by Standing in front of my wardrobe I was overwhelmed. The amount of clothes (and shoes and bags…) I accumulated in my role as fashion director at the time Stylist magazine that was huge. But what to wear day to day was an easy task. Despite the quantity, I passed on the vast majority of pieces and reverted to my most worn jeans, A-line denim mini dress, or trouser suit when I needed to look particularly smart. I could definitely relate to the findings that most women wear 20 percent of their wardrobe, 80 percent of the time.
I had heard of the Three Word Method, where you choose three words to describe your style, through industry friends, although no one seemed to know its origins. As I was flicking through the rails in my wardrobe, a light bulb came on… I saw that my favorite pieces, the ones I loved to wear and rely on everyday, all matched the same adjectives : denim, sixties and tomboy. It was 2017 and I was writing my first book, How to Dress. I knew I had to incorporate the concept into the copy and continue to dress up with those three words at the forefront of my mind.
Today I add Glamour and have been working in the fashion industry for over 20 years now. In my role as a stylist for editorial shoots, working commercially on advertising campaigns or when creating looks for celebrities such as Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Kylie Minogue or Maya Jama, I am as flamboyant and eclectic as possible – but in my . own wardrobe, I am blissful calm.
As I’ve shared the benefits of the Three Word Method through my experiences as a personal stylist (and the term has become popular thanks to TikTok and stylist Allison Bornstein), it has coincided with the growth on worse consumption. Ricocheting from trend to trend every season is not good for the planet and marks you out as a fashion victim (not a good look). There is an obscene amount of clothing on the planet and by styling yourself more mindfully, you are taking a step towards building a more sustainable wardrobe.
The most effective way to save money, time and streamline your wardrobe is to stick to dressing and, most importantly, shopping through the Three Word Method. Since my own style has awakened, I can attest that I rarely suffer from morning wardrobe rage or cry that “I have nothing to wear!”. I was also able to cut down all that excess that was once so big that now there are only pieces that conform to my Three Words.
When I saw the results for the women I work with, I went a step further and created a website, my3words.co, where you can shop through your own words. Scrolling through pages of dresses to find one that suits your style is confusing and exhausting, despite using all the filters (and I’m a professional!), so I’ve curated edits that show the 12 most commonly asked by women in the UK.
It’s simple: go straight to your words and find pieces that instantly fit your style. My goal is for women to be as familiar with their three words as they are with their star signs, and I have edited comfortable, respectable, bohemian, elite, fashionable, vintage, classic, feminine, rock chick, dopamine. and French style.
How to find your Three Words
So how can you find your Three Words? Start by thinking about the clothes you wear most often. What makes you feel happiest there? What gives you a boost of confidence and what do you turn to when nothing else works? What gets you the most praise? Think honestly about your lifestyle and what suits your body shape. There will be a common thread. You will be able to describe your looks by style, colour, silhouette, fabric or era. As you go through your own clothes, I bet the pieces you’ll rarely wear don’t match your Three Words.
Once defined, the game-changing aspect is that you have to stick to your words the next time you shop. I’ve been known to wander around the shops, repeating my Three Word mantra under my breath to remind myself not to get distracted by the pretty prints and the brights.
How the Three Words mantra can change the way you dress
Michelle Steele owns Earsham Street Deli in Bungay, Suffolk, and describes discovering the Three Word Method as “an epiphany”. She uses an analogy of being in an interior shop; “I might want a lot of different things, but they wouldn’t all fit in my room, so I wouldn’t buy them. It’s the same with my wardrobe. Learning the Three Word Method was like a penny dropping. ‘Of course, I don’t wear that, because it doesn’t fit my three words!’ Now, when I’m drawn to things, I can still love them, but that doesn’t mean I have to buy them, because I know I’ll never wear them.”
When you stick to the method, you’ll find that you’re saving money and time, and you’ll have streamlined your wardrobe. It is effective, but you will also feel like you in what you wear, and I believe it is central to understanding the psychological aspects of how we feel in our clothes, rather than just aesthetics.
Lisa Haydon-Bennett is a psychotherapist with whom I have shared the method. “This unique approach has helped me define not only my style, but how I want to feel about myself,” she says. “The process went much deeper and I came away feeling clearer about myself and my style. It gave me such a confidence boost.”
When I talk to friends about fashion, the Three Word Method always comes up – especially since it’s going viral on social media this year. Favorite party trick is to guess people’s adjectives (“You’re…bohemian”) or apply the method to famous people… (Rosie HW would be minimal, sexy and neutral, and Princess of Wales would be polished , classic and feminine, and Alexa Chung could be preppy, French and tomboy).
As I describe the calmness of choosing your words, I can see their minds whirling to figure out their style. Your words may evolve throughout your life as jobs or lifestyle changes occur, but you may still have clarity. If you are ready to ditch those BNWT (New Beach With Tags) buyers and want to bring simplicity and style to your life, choosing the Three Words is the most effective way to make that change. So what do you have?
For more information, visit mo3words.co
