Same Word, Different Font
Plus, let's stop overthinking our clothes
My friend said this phrase; “same word, different font” one day when we were talking about style and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. In lieu of any fancy introduction, this is what I’m going to be talking about today.
Turns out this concept is actually not new, so forgive me for coming to it a few years late. I searched the term and found that “same person, different fonts” is actually a phrase people were using in 2021 to describe when two people have similar personalities but are different versions of it (thanks Urban Dictionary!). And Buzzfeed had a classic listical about TV characters that epitomize the concept, but this one captured the essence best for me (tell me you’re a millennial).
But this came up for me in terms of style-words; you know the 3-5 words we use to try and define our style (a la
1 ). So I’m really thinking about the way a style descriptor can be channeled differently on different people (or even the same person).I have a love/hate relationship with style descriptors because I don’t always feel like my style fits into a 3 word description but, recent years, have made me feel like the best style DOES. This idea of “same word, different fonts” actually helped me a ton as it relates to style-word burnout.
To illustrate this, I couldn’t help but think about our ladies from Sex and the City. I know the conversations referencing SATC can be overwrought but please hang in here with me.
I was thinking about the word “feminine” either as one of your 3 style words or as a modifier to your style and I realized that all 4 of the characters on SATC could have feminine as a word and here’s how their different fonts shine.
Which is to say that if you want to dress like Charlotte, Samantha, Carrie AND Miranda, you could easily say that “feminine” is a style word and you could project that word different ways through-out your week.