Six ways to change your style with accessories
And why estate sales are my new shopping destination of choice
My December 22 newsletter will be all about dressing for movement, whatever that looks like to you. If you have any questions, problems, or genius solutions surrounding this topic, please let me know so I can make this piece as helpful as possible! You can leave a comment here or send me an email at carly [at] estherstudio [dot] art.
And, if you’re new here, hello! Welcome to the Esther Studio newsletter. Thank you so much for stopping by. I’m Carly, PhD, a marketing professor slash artist living in the Midwest. I like talking about personal style, and I spend a lot of time making jewelry. If you like these topics as much as I do, reply below with your comments and questions, and consider subscribing so you don’t miss a newsletter!
I recently received messages from two friends of Esther Studio.
In one message, my student, Carly, asked for advice on accessorizing. She wanted intro-level strategies, because whenever she tries to accessorize, it feels like too much. Carly, a soon-to-be college graduate, has great style. She’s also at that tender age of possibility when anything can happen. She’ll probably have a completely different lifestyle - and wardrobe needs - a year from now!
In the second message, my friend Lauren informed me that, for her, 2025 will be the year of the distracting, inappropriate, conversation-derailing accessory. She’s currently looking for a pinky ring that offends all the right people. Lauren, a gifted lawyer and devoted cat person, is tweaking her already-established, self-described “casino vibes” aesthetic, and I love that for her.
I’m excited about both scenarios, and I’m struck by their similarities and differences. I’m touched that Carly and Lauren’s accessory agendas speak to their different stages of life, yet reflect a similar itch to grow and evolve.
In this context, accessories can be a portal to a new era - a way to signal “I’m changing!” to yourself and others. They can also be a way to subtly shift your style from one evoking one adjective to evoking a different adjective, for the day or for the foreseeable future. The difference between bohemian and edgy, for example, can be refreshing!
There’s no such thing as a definitive guide to accessorizing, but in this post I’m sharing my perspective on what has come to be my favorite art form. Below, I list six ways you can change your style with accessories. I hope you find something to take you into your next fashion era, whatever it may be.
1. Change the category
Let’s start with something big, broad, and open ended. If you’re itching for a change, try an accessory from a category you normally ignore.
When I think about accessories, I often mean jewelry. However, we can consider accessories as “anything but clothes.” It’s such a far-reaching branch of fashion that I challenged myself to list anything that could classify as an accessory. I know I missed some, but let’s go:
Jewelry (earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, brooches)
Makeup
Watches
Hats
Glasses and sunglasses
Scarves
Ties and bow ties
Pocket squares
Suspenders
Belts
Handbags, briefcases, and backpacks
Bag charms
Key chains
Socks, legwarmers, and pantyhose/tights
Footwear, shoelaces, and shoe charms
Hair and hair accessories (headbands, clips, elastics)
Umbrellas and rain bonnets
Tattoos and piercings
Perfume and cologne
Maybe this list opens your eyes to some uncharted territory! Consider this your permission to become a hat person. A belt person. A person who dangles little oddities off their handbag. A sock person. And if this post inspires you to get a tattoo, please let me know.
This is somewhat of an extreme example, but over the past couple of years I’ve gotten several non-traditional piercings, including my septum (that little spot that connects your nostrils). I really like how, as a unit, my piercings give my style a bit of an edge that wasn’t there before (please no one fact-check my edginess). As a bonus, on a day-to-day basis, I don’t even have to think about them.
A light word of warning here is to, as stylist Allison Bornstein would say, dip a toe into this new category rather than, say, buying 26 pairs of suspenders in a fit of enthusiasm. Maybe you can thrift or borrow something to start!
2. Change the source
A new accessory will be particularly impactful if it adds contrast or tension to your existing aesthetic. If you tend to shop from a few key places, this might make your wardrobe rather cohesive, so shopping from somewhere you don’t normally frequent can change the game.
What if you visited a website targeted to someone outside your age bracket? What if you went into a store you’d typically walk by at the mall?
Open yourself to the possibility that you’re more complex than a small handful of corporations can allow.
That being said, I don’t think you need to spend a lot of money in order to change your personal style with accessories. One of my recent discoveries is shopping at estate sales. While I don’t quite have the patience or fortitude for traditional thrift stores, which overwhelm me, estate sales are doable because, in someone’s house, there’s naturally a smaller array of objects.
I recently found a large east-west bag from Coach at an estate sale near my house. It’s not something I would’ve tried in a different context, but since it was sitting there with just a few of its friends, looking hopeful, I gave it a chance.
The bag now fits seamlessly into my wardrobe, but it doesn’t look like any of my other bags. Its size, shape, and lack of crossbody strap bring a very welcome and necessary boss-lady energy to my outfits. And I only found it because I went shopping outside my comfort zone!
You heard it here first: Little old ladies are a majorly underrated source for accessories.
3. Change the scale
You can change a lot about a look by playing with proportions.
We know this is true from ongoing the discourse about denim silhouettes, but let’s broaden the conversation. What if you wore an extra-large something-or-other from your favorite category? Or a micro something-something?
Accessory sizes tend to fluctuate wildly with the times, so you’ll be able to find many pre-loved accessorizes of varying scale on your Poshmark feed or in your local thrift store!
My usual necklace stack consists of two dainty gold chains and whatever Esther Studio pop of color I feel like adding over top. This formula is so dependable for me that I default to it most days, but there’s something to be said for swapping out the multiple smaller pieces for one big one. Like, a really big one.
My partner, Ian, bought me this glass necklace for my birthday last year. It’s the perfect statement necklace in the sense that it adds to an outfit but doesn’t distract from it - I think because you can still see the outfit through the glass.
Looking at the outfit above, another intuitive swap would be the belt. This one is a pretty standard width - about 1.25 inches or 3.2 centimeters - but a thinner or thicker one would really change the vibe of the outfit.
Pushing the scale conversation a bit further, I think conventional wisdom might say that if you’re wearing a statement X, don’t wear a statement Y at same time. I’d like to gently push back on this and say, why not? Which brings me to…
4. Change the quantity
There are a couple of ways we can interpret this. One would be to pile on accessories from multiple categories. Another would be that if you’re already a necklace person, try wearing three, four, or five (!) necklaces at a time.
For me, this approach completely changed my personal style, but it was also the hardest to get on board with mentally. This seems so silly in hindsight, but when I first started wearing three necklaces instead of one, I felt like I had a giant sign above my head that said “TRYING SOMETHING NEW.”
I think there’s a certain vulnerability to doing something different with your style, which is probably another newsletter for another day. But if this is a familiar feeling to you, please join me in pushing through the discomfort.
In the case of my necklace experiment, my colleague Stella and I are always gasping over each other’s outfits. It only took her enthusiasm to calm me down - to see my necklace experiment from a more objective place - but I truly do see where you’re coming from if you’re a bit hesitant to branch out.
Here are some other things that are so good that we could be wearing more than one at a time:
Belts: I’m itching to try wearing multiple belts of varying widths over top of, say, a blazer, dress, or skirt.
Scarves: What if you tied two silk scarves together to make a longer, multi-colored scarf of your own invention?
Bag charms: Don’t buy anything new, just attach a bunch of personal artifacts to your favorite bag.
The vibe of multiples is very “Look at me!” but I’m sure we can all survive some extra attention, and I’m sure you’ll make a like-minded Fashion Friend along the way.
5. Change the formality
I think it’s natural for us to dress head-to-toe for the formality level of a context, like work or school. Similarly, if our lifestyle revolves around work or school, it’s easy to build an entire wardrobe of clothing that hovers around the same level of formality.
Disrupting this instinct by wearing items with differing levels of formality in the same outfit can make our style more interesting, and accessories are a great way to do this.
During the work week, my professor style is very classic and polished. I like to lean into playfulness as much as possible, though, so this semester I’ve been wearing sneakers with my dress pants quite often. I was very late to the party on this one because it took me a while to find a sneaker I like, but I’m happy to be here! The casual vibe stops me from feeling too stuffy.
More recently, I purchased a rather sporty little bag that is completely different from my usual sleek leather options. Imagine it with a dressy wool coat and leather boots.
Not all of us have to get dressed up for work! Some of you, like my student and fitness friends, might be more inclined to try the opposite experiment - adding in dressy accessories to your casual outfits. This is equally fun. For example, my friend Ashlee always shows up to the fitness studio where she works with bold sparkly eye shadow and full-body workout gear, and I can’t get enough of it.
Here are some ideas for new pairings for low-key contexts:
Loafers and/or a button-up with sweatpants and a t-shirt
Statement earrings (or pearls!) with a hoody
Fancy necklace stack with a crew neck sweatshirt
A bold lipstick with literally anything
There’s no reason why your fancier items can’t be friends with your casual ones. Introduce them!
6. Change the form
My last suggestion is to consider your favorite type of accessory, and then expand how you define it. By this, I mean: change the shape, material, and size to such an extent that it looks nothing like what you usually wear.
When you wear it, you’ll still be squarely in your comfort zone because you normally adorn yourself on that part of your body, but you’ll be charting new territory.
I think this one requires an immediate example.
I’m a belt person, through and through. I love a belt, but until this summer all of my belts were traditional flat strips of leather with buckles on them. When I got a whiff of Leather Rope as Belt, via Natalie Borton, I was a changed woman. Look at me now!
When you start seeing accessories as fluid, anything is an accessory. A useful prompt might be, “What constitutes X?”
What is a scarf, anyway? What’s a necklace? A bracelet?
Here are some ideas:
Scarves: If you’ve got a full rotation of wool scarves for cold weather, try a silk one on a milder day. Or, wear a lightweight sweater as a scarf.
Bracelets: If you’re a bracelet person, wear a small silk scarf tied around your wrist or ankle. (This post is devolving into me pushing my silk scarf agenda.)
Belts: We know we can now wear rope as a belt, but you can also wear an extra long necklace in the same way.
Necklaces: You can put anything on a piece of cotton or leather cord and call it a necklace. Anything! I think a single clip-on earring dangling from a leather cord would add a lot to a stack of gold chains, but it would also look great on its own!
Phew!
Let’s evolve
Writing this post was a great reminder to me that we are constantly changing, and our styling choices tend to follow suit. It’s amazing (and to be expected!) that many of us are dressing differently than we were a year ago, or even a month ago.
Thinking of my student Carly and my friend Lauren, with their different-but-the-same fashion quests, my hope for all of us is that we can use accessories to tap into the current versions of ourselves, even when uncharted territory feels a bit scary. These little things - as little as a septum piercing! - can mean a lot.