Fashion vs. Style: One Fades, the Other Lasts

There was a time I thought being in fashion meant wearing fashion. Keeping up with trends, making sure I was always one step ahead, never letting my wardrobe fall behind the latest collections. The industry moves at lightning speed, and I convinced myself I had to move just as fast. If I wasn’t wearing the next big thing, was I even a real designer?

But here’s the truth fashion doesn’t want you to know: it’s a game designed for you to lose.

Trends are meant to expire, forcing you to chase the next wave before you’ve even had time to settle into the last one. You buy, you wear, you discard. It’s a cycle, and it’s relentless.

Style, though? Style doesn’t play by those rules.

I think back to the people who’ve made a lasting impression on me, not because they wore the latest runway pieces, but because they owned their look.

You know the type. They walk into a room, and even before you’ve had time to process what they’re wearing, you feel something. Confidence. Energy. A presence that has nothing to do with a logo or a designer label. They could be wearing something from five years ago, something vintage, something completely unexpected, and it just works. That’s style.

It’s not that I don’t love fashion, I live for it. I love seeing the creativity, the craftsmanship, the boldness of new collections. But I no longer feel the need to consume it the way I used to.

There’s a difference between appreciating fashion and letting it dictate who you are.

That’s something I had to learn the hard way. Working in the industry, there’s an unspoken pressure to prove you belong. To dress the part. To be seen as someone who knows. But the further I got in my career, the more I realised that the people I admired weren’t the ones drowning in designer pieces or wearing every trend. They were the ones who trusted themselves. Who could take the simplest outfit and make it feel iconic. Who weren’t afraid to sit out a trend if it didn’t resonate with them.

And that’s where the magic is. Because fashion might tell you what’s "in," but style is what makes you unforgettable.

I see it in my own work now, too. The pieces I’m most proud of aren’t the ones designed to follow a trend, they’re the ones that come from a real place. The ones with a story, an emotion, a purpose. And I’ve learned that’s what people connect with. You don’t fall in love with a piece of clothing just because it’s trendy; you fall in love with it because it speaks to you, because it feels like you.

So if you’ve ever felt the pressure to keep up, to buy into whatever’s next, to constantly refresh your wardrobe in the name of staying relevant, let me tell you what I wish someone had told me sooner.

Fashion is fun, but it’s not the goal. Style is. The best thing you can wear isn’t the latest trend…it’s confidence.

And confidence doesn’t come from following. It comes from knowing exactly who you are.