A lot of people assume that fashion and style are one and the same thing. I myself once thought that the two go hand in hand. But recently, I discovered that one can be extremely stylish but not in the slightest bit fashionable and vice versa.

While trying to find out what the difference is, I found all sorts of comparisons:

- Fashions fade, Style is eternal. (Yves Saint Laurent)
- The difference between style and fashion is quality (Giorgio Armani)
- Fashion is made to become unfashionable (Coco Chanel)
- Style is applying your own personal swagger to fashion (Unknown)

After all my research, it came down to this;

Fashion is what’s ‘in’. It’s the latest trend that everyone is wearing that’s normally based on what’s in season and what the hottest celebrities are dressed in. A lot of people tend to be fashionable; they wear the latest clothes from the hottest designers and they look fantastic. However, not all these ‘fashionistas’ have what we call style.

While fashion is what everybody’s in to, style is one’s personal taste. Style is about individualism and self-expression. Ultimately, everyone has their own sense of style; how a person puts together an outfit is their style, even if it just involves picking up the very first thing they find in their closet.

People can be stylish, expressing themselves through their clothing and their appearance without being the least bit fashionable. Most people who are considered ‘fashionistas’ are in actual fact stylistas. Victoria Beckham is a stylista; she dresses the way she likes and manages to look great but what she wears isn’t always fashionable. A true style icon is a person who can incorporate their personal style into the latest fashions. People like Sarah Jessica Parker and Zoe Saldana manage to look great and fashionable all the time while staying true to their own personal styles.