Was 2024 The Year Of The Personal Style Crisis?

At the beginning of the year, fashion was swinging from extremes: “Mob wives” embraced big fur coats and maximalist accessories, while “quiet luxury” made the case for neutrals and rich but plain basics. It set the tone for what would be a discordant, sometimes even contradictory time for trends  — leopard print became a neutral (again), girly-girls prevailed, partywear went “brat” — while fast fashion only got faster to meet demand. The noise left many of us confused about what we actually wanted to wear, and personal style got harder to pin down. 

Some may have brushed it off as a standard style rut, but this felt different. A common, underlying predicament was aesthetic burnout: feeling exhausted amid a relentless trend cycle and overconsumption narratives, partnered with the pressure to post it all online. At one point, even the content on our feeds began to reflect this self-expression panic, as evidenced by all the fashion challenges, drastic closet cleanouts, and “how to find your personal style” videos flooding TikTok, as well as the emergence of AI solutions, including closet organization apps, personal shoppers, and virtual dressing rooms. 

Even celebrities were going through it. In British Vogue’s September Issue, Kylie Jenner said she was “finally finding [her] fashion feet,” after having two children in her early twenties and needing to figure out her style again. (This year, she’s been seen in various draped silhouettes, archival couture gowns, and simple black ‘fits.) Emma Chamberlain, who has been posting shopping hauls for almost a decade, shared in a Youtube video that she got rid of 95% of her wardrobe. “Part of the reason why I ended up with such a ridiculous amount of clothing was because I wanted to keep up with the internet,” she said. “There was so much in my closet that I couldn’t even grasp what I owned. Ironically, what would end up happening is I would just wear the same thing every day.”

I, too, felt disillusioned with my personal style this year. I realised how, as a fashion editor, I’d curated a wardrobe based on the trends I reported on, filled with items brands sent me, rather than what actually felt like me. I had far too many statement items and not enough basics, so my outfits looked and felt indecisive. 

This month, I asked my Instagram community whether anyone else shared similar struggles. Almost forty people replied, from new mothers admitting to crying in fitting rooms because nothing seemed to fit, to people feeling sartorially adrift amid the recent loss of a loved one.  

“2024 has been a bleak year for the world, and while I’ve always been good at powering through and dusting myself off, something about this year didn’t allow that to happen,” Lucy Harbron, 26, told me. “I had a few months where I couldn’t engage with style beyond comfort, then suddenly I felt like the trends all moved on without me.” 

Cate Bell, 29, who’s in her second trimester of pregnancy, pointed out how such life changes can lead to a style limbo: “I don’t even know how to describe my style now. Obviously, being pregnant, this isn’t the biggest thing going on in my head, but it’s difficult because your life is about to change beyond recognition, and losing your sense of style is disorienting.” 

Charlotte Madolell, 29, said that, “with the aesthetic jump on TikTok this year — clean girl, quiet luxury, mob wife — I felt like I had so many conflicting messages and started to buy pieces based on that. When it came to getting dressed, I would have a meltdown and associate it with the negative emotions I was feeling about myself.”

“Algorithms are great because you can be fed things that you're interested in, but then you end up in this kind of echo chamber,” fashion creator Morenike Ajayi tells Refinery29. On TikTok, she often talks about social media’s impact on style, encouraging people to step back from their screens, hone in on their personal taste, and wear clothes they already own. “We're in this place where people are constantly looking for trends to get dressed, whereas this should really be driven by your own internal compass.”

Following that compass might require a tried-and-true closet clean-out. The first step, though, is figuring out how you want to feel IRL, rather than how you want to look online.

Kay Barron, Net-A-Porter’s fashion director and author of How to Wear Everything, suggests evaluating the clothes and accessories you wear for specific occasions. “Work is good because we spend so much of our time there and we have to make a bit more of an effort. Figure out why there are certain things you always go for that make you feel good, like color, shape and fit,” she tells Refinery29. “Also, look at the people in your friendship group and the ones whose style that you really admire. It’s not about celebrities or people on Instagram — sometimes, you just need to look much closer to home.”

Even amid the most commiserating replies to my Instagram questions, there were a handful of people who ecstatically shared that this was the year they discovered their style. 

“​​2024 was the year I embraced a smaller, decluttered wardrobe and became more experimental,” Minori Iwahashi, 26, told me. “My style has always been a mix of tomboy, sporty, and girly, never been confined to one aesthetic or color. But I will admit that l'd buy into trends. This year, I expanded my style by incorporating layering and rotating a few bags that are cute but also functional.”

Rylé Tuvierra, a fashion creator and trans activist, told me she embraced more feminine silhouettes with pops of color, which coincided with her own personal shifts: “This past year brought a significant transition, not only in how I see myself, but also in how I curate my wardrobe. My style evolved into something more intentional and is a reflection of my confidence.” 

Others spoke about successfully removing themselves from social media to make way for their own preferences. “I’m blissfully unaware of the micro trends that pervade TikTok by not being on that platform at all,” Constance Beswick, 27, said. “Taking a step back is a relief. I know what works for me and I know what to invest in.” 

I’ve gone through major style changes in the past myself — chopping off my hair caused a significant one — but, this year, I donated more clothes than ever, and focused on intentionally adding pieces that I knew I could wear every week. Entering 2025 offers an opportunity to approach our wardrobes with even more intention. By turning a critical eye to what we already own and embracing the pieces we truly love, we can redefine what it means to dress authentically in an ever-changing landscape.