Why Personal Style Matters More Than Trends

Published Oct 22, 2024, 6:30 PM

27 Dresses You Can Wear For Any Occasion

Personal style is the ultimate fashion Everest.

To help us navigate the challenge of defining personal style in a world of fast-moving trends, we have the poster girl of personal style herself, Megan Hess. Megan shares how she discovered her signature floaty, elegant style, how she stays true to it in an ever-changing fashion landscape, and how she’s infused it into everything from luxury campaigns to her 22 best-selling books.

Megan is a globally renowned fashion illustrator, having worked with top brands like Fendi, Prada, and Dior. She’s also the creative mind behind the illustrations for the New York Times #1 bestseller Sex and the City... maybe you've heard of it. 

You can buy Megan's latest book here: Fashion in Colour, A Journey through Every Hue

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CREDITS:

      Host: Leigh Campbell

      Guest: Megan Hess

      Producer: Grace Rouvray

      Audio Producer: Lu Hill

      Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

      You're listening to Amma Mia podcast. Mama Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast is recorded on. Whoever said orange is a new pink with seriously deserved.

      Laurels for spraying croundbreaking. Oh my god, you have to do it. You live for fashion.

      Hello, and welcome to Nothing to Wear, the podcast that solves fashion problems and levels up your wardrobe. I'm Lee Campbell and every week I chat to an expert who helps us work out how to get more out of the clothes we already owned and tells us exactly what is and isn't worth adding to our wardrobes. You've probably heard of Megan Hess, and if you haven't, you should. Meghan Hess is a world renowned fashion illustrator who's worked with top designers and luxury brands across the globe. Her big break came in two thousand and six when she illustrated the New York Times number one best seller Sex and the City. Since then, Meghan has crafted fashion portraits for publication like The New York Times, Italian Vogue, and Vanity Fair. Her iconic, elegant style has also grace campaigns for luxury giants. Like Fendi, Prata, Cartier, and Dior. No big deal. Not to mention She's written and illustrated twenty two best selling books. Megan's signature style is floaty, elegant, and effortlessly chic. I was curious to learn more about how she discovered her personal style, how she maintains it in a world of ever changing trends, and how she weaves it into her incredible body of work. Firstly, Megan, welcome to the show. As you know, I requested you specifically, and I'm very, very excited. So I want to start by what I think will be one of the most important questions, describing your style in three words. I feel like I could do it for you, but that's not what this is about. How do you describe your style in three words?

      This is so hard. I think I'm going to narrow it down to whimsical, colorful, and fairy tale.

      Oh I love that. I love all of those. I had, feminine and sophisticated. I was trying to think of a third one flying by the seat of my pants, but I absolutely love that. And obviously you're here to talk about personal branding and maintaining a signature style, so it feels like you know what you look like now. The saying rings true for most people. We've got a wardrobe full of clothes, but we reach for ten percent of that ninety percent of the time. What's in your ten percent?

      I'm depressed to tell you this because I do have so many dresses, and I'm obsessed with dresses. But the truth is in between the dress wearing, I do mainly wear jeans, trainers and blazers and.

      Actually be depressed. It's good to know. I think in that age of social media and reality TV and everyone looks glamorous all the time, and I'm sure you look glamorous in your jeans and your blazer, but it's nice to know that sometimes we're just falling back into those casual basics. And you know, dresses for you are such a passion that it's a collection and art. But I did wonder if you've got around the house in those all day long.

      No, And I don't draw or in me either. This is why I feel like a bit of a sham because I traveling, I love being in a blazer and jeans and a really comfy kind of knit and trainers. And to be honest, during COVID. I really really discovered how much I really do love trainers. Yeah, I have leaned into that.

      No, I think there can be different sides for out fashion personalities, and you're also publicly known for one. But you're not sleeping in those beautiful gowns.

      No.

      Now, you never expected to be a fashion person, but you have written twenty two books on fashion? Is that right? Twenty two?

      I think? So?

      Yessh, So you became a fashion person. How did that happen?

      It's so funny because I still see myself as a fashion observer, and I think that that's where I started, and I still feel that way in the sense of my love of it has always been capturing it, and so that's the real thing with illustrating it, and the world of it fascinates me, and the world of it has never I've never been stressed by the world of it. And I meet people all the time that fashion really stresses them out and it doesn't stress me out. Is because I technically don't feel like I don't know how to describe it, not like I don't feel like a fashion person. But my job has never really been to be displaying the fashion. It's to capture it and draw it and show it in illustrations. So that's what it is. And I think I've just always been someone who's loved it. And a lot of the books that I work on, there's lots of books in fashion, and there's lots of amazing, very highbrow books about fashion and different things, and I've always tried to create books that anyone can enjoy them. If you are a really hardcore fashion lover, or if you're an accountant that just kind of wants to know more about fashion or enjoy it, it should feel like something that you can easily flick through and be inspired by and enjoy.

      So when you say stressed, you mean like intimidated, and that the fashion world can be very sort of clicky and a bit scary. I sometimes feel intimidated by fashion, and so I think a lot of people can relate to that. So your newest one is Fashion in Color.

      I thought I've always been really fascinated by color in fashion in terms of what colors have become related to fashion. So for example, when you see someone in that air Man's orange, it evokes all those thoughts that you have about that brand, that Tiffany blue.

      I was about to say. As soon as you said, Hermes, I was thinking, Tiffany blues necks.

      Women's heart rates go up and we see that color. And I'm sure before Tiffany in Coo, if we'd seen that color, it's a beautiful color, but it wouldn't have had that association of effect on us. Yes, read, there's so many moments and Valentino pink with Barbie. There's a lot of moments. And I think it's fascinating to me how different people, whether they're famous or not, when they wear a color, depending on the color and what it is, how that color takes on a different life. I always compare say, Marilyn Munroe in Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, where she's in that pink.

      Yes, I've got it in my head.

      Yeah that Ironically, Jackie Kennedy, who I also loved, she wore a really similar dress. It's pink satin across with the gloves, and yet when she wore it, it took on a whole different life. Yeah, it's a whole different feeling. It's completely elegant and chic and feels very Jackie Kennedy. Yet when Marilyn did it, she did it in her way, and so interesting when someone wears a color, what that color becomes.

      It's true because I was just thinking red, and until red really came back the last few seasons, I always thought red was sexy and racy, and it definitely is. But then there's so much red at the moment, worn by different people in different ways that it's really street style or athleisure were and I'm like, I've never would have thought of red like that, and so it's interesting. Yeah, you have an immediate thought, I think, or an image or something from history, and then it can be turned on its head. Now. I love that you say as a fashion illustrator you sort of experience fashion, but that you're still very practically in your private life or when you're illustrating. So how do you shop for those two personalities? I mean, look at all those dresses behind you. Do you know how many dresses you've got? By the way, it's a collection. I'm sure that one day, if you had to sell it, someone would take it off your hands for millions of dollars. But which you goes to the shops or which you goes online? Is it the beautiful elegant dresses? Is it the jeans and how do you decide who you're taking a shopping out of your different aspects of your life.

      Yeah, this is the thing that I actually find the most fun for me personally about fashion, that I feel like I have different fashion lives depending on what I'm doing. And I think this is the thing that I enjoy the most about fashion is dressing for where I am and what I'm doing. And so even when I travel, if I'm going to say Paris for work, I really want to be in things that make me feel really happy in Paris. And I don't mean it so much in a costumey style way.

      Do I fee Brenton shirt and you've got your bad hat.

      I don't need to be a full Emily in Paris or anything like that. I was just in Paris recently and it was quite cool weather and fashion Week was just about to start, and I was like, we're there same time, Yeah, so picture that weather. It was really crisp and coming into fashion week, and I passed a lady in our full tropical dress and it almost stressed me. I just didn't want it to be wearing that apparently, and if she was happy then that I heard it be in but for me, it's that really enjoying where i am and what I'm wearing. So if I'm traveling, I love being in and outfit that feels really good. To travel in the studio, I like being in something really comfy to draw in. When I'm in different locations, I love being in those colors. And the opposite of that is so true. If I'm somewhere and it feels like this is not the right fun feel for this moment, it ruins everything. Like we flew as a family to Hawaii and in the dead of Melbourne winter, yes perfectly so to be lovely and warm and Hawaii because it was really cold and Melbourne. We were all myself, my husband and my kids were all in like black tracksuits. Luggage went missing, all of it. Oh no, And so we landed. It's like hot and everyone's happy and in life, you know, we're all stressed out in these black tracksuits. And I remember saying to my daughter, it's fine, Like I don't want to just buy something to get through the next twelve hours. Obviously, we can just hang out today in Hawaii in our black tracksuits and we'll be fine. And it was so like miserable and everyone's passing a slide that's wrong.

      Maybe they have to packed for the wrong location. When I see your name, I think beautiful floral dresses, lace high, next sleep. So you have nailed personal branding. You know your personal style at least that public persona. Did that happen naturally? Is that what you're just drawn to? Was it a decision?

      I think at some point I figured out what I feel. Really. When I say comfortable, I don't necessarily.

      Mean physically comfortable, not as comfortable.

      In this dress as I would be in a tracksuit. Yes, I think I just figured out what clothes make me feel my best self. And it's a combin nation of when I'm in something that I feel my best self, I don't think about what I'm wearing, and I'm the opposite if I'm in something that I feel like either looks maybe too tight on me, or I'm in really constrictive underwear, or I'm in something that I think I may not look good in or whatever it is, and that can really affect how I am with other people or be then really awkward, or I might be shy or I'm so when I'm wearing something and I figured out early on that this type of outfit, for example, I don't even think about it. I put it on. I feel like myself, and so I'm really enjoying talking to you. If for some reason, let's say stylists had come and put me in a really tight, short red dress, I would be so awkward speaking to you right now, even if everyone told me I looked cool.

      Yeah.

      This is the other thing, because I've worked in fashion in a sense, I have always known that you never have to do all the trends.

      Yes, and that was going to be about stressed out.

      They get stress. Oh my god, Tartan's coming. I don't look good, And I was thinking just let Tartan fly bys or if you loved tart and really lean in and go crazy.

      Yeah, and when it's out again, you don't have to put it away, you don't keep wearing it. I love that about you. I think that you're so steadfast in knowing what works for you when it comes to trends. Do you still dabble? Do you still like looking at them? Do you like wearing them? Or are you pretty set in your work look? And then I guess your home look and travel look. But do you dabble in the trends.

      If it's something that genuinely sparks joy when I see it, then I will absolutely I feel no pressure to ever do it. And again because I feel like I'm more observing and capturing. I've never felt like anyone expects me next week. I'm mainly in my studio, like no one cares. Yeah, So I don't feel any pressure to wear it if I was someone that was that lots of people saw all the.

      Time, more in the public eye, like weekly or Yeah.

      But when things do come along that, I think, oh, I love even like denim jumpsuits, actually really do love them. For example, even tho there's a lot of bathroom issues, I still think a really great baggy almost boiler suit denim jumpsuit, I think it's really fun. So when things like that come in, I will actually get really excited that's a trend that's happening, And I'll think to myself, it will be really fun to search from high end to low end to what would be a great shape, and I will get one and I'll have so much fun wearing it, and I'll be really excited that that's come in. Whereas the trends not for you God, suddenly mid drifts are in whatever. It's just I'm actually justs fascinated by it, and I love watching other people wear it and do it.

      Yeah, it's fun.

      It doesn't mean I will.

      I'm not particularly in the public eye except for on social media. But I just really admire the fact that you really do know your personal style and can admire but not get distracted because I am still abou abert. I'm still learning the difference between admiring and wanting and then buying and regretting. And so you talk about the boiler suit, for example, and you talk about searching high and low. How do you shop? Are you an online shopper? Are you a researcher? Are you impulsive?

      If it's something that I really really love, I usually know immediately, and even if there's nothing that I really need that thing for, I will buy that.

      Yeah.

      Thing.

      It's emotional sometimes, isn't it. You fall in love?

      Yeah, and it's like I can't live without that. You just see something. I think it's just a great shape, it's the right color. I don't know where I'll wear that. I often do bank up pink things for my children's book series because I discovered well, I've just found that that was another incident where I had ended her. It was a writer's festival and I had to do a school visit and I packed a really fun pink dress to go to the school to meet all the preps to do a Clariss reading, and forgot to pack the pink dress and it was just a one overnight. I just had what I was wearing that day, and I had it. It was a gray jacket with these gray pants, like almost I got horrible accidentally. Corporate Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah, it was fun with kids, and I always find that they're always like that's the lady in the book.

      Yes, and it's always a character, particularly when it comes to children.

      Yeah, they were really down and they were not excited to see me, and they were not they were almost scared of me. So it looks like a corporate like.

      It looked like a joop of the real author.

      Yeah, it just wasn't fun. So to answer your question, though, I do bank up things for Clarius, things often really fun, crazy colorful pink things or things to go with books that I know that are coming in that color, or just things that I fall in love with. And then if I don't see anything. I can go for ages without buying single thing and I'm happy.

      Yeah, fine, good on you. God, I need to find that balance. I think it's interesting though, and we hear time and time again on the podcast that people are missing the staple basics like the T shirt or maybe the jeans. And that's because I can appreciate a good T shirt, but it's not so often that I have an emotional reaction to a T shirt. But you walk into a store and there's a beautiful, flowy MAXI dress, you fall in love in a different way than you fall in love with a T shirt. Hence why a lot of people are like, oh yeah, basics missing from my wardrobe. So now talking again about fast moving trends and just trends over the decades you draw them. So what have you observed, Like, how has it been observing fashion through the illustrating lens and the rise of social media and the trends moving faster than ever through drawing?

      Well, this is really funny. Someone asked me the other day about that scene in Devil Wears Prada, you know where they talk about that blue But you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue. It's not turquois, it's not lapis, it's actually ceruleum. If I'm illustrating things for really in advance, I will often be really surprised by what the color is, what is going to be, and that wedge boots are back, and.

      Things like that, really are they?

      They weren't one. It's not that I've been told, but just things that I think. It's almost like the more I think, I just don't know that lilac is going to be the color for everyone, or that wedge boots are coming. It's usually about two years before and then within about that twelve months then you do see in designer collections that lilac color and wedge boots, and then about a year after that, then.

      It's in years an e h and M. That always blows my mind. I'm like, somewhere in a room, I know, and you know you can buy access to these summits and stuff, but someone setting all the trends and how did they know? And I remember when I traveled to London in June and the ice blue was everywhere because it was their high summer, and I was like, oh no, that looks very cheap and I'm not going to be that color. And what have I bought for the last few weeks. Not that I've bought a lot, but everything I'm looking at is ice blue, and I'm like, oh, well, yep, I'm a sheep. But it's fascinating, isn't it.

      It is because I think the other thing too, is that they become our options.

      Yes, that's true.

      Most people are not buying the original ice blue thing from Schanella duor for example, we're buying from Zara or places that it cens up. They're doing that great new shape jacket in either ice blue, beij black or cream. So that's why we do end up with that specific guys.

      It's so true. And it's like you know, you buy a red car and then you see that model all over the street. It was probably there, it's just once it's on your radar, then you de see it everywhere. Now, before we get into busion budget, one last question. Do you have any strategies or creative rituals to keep your stylef fresh for yourself and for your work? Because you've nailed who you are what you do, but then you don't seem bored of who you are or what you do. How do you keep it exciting.

      Oh wow, that's a nice thing to.

      Say, because I've been in the industry twenty years and I'm sometimes like I'm a bit bored of I love what I do, but you know, decades.

      Do you get bored? I get bored of me too, totally, I think, because for me there's a sense of once I made that decision to always feel comfortable even now, I don't wear all my meggat really high heels because I know that I will be miserable within half an hour at whatever it is. So I've just cut things down to things at heights. I know I can be in all night and be happy. I think once I've given myself the parameters of joy around fashion fancying, yes, yeah, then within that I can actually have a lot of fun with it because I love suiting as well. So even just with in suiting, knowing that, okay, I've got an exact link on my leg that I can either still do it with a heel or I can do it with a trainer. Yes, because before that, I had all these great suits for different reasons, and I never wore any of them because they involved wearing a really high boot. So that pant didn't dry well. Yes, and then I suddenly realized, no, there's an actual link where I can do both. And as soon as I got all my good suit trousers tailored to that length, I wear them all the time now. So now I've added sort of suits and shirts and things to a lot of it as well, and again it's comfort so I can walk in it.

      So and you're right, because practicality and joy can coexist. It's just kind of looking at your lifestyle and going okay, I love those fashion pieces, but my lifestyle is flats now, or you know, I've got a fall child or whatever, and you can fuse the two. It doesn't have to be just leggings and a T shirt, although that's me a lot of the time. You can have joy and practicality.

      Yeah, I think.

      So it's very expensive, NY.

      How wondred percent?

      Okay, boohie and budget. So we're bringing our favorite something affordable, something maybe not so affordable, favorite personal style items. Do you want to start with your boohie or your budget?

      I'll start with budget.

      Okay, let's do budget.

      Changed my theory on budget okay, originally because I posperware, Well, no, my thing was always I spent a lot of time in my studio drawing, and so I need to be comfortable to do that. Then I thought to myself, I should invest in a really great a cream cashmere jumper, because that's the thing I'm wearing all the time, So that's what I should actually invest in. This is what I thought. So then I bought a very expensive Scottish one of the top of the range cashmere cream jumpers because I thought, this will last a very long time. I wear it all the time. This makes more sense than spending a lot of money on a crazy Maxi dress. Yes, I bought the Kashmir jumper. And then it was almost like having a third child. Had to hand wash it. I was actually terrified of anything happening to it if I had to lay it flat. I was worried someone else might accidently put it in the wash.

      So much stress for yourself. Yeah, And then.

      In the end, what happened was I was coming out of the studio and it got caught and pulled a whole right in front of my chair. And I realized, in that moment, You've spent a year stressing about this stupid jumper, and now it's got a hole. I can't even fix it because you can't stitch up that bit there. So now my theory is with budget is to actually not spend a lot. So get all my Cashmi jumpers cream from Unich.

      I was going to just say, I hope you ended up at you to go.

      Yes, I have, and I get a couple of them in cream, and then I have no stress whatever. Ironically, nothing's happened.

      Pretty durable, and I'm not a good laundry person. They're pretty durable.

      Yeah, they're fine, and T shirts as well, So my theory is not to try and have one precious basic but to wear them with abandonment and expect things to get spilt on them and replace them.

      Yeah, and I also think, you know, budget can mean cheap, but it can also just mean affordable but still good quality, because that's the same as me. My budget is one of the uniclow T shirts. It's the one hundred percent cotton crew neck T shirt, nineteen dollars ninety. I actually get the men's because I prefer the bit more over it, so.

      I let the men's shape and the arms are a bit longer.

      Bucks. Honestly, I have thrashed mine, I have washed them with any opposite color under the sun, and they're still so good. So budget can still be good quality. It's just not costing you thousands of dollars.

      Yeah, and then you can relax in them. You're like your day and enjoy your life.

      There's no point. I mean, of course you've got occasional where but if you've got stuff in your water that's too precious to have aware, what's really the point?

      Yeah, that's right, I agree.

      But do you have a bougie for me? Do you have something quite fancy so boogie?

      On the other extreme are things that I really have thought long and hard about before I bought them. And it's normally things like say handbags or pieces of jewelry. When I say jewel where I don't mean you know, crazy high and jewelry just sort of accessories that again with those basics suddenly, So then it means that if I am in my unic clothes sweater with some jeans and just a really basic slide or pair of flats, then if I've got a bag that just really makes me feel amazing, or some really amazing accessories with that that I do look after and I do plan to keep forever, give to my daughter one day. They're the things that I do really invest in in a splint, and I don't always go for just the classics. Sometimes there are things that are crazy and wild, but there's something that forever will be fun and forever be fun with something basic or with something over.

      The yeah, and that obviously speaks to you. And if you're going to have it forever, that's part of your personal style, isn't it. That's exactly what it was about. My boogie is not very boogie, but I have come to just admit that I am jeans and a T shirt. I mean, I have a lot of clothes. I love experimenting, but my ten percent is when I'm running out or I've got my son, I run upstairs to my bedroom and I throw on jeans and a T shirt. And so really that's probably what I'll be buried in. I love the barrel leg jean. I know it's controversial. I love a tasted leg jean. I love them. And I'm not particularly tall and I try and we're a little kitten heel, but I can get away with a sandal. So I just bought and they're not expensive, but compared to my twenty dollar T shirt, the cause arch tapered jean. They're like a winter white soft cream, but not a very yellowy cream. The balloon shape, the barrel isn't too hectic, and there are one hundred and thirty nine dollars. And at the end of the day, I want to be so many different personalities because I haven't nailed my personal branding yet. But if I had personal brand, it's jeans and a T shirt. So they're those beautiful couse jeens.

      That shape's really fluttering, I think to a lot of.

      People say it's not. It depends on where the balloon happens. It can't happen up near the hips. It's gotta be lower down.

      It gives like a good waist, and then I love that it comes into the angle and looks so good with like a huge.

      Agreed I'm a huge advocate for it. My boss hates them and we argue vehemently about it. But I will stand up for a balloon or a bel jean any day of the week. VI too, Megan, You are such a joy. I am desperate to come and play in your wardrobe.

      Until then in time.

      Thank you so much for joining us at all. The best for your twenty second book. That's amazing.

      Thank you Lee, thanks for having me, Thank.

      You for listening to Nothing to Wear. Don't forget to sign up to the Nothing to Wear newsletter. There's a link in the show notes, and if you enjoy today's episode, we have another episode on personal style and bringing it back to the basics, so we've popped a link to that one in the show notes too. See you next week. This episode was produced by Grace Rufray with audio production by Lou Hill. This podcast is powered by US subscribers. If you believe in independent women's media and you want to support us, there's a link in the show notes, and a big thank you to all our current subscribers.

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