47: Find your Style & Make it Happen
A Conversation with Fay Leshner
Part 1
Transcript Highlights:
Style is your outward state of how you would like to present yourself to the world. So the decisions that you make to guard yourself when you leave the house, if that makes sense.
Clothing is-- everything you wear has a connotation, it has an association, and the things that you choose to wear on the day or how you are choosing to be interpreted by other people, whether you know it or not. When you get up and you're going into an office and you're putting on a suit, you would like to be seen with more authority and taken more seriously. And these are just things that are ingrained in our society, but they do affect our decisions and affect our style choices.
So why is style important for musicians?
Leshner:
Being a musician, you are in the public eye. You are an entertainer. And I think it's important for you to hone in on your style because it's a way of identifying you. It's really branding yourself. Anyone who walks on a stage and wants to be heard and noticed should be thinking intentionally about how they walk on the stage and what they're walking on the stage in.
Kellogg:
Can you talk about when style is well-defined, you know, a strong sense of style? What does that do for a musician?
Leshenr:
Great example: Let's look at pop music. Harry Styles. Harry Styles has become a style icon based on the way that he dresses and that works well because at that point, like, he doesn't really have to be that good at what he does. But people are paying attention and people are interested. The benefit about classical musicians, especially the ones that you work with, is that they do have the ability, they have the talent. So could you imagine if you were able to create an identity for yourself that is both music and both image? It would be extremely powerful and effective.
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Kellogg:
What does it do for the confidence or the presence, the way somebody holds themself on stage?
Leshner:
If you think about any time that you're wearing your favorite outfit or something that you feel good, it changes your entire disposition. You, of course, you have more confidence because you know that you feel confident that the way that the world sees you is the way you want to be seen. So if you think about that in terms of how you're performing. It seems like a no brainer that you would want to find what that is for you.
When it works, what does it do? Is that like you already have a better impression of that person? Because that person put thought into what they're doing and that means that they take what they're doing seriously.
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Kellogg:
So what's the beginning of this process for a young musician?
Leshner:
Even if you if it's not your wheelhouse, if you don't really consider it, you still at least have a basis of something that you like, even if it's sporty and casual, like that exists. So what I would say is that like even just bringing up the topic, I want to get better at this. I know that in the future I'm going to have to do these things, educate yourself, start visually, training yourself, pay more attention to what people are wearing in the street, what's in the stores, what works well. What, what do you like? What looks good to you? And then as you, it's like, for instance, if I were to tell you, did you notice that everyone is wearing combat boots? You probably never noticed that people were wearing combat boots. But after that, you can't unsee it. So it's like when you put something in your head, you just your brain will start associating and start getting better at it. So it's like training. It's like you train to be really good at your craft. You can also train to— hone more in to your style. The advice about becoming a student of what other people are doing when you walk around the streets, seeing who looks good in their clothes, who perhaps doesn't, I think it's so true for many, many things - look to the models that you think are doing a really great job. Who are the soloists that walk out on stage have a distinct sense of style that fits their personality and is instantly memorable?
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Leshner:
Fit and proportion and understanding that is so, so important and actually is what sets you apart from looking good or not looking good. Even if you're doing something that is like an oversize proportion on your scale, there is a way to do that. And I come from a fashion design background, so I was a fashion designer. So having the understanding of how to build clothing, that's why I can recognize it. But if you're not, once again, this is like not something that you're familiar with. Go to the experts. I would say, like start familiarizing yourself with, you know, the way clothes should fit. So go into stores even if you can't afford those pieces and get fit in clothing, and have like actually have a professional pick out the size that is meant for you. So at least you have you have a point of reference, you know, because when you feel it, you'll see the difference instantly.
And there's a very common mistakes, especially like I like to use the example of menswear suiting. A lot of men choose suits that are too big for them. And you can tell because the shoulder seam is all the way down here, and it should align with your, your arm socket. But you would never know that. If you've never put on a jacket that actually fits you, you'd be just throwing on any old thing. But I think having that frame of reference and educating yourself is just the only way you now that you just get better at it.
That's a great way to just become like a student of style is like, go try things on. Go look at look at images online. Find some things that you're interested in trying and go try them on and see how they fit. And then there's a ton of other places that you can get them for much less, especially like we're in discount, like community, not like this is how we how the world works. So even if you waited like a couple of weeks, probably what you were looking at will be on sale.
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Leshner:
There's always a good fit for every single shape. It's about finding what that is. And, that's where I say to like, educate yourself, especially now. Like even if you're more on the curvy side, if you're shorter, the lens of body shapes have expanded so much. So it's actually like a really good time to find references for that. I think in that in that sense it is actually very helpful to have someone like to work with a stylist to like bring awareness to like the shapes that should be fitting you, where it should be fitting you. But you can also go into a store and, and get that advice because you don't need to be six foot and a size two to look good and things because otherwise half the clothes wouldn't be sold. You know, most people are, you know, of an average size. So I think it's just like-- I mean, it would have to be, like I can describe it for a specific body types, but like in short, there is, there is always a way. There's a fit in proportion for everyone. I think what the advice I would give is don't look to the smaller shapes and think it has to look like that on me. You have to see what would it look like, the version for yourself, if that makes sense.
Style does not necessarily mean that you are super fashion forward. Like style can also be extremely simple. It could be elegant, be minimal. I mean, there's a ton of different interpretations when I, when I speak to style, I mean, like the best representation of you, of like, of your state, whereas trend, trend is there to sell you things. Trend is there to identify that you are reading these certain blogs and you follow these certain celebrities. But like style is something that is completely your own and everyone has. So if you think of it like that, like it, it loosens up the intimidation a bit. Like you don't have to have money or be able to afford Chanel like it is really just having the awareness like this is what's right for me and I feel great in it.
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Kellogg:
You can spend an awful lot of money on clothes and musicians need to budget something. What are some ways that they can still accomplish good things with their style and their clothes?
Leshner:
So first, identify what you're looking for. It'll make it a lot easier. But I would say like, go. There are so many resale sites right now and you could just Google “resale” - you'll get like 40 of them. Because the way our shopping behavior works now is that people are buying constantly and they're also getting rid of stuff constantly so you can get things that are next to new, some with tags on them, for like a fourth of the price. So that's buying designer things. So that's one option. But once again, know what you're looking for because it can be really overwhelming since usually, when you're dealing with resale, there's only one of that piece in general.
There's also a bunch of like high street brands like ASOS is great because they have like a huge suiting division, which is like so inexpensive and it's actually, for photography, shoots great. It looks really expensive and it's, it's really good for like that person who just like, need something that looks slick and affordable.
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