10 Hardest Styles to Pull Off, Ranked

I was a fan of EGL clothing in college. EGL, for those who weren't in the visual kei scene of the early 2000s, stands for Elegant Gothic Lolita, and is one of the many different forms of Lolita fashion. It was a style that was all about looking as doll-like as possible, in that creepy Victorian way that most horror movies use.

When done well, like the way Mana does it, EGL looks elegant, sexy, and just a little bit creepy. When I did it with my discount Lolita dresses, I looked more like a disturbed individual mimicking a Cabbage Patch doll. It wasn't flattering. At all.

Truth be told, I realized that it was one of the hardest styles to pull off—and it wasn't the only type of hard-to-manage look that I enjoyed, either. The more I thought about it, most of my favorite styles were pretty difficult to work with.

Ever wonder how hard a particular aesthetic is to pull off? I decided to take a look at the hardest ones to find out. Here's my own particular ranked list of the most difficult looks to work.

Hipster Aesthetic

Though you always will see plenty of hipsters roaming around, we'd be lying if we didn't say it wasn't one of the hardest styles to pull off. You see, there's a very fine line between "hipster" and "disheveled mess."

Most people who dress like hipsters either look pretentious or look like a total mess. Finding that perfect compromise is what makes it so hard to get this look right—and sadly, it's a look that often fails because of it.

Cybergoth

Ah, so many of my college days were spent wearing cybergoth clothing—and that's why I know how difficult it is to look good as a goth. Cybergoth is a highly futuristic style of goth wear that involves latex, corsets, neon colors, and cyber-y accents throughout the outfit.

The goth look, in general, is not good for people who carry an extra 10 pounds on them. Cybergoth wear, on the other hand, is even worse. In order to really pull this look off well, you have to be rail thin since most of the clothing will show every little flaw.

You also usually have to look unusually young, simply because it's such a youth-oriented subculture.

Animal Print

Look, I love me my zebra stripes and leopard print. But, I won't lie; I don't wear these prints at all. It's very hard to pull these styles off without looking like a cougar, a try-hard, or a hooker.

What makes this such a difficult is the fact that you need to have a very specific look to your face and body to make the prints work. More specifically, prints themselves are just a bit too heavy-handed to work with most peoples' looks.

Unless you're actively going for something that tends to err on the side of tacky, you'll probably find animal print trends to be one of the hardest styles to pull off.

Cyberpunk

Just slightly tamer than cybergoth is cyberpunk. Named after the sci-fi genre that it started off with, cyberpunk is all about showing off a darkly futuristic look that features heavy swaths of black, grey, and silver.

Unlike cybergoth, neon colors don't really make much of an appearance. What does tend to set cyberpunk aside from mainstream clothes are the avant garde clothing cuts, geeky accents, and the slightly broody appearance that come with the style.

The problems with this style are manifold. Avant garde cuts rarely look good on people who aren't thin. Finding cybergoth clothes is also very difficult. And, there's always the fact that that you can't always differentiate between cybergoth and standard streetwear. So, it's rough.

Motorcycle Chic

If you have ever walked into a Walmart near a rural area around 2 AM, you probably have seen people who tried to pull off clothes that sported this look.

Motorcycle chic is what I call the look that involves Harley-Davidson tees, flame printed jackets, and a wallet chain for good measure. I need not explain why this is one of the hardest trends to wear; it's damn near impossible to make this look classy.

Part of the problem with this style is the type of person who wears it. You can usually tell who wants to wear flame prints on their shirts and pants by their lack of teeth, parachute bondage pants, and Insane Clown Posse tee shirts. They typically are found in Spencer's or Walmart.

Really, the only group that's ever rocked this well was KISS. So stop trying to make it work.

Cosplay Fashion

Cosplay is fun. It's great to be able to dress up as a favorite anime character, right? Well, yes, but there's a problem. Most anime character have looks that are ridiculously hard to pull off without a rail-thin body and very specific facial features.

It also goes without saying that the clothing itself is nearly impossible to wear in a typical day-to-day life without raising an eyebrow or two. So, you're basically relegated to anime conventions and you better have a damn good figure if you want to rock cosplay right.

As a result, it's one of the most difficult styles to pull off.

Yamanba

This Japanese street style is one of the very few that emphasizes dark skin, white eyeshadow, and panda-like makeup. Yamanba, which translates into "mountain hag," is all about extremely distorted club looks that features sky-high platforms, fake bake, and glitter.

One good look at people who used to sport this trend is enough to help you realize why it's so hard to keep this aesthetic up. Between the nearly-daily fake tanning sessions, the extreme makeup, and the fact that it always looks pretty awful, it's hard to imagine that anyone really made this trend look good.

Trailer Trash Chic

To fully understand why trailer trash chic is one of the hardest styles to pull off, take a look at the rest of this list. Multiple items on this list are considered to be trailer park wear—including animal prints and the whole "printed flame thing."

Trailer park chic is all about making tacky look classy, and rocking that look well. This is a look that makes trucker hats, belt buckles, and blue eye shadow look good.

It takes a very unique look to turn something so tacky into something that looks hot. Chances are, you won't have what it takes to make this look doable.

Kigurumi

Another fashion trend from Japan is kigurumi, also known as wearing those cute onesie pajamas in the form of cats, bears, dragons, or anime figures. These cozy one-piece pajamas are great for lounging around the house, but that doesn't mean that they are too good on a stylish level.

Simply put, they don't look stylish or flattering enough to be worn in public. When you're over the age of 15 and wearing one of these things, it's really hard to take you seriously.

Gothic Lolita

Gothic lolita, be it EGL or otherwise, remains the top of all of the hardest styles to pull off in my opinion. This style is just not meant for most people, including people who can usually pull off goth style without an issue.

The problems with this are manifold. You have to get the expensive dresses if you ever hope to look decent. If you splurge on the dresses, you better be pin-thin. Oh, and good luck trying to get this looking good if you're over 23.

Since it's supposed to make you look doll-like, you will end up looking psychotic if you wear this after your early 20s.