The Personal Touch
How does our personality influence style and home choices?
Many people take the utmost pride in the aesthetic of their homes, deliberating over colour choices, pleasing patterns and furniture staples, but does this translate into our fashion and personal style choices?
Here at House of Fraser, we're keen to understand more about how personal style is carried from fashion to furnishings and fabrics at home.
From women's dresses such as maxi dresses and crochet dresses, to cushions, candles and throws, we've worked with style psychologist Dr Dion Terrelonge to truly understand the intertwining worlds of fashion and home interiors. Together, we've delved into five core personality types to uncover what these say about our style choices.
And, as life continues post pandemic, we've noticed a real shift towards a slower pace of living. With Pinterest reporting a 250% increase in searches for 'self-care aesthetic' in the last 6 months and Instagram reporting over 72 million posts with the #selfcare tag.
It's a time for reflection, and in collaboration with Dion Terrelonge, the Fashion Psychologist, we've curated an exciting new trend dubbed Grounded Living, which celebrates balanced living, showing how we can interlace home and fashion choices for a truly harmonious aesthetic.
Dr Dion Terrelonge
The Fashion Psychologist
Dion is a Doctor of Psychology who practises dually in the fields of Educational Psychology and Fashion Psychology, conducting research and lecturing in the latter at UAL, London College of Fashion. She is an advocate of sustainability and circular fashion and seeks to share psychological insight regarding our relationships with clothing and consumerism to help consumers make better informed decisions for people and planet.
Dion regularly delivers talks on Fashion Psychology, features on podcasts, as well as TV and in media publications including Vogue, Elle, Dazed, and Stylist. Dion is the founder of the psychologically informed consultancy, the Style and Wellbeing consultancy; working with individuals to explore their style expression and with companies to explore the link between clothing and our psychology e.g. confidence, mood, social identity.
What do our home choices and personal style mean to us?
Dion says: “The home is a personal and intimate space. It is a curated shrine to the individual, representing memories, loves, needs, personality, and tastes. Essentially, our homes are the manifested externalisation of our inner worlds and experiences and how we choose to style them means we’re creating visual representations of our values and self-concept.
“The way we dress is borne of a developmental process and in its infancy is influenced by the fashion tastes of our parents, both in how they dressed us and in how they dressed themselves.”
The self-styling journey
“Adolescence is the most important time in our fashion lives when we are most likely to experiment with clothes and begin more deeply asking the question of “who am I?”, who am I to my family, who am I to myself, and who am I to others. In part, we use clothing to test and address these questions – trying on different identities for size, gauging our peers' responses, and seeing if the style feels like us.
“It is not until we edge towards self-actualisation and have competing interests outside of the self e.g. raising a family, having a career, that we ease into a particular style.
“We use clothing to signal who we are to ourselves and who we are to others as a means of indicating our social tribes, values, and personalities.”
The Five Factor Theory of Personality
Working with Dion, we delved into five personality types, and how these might influence style and interior decisions.
- Breaking New Ground
(creative, open to trying new things, curious about the world)
- Functional Simplicity
(thoughtful, attention to detail, enjoys a set schedule)
- Expressively Outgoing
(high amounts of emotional expressiveness, excitable, talkative)
- Welcoming Warmth
(empathetic, kind and has a lot of interest in others)
- Soothing Sanctuary
(fearful, overthink problems)
What does your personality trait say about your style choices?
Breaking new ground
You're a bit of a risk taker and love to show off your boho style. You're open to new experiences and do your best to make sure every day is different.
Functional simplicity
As we're taught, form should always follow function. You're goal directed and to-the-point and you like to keep things simple when it comes to styling.
Expressively outgoing
You don't live to please the crowd but you don't mind being front and centre. Bold and beautiful sums you up pretty well. But you never forget your roots.
Welcoming warmth
People come to you when they need someone to talk because you're warm, emphatic and kind. That's why we think you've got a style that truly blossoms.
Soothing sanctuary
Being sensitive is a superpower not a weakness. Sure, you may overthink things from time to time but it's beacuse you care deeply about what you do. Your style may be in a state of flux but you're comfortable with it and that's what matters.
Breaking new ground
We might expect those who score highly on this personality trait to be open, and willing to take risks, both in their dress choices and their home décor. They might use their homes to bring together and display pieces representing their travels and experiences, as well as spaces where they might sit and reflect.
These individuals are open to new experiences, which means their dress style and homes might be impacted by these experiences e.g. time spent in different cultures, they are imaginative and intellectually curious. Think reading corners and eclectic or boho style, such as a crochet dress or a floral maxi dress.
Functional simplicity
Those who score high in this area are conscientious and likely to prioritise function. Their personality type is goal directed, controlled and self-disciplined. In terms of personal style, they likely have a simple, not overly outlandish style that they feel works for them and works with their lifestyle, such as a simple blue dress with pockets.
Their homes serve to support their lifestyle. As well as being functional, we might expect to see graphic designs and streamlined details - think Scandinavian or modern Japanese design.
Expressively outgoing
Those who are outgoing and extraverted will often want to be sensorily stimulated by their environments.
Their homes and personal dress style are likely to be conversation starters and more so a means of communicating with others. Their homes may loudly speak to who they are, as might their clothing.
Similarly to those who score high in breaking new ground, they may be more willing to take risks in their dress and home décor. Not afraid to wear items that draw the attention of others; this may simply mean bold colours and prints including orange dresses, but may also mean more avant-garde items, less mainstream trend-led styles, and not being afraid to step away from the crowd.
Welcoming warmth
Those who score highly on this personality trait are agreeable, and likely to be warm, empathetic, kind, and get along well with others, as well as being generally quite positive.
If our homes are curated exhibitions of who we are, then the home of an welcoming personality type is likely to be full of warm colours, inviting textures, and spaces that allow for loved ones to come together.
Their dress style is likely to be somewhat in line with that, preferring styles that are not too divisive or subversive but rather mainstream, safe, neutral and or perhaps a little playful. Both home and clothing may include florals, animal prints, hygge style, and cottagecore.
Soothing sanctuary
This type sits under emotional instability and may tend towards anxiety and self-doubt. They may be less secure and sure of their personal style. They may be less likely to take risks in their style expression, in their clothes and in the home.
They are more likely to use clothing and their home interiors as a means to soothe. Think calming colours, in order to offset the unpredictability of the world, and soft furnishings. An example may be wearing their comfiest woolly jumper, or a dress in their favourite colour.
Grounded Living
A new trend which celebrates a slower pace of life
One example of people weaving the same aesthetic through their personal style and interiors is through a shift to a slower pace of living post-pandemic. It's been a healing time, with many looking to lead an easier, more laid-back lifestyle and appreciate the beauty in the small things.
According to TikTok, searches for #minimalfashion and #minimalhome are at 117m views, with Pinterest data showing 'minimal fashion' increase by 210% in the last 6 months, and searches for 'earthy outfits' increase by 144% in the same time period.
The experts at House of Fraser have dubbed this trend Grounded Living - the next step of the minimalism trend - a harmonious aesthetic that intertwines how we dress and style our homes to represent different elements of ourselves.
Dion explains
How to style Grounded Living
“When I think of harmony, I think of peace, ease, attunement, equilibrium, and nature. In general, colours and patterns should flow, complement each other, and not jar or pop to pull our attention. We want to feel in harmony with, and able to let our minds wander.
“Earthy colours may help us to feel grounded e.g. terracotta, warm blues, greens, gentle yellows. Think complimentary, rather than contrasting colours.
“Textures should be natural rather than synthetic fibres, for example stone, veined marble, foliage and clay. Soft and inviting textures such as woollen clothing and cashmere also help to provide pleasurable sensory feedback.
“With patterns within this trend, avoid dots as they look like small holes and may trigger trypophobia-like feelings which is a fear of clusters or small holes and bumps. Instead, opt for horizontal lines such as those we see in nature e.g. the horizon. Fractal patterns which are often seen in nature including the ever reducing branching of a tree or spirals are also good for creating a relaxed and soothed feeling.”