we will be dazzled by mediocrity. Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul, as Alexander Pope said.1 Good taste is accumulated through wide knowledge.

You must read the works that challenge and defeat you, or try.

what taste isn’t:

• Identifying trends


• Copycatism (not to be confused with experimenting with your style and being inspired by others, which is a normal and healthy part of developing your preferences and eye for what you like)


• One thing that one group that you perceive as cool does/wears/etc. (there is no such thing as singular “good” taste)


• Expensive

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So quite honestly, of course, we’ve lost touch with what it means to develop taste in a personal and engaging way. Its easier to observe, consume, and mimic versus engaging with our world deeper right now. No wonder we are never truly satisfied with our style and our tastes, it's so hard to hear our own voices right now. I think it might have to be... See more

Listening to yourself is the route to good taste, but so is listening to other people. We catch the fire of other people’s enthusiasm, which is rooted in their knowledge. That is how we discover newer, better things, be they novels, films, symphonies, cuisines, clothes.