What is style?

I think that if you’re reading this, you’re probably a person of style rather than one of fashion.

Style is often conflated with fashion, which is a mistake. Now that we have the internet and all things social media, fashion spreads like wildfire. Walk down any street in New York, Manchester or Paris and you’ll see vast swathes of people dressed almost identically.

This is because huge numbers of us are looking at pretty much the same things online.

It’s the same as walking through any shopping mall (I was about to write ‘walking down any high street’ but there aren’t many high streets left); you see clothing shop after clothing shop with pretty much the same styles filling the window. The main distinguisher between these shops being brand equity and price, not shape or cut or whatever.

This isn’t a criticism, it’s an observation; many people you encounter in these great global cities might look terrific, but it doesn’t mean that they have style.

Or that’s what I think.

I like fashion. I find it fascinating that a few visionary designers can suggest something a bit odd one year that then feels absolutely spot-on the next. But wearing things well that have the latest shape doesn’t mean that you are stylish, for these two principal reasons.

First, I believe that style is a complete way of living; it has to be all encompassing.

Stylish people -and there are masses, I certainly know loads- take as much care with their clothes as they do their food, furniture, art or music. That is the definition of a stylish person; it’s a complete thing, a way of living.

There isn’t a right way of doing it, but when it works, it works.

When you know, you know.

I love people who live like this. It is this that we really want to embrace with Gladstone / Hellen, by creating a sort of world view of a stylish way of living, where everything just works and is deeply considered.

Of course, there will be missteps, but that is very much part of the process of building a sense of style; you have to forage a bit, see what works and keep on evolving.

I find Grand Designs fascinating in this regard. (For those of you not in the UK, this is a TV show that follows people as they build radical and often very interesting homes, and it has been wildly popular for many seasons).

Here are people who have very interesting ideas about where they want to live and who often build extremely interesting homes that are unique, intelligent and challenging. And then they fill them with the most ghastly furniture, and biscuit tin art.

I also wrote something about the host’s wardrobe versus his interest in design here but deleted it. If you’d like to discuss that, let me know.

It’s funny; you would think that these are people of style, but they aren’t.

Second, style has to be individual. And so, those vast swathes of people wearing roughly the same things look great. They are possibly very stylish, but it’s more likely that they are simply fashionable. Authenticity, bravery, originality and confidence are what define style.

Two things to close with today.

First, thank you for being a person of style and joining us in this venture.

And second, Cecil Beaton was a man of style. He was an absolute completist; everything that he surrounded himself with was deeply considered. And I am lucky enough to be closely related to him and to own a lot of his work and a lot of his stuff and this year, with our sister company Hawarden Estate Holidays, we’re running an exhibition that we’d love to show you here.