How to Master Polished Maximalism: Mixing Prints, Color & Finding Your Style with Julia Berolzheimer

Let's Get Dressed

Style creator Julia Berolzheimer joins the host to break down her signature approach of 'polished maximalism,' explaining how she layers bold colors and prints while maintaining a refined aesthetic. The conversation traces her style

Key takeaways

Julia Berolzheimer defines polished maximalism as layering color-on-color and print-on-print while keeping silhouettes classic and refined to avoid looking overdone.
She recommends starting mixed-print outfits with one statement piece, using texture contrast or a single shared thread of shade to unify contrasting patterns.

Main topics

Polished maximalism and personal style evolution
Mixing prints, color theory, and texture layering

Notable quotes

"I like to say that it means I love maximalism in the way that I love color on color, print on print, embellishments... I still love things to feel classic and not overdone."

Conclusion

Listeners gain a clear framework for cultivating a bold, personalized wa

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) I feel like I have such an inner Speaker 1 (0:02) maximalist that I don't know how to harness. And I think a lot of people feel that way. It takes effort and nothing about my style is effortless. I put in a lot of effort because I always want to get better. Julie, I'm so excited to have you on the show today. You're someone that calls yourself a polished maximalist. I love maximalism in the way that I love color on color, print on print, embellishments. all of the details, but I like it to feel sort of polished and refined at the same time. I often think about like, can taste Speaker 2 (0:34) be Speaker 1 (0:35) nurtured or are you born with it? And I always say, I think it's 50-50. The older I've gotten, the funkier I want things to be. I think having kids also triggered a lot of evolution. Oftentimes we think of the phrase you've changed as negative. I take it as a compliment. Back Speaker 2 (0:52) to being women in your 30s, I've realized that The way my body feels is different every week. And that changes my style literally every Speaker 1 (1:00) week. Absolutely. We're getting dressed to live, not for pictures. I don't think I have any rules I try and follow when I'm getting ready or shopping. Speaker 2 (1:12) Welcome back to Let's Get Dressed. Before we dive into today's episode, make sure that you're following the show both on Apple Podcasts and Spotify so that you don't miss a new episode. In case you want to watch today's episode, you can head over to YouTube. The full episode is available there too. And when you're done, leave us a review. I always love to hear what you guys think about the episodes and it really helps the show go. Now let's go get dressed. Speaker 2 (1:37) Julie, I'm so excited to have you on the show today. We have someone here who is like up there in contributors to me to my shopping addiction. Speaker 1 (1:44) Oh, thank you. I'm so honored to be here. I'm so excited. I've been looking forward to it for a long time. Good. I'm so glad. Also, you are wearing the shirt that you got when we met, which I think is so kismet and full circle. It is 100%. This is by Patricia Voto of One Ev. And we saw each other, I think it was this time last year. And I wasn't even here for fashion week. We were here for work and I was just visiting her office and I've worn this shirt so many ways. It's been like the best purchase. It's very you. Print, Speaker 2 (2:18) fun, Speaker 1 (2:19) amazing. Speaker 2 (2:19) I love how you have it styled too. What's Speaker 1 (2:21) that skirt? Thank you. This skirt is old Speaker 2 (2:22) Michael Speaker 1 (2:23) Kors. Speaker 2 (2:23) If you guys, okay, if you guys are listening audibly right now, I recommend going over to YouTube because it's just so, so, Speaker 1 (2:30) so beautiful. You look amazing. Thank you. Of course. So just Speaker 2 (2:34) in my little. Canadian tuxedo for the day. I love it. Thanks. Speaker 1 (2:37) Feels good. So tell us a little bit about how you're going to help us get dressed better today. Yes. I mean, I want to just share how sort of I approach getting dressed, how I approach owning my own style, figuring out my own style and just feeling good because at the end of the day, that's what everybody wants to feel is feel good in their clothes, the way that they're sort of leading through their life. I have this Speaker 2 (3:04) saying that I think of in my brain a lot as I'm getting ready every day. And I remember when I was younger, I asked someone like, what's like your closet like? And they looked back at me and they were like, what it's actually like or what I wish it was like. Yeah. And that to me is such an interesting distinction because I feel that way when I think of your style. It's like my closet is one way, but I wish it was like yours. Oh, thank Speaker 1 (3:28) you. Speaker 2 (3:28) I feel like I have such an inner maximalist that I don't know how to harness. And I think a lot of people feel that way. I think to be a maximalist is to like fully embody joy in your dressing and be really bold and brave. And I think a lot of us, again, want to feel that way. Yes. You're someone that calls yourself a polished maximalist. Yes. So I would love for our listeners right now, if you could just break down what that means. Like how would you yourself describe your style? Speaker 1 (3:55) I like to say that it means I love maximalism in the way that I love color on color, print on print, embellishments, all of the details. Like I will layer two prints, but I like it to feel sort of polished and refined at the same time. Like I still love things to feel classic and not overdone for the sake of just being like out there. I sort of, I layer and then I take back a little bit. But I... I love color. And so I sort of lead with that in my style. I probably have the least amount of black things in my closet than I have of anything else. I love seeing other people in really just chic, all black outfits. Right. But when I'm wearing it, I feel sort of sad. I understand that. And Speaker 2 (4:42) I Speaker 1 (4:42) don't feel like myself. And when I put on color, I feel confident and I just feel like myself, really. The wearing black correlating Speaker 2 (4:54) to Speaker 1 (4:54) sadness, Speaker 2 (4:55) I think, is so interesting because one of my favorite creators, Brenda Hashtag, I don't know if you know her. I don't, but now I have to Speaker 1 (5:01) go look Speaker 2 (5:02) her up. She Speaker 1 (5:02) is Speaker 2 (5:02) your Speaker 1 (5:02) polar opposite. Speaker 2 (5:03) And I Speaker 1 (5:04) adore her Speaker 2 (5:04) and I really adore her style. But she only wears black and white, her entire closet. And she posts about it all the time. Yeah. You would be astonished. It's like the top row is all white. The bottom row is all black. Wow. I mean, I follow people who are Speaker 1 (5:17) sort of minimalist. There's so many people I follow and I can appreciate their style. And when I've tried to sort of do my own take on it, I don't feel like myself. Right. But she's not a minimalist, in my opinion. She wears like, yeah, Speaker 2 (5:32) there's like an in-between. Sometimes it's minimal. Sometimes it's not. I actually asked her, I was like, sometimes when you're in all black, like, do you feel sad? She was like, no. No, she Speaker 1 (5:40) feels like herself. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's so many other ways you can be a maximalist without color. Just like texture. you know, embellishment. There's so many different ways. Like just the fabric alone can tell its own story and add so much detailing. So, you know, if you're afraid of color, it doesn't have to be color. Speaker 2 (6:01) I love that. It's a great point. Have you always been a maximalist? Take me back to like college, Julia. Like what did that look like? Because I know you've been in the space for a really long time. You're one of the OGs in the blogging Speaker 1 (6:12) Instagram era. I would say. I've always had maximalist elements and I've always had very polished elements. So I would say my style has evolved a lot over the years. But talking about college, Julia, I mean, it was like top shop feathers, you know, so it was very much. I think one of my favorite dresses in college was a top shop dress that I wore to a formal with my husband, Thomas. And so I've always loved color. My style definitely read more feminine, sweet when I was younger. And the older I've gotten, the more I've sort of grown up with it. And anybody that knows, we used to have a clothing line called Gal Meets Glam Collection. And we had collectors. We had a couple people who had hundreds of our dresses. And it was very polished. It was sort of like a young Carolina Herrera inspired by, but with print and color. And so I think I'm just like the more grown up version, more polished version of that now. Speaker 2 (7:16) I really love that you just said that you kind of veered away from sweet because I think for women, as we get older, there are a lot of things that I begin to cut out of my wardrobe because they feel sweet. A hundred percent. And as a 32 year old, I'm like, it's not that I don't want to feel sweet. It's just that I don't feel like the evolved version of myself. What were some sweet things that like you got Speaker 1 (7:37) rid of? Like any ditzy floral, really. And I think having kids, putting them in sweet things made me realize how sweet some of the things I had were. You're like, we can't match. It doesn't work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I understand. And so that really also triggered a lot of evolution. And just growing up, it's interesting when you grow up online. I've been on the internet for 15 years. I'm 35. So I started when I was 20. I was in college. And I've had different lives. And I think it's exciting to evolve. And I think it's exciting when, you know, oftentimes we think of the phrase you've changed as negative. I take it as a compliment. Like I want to change. I want to get better over time. Like I want to keep pushing myself and my boundaries. And I hope I didn't peak when I was young. If I do have something that reads more sweet, I want to balance it out with something more masculine or something funky. The older I've gotten, the funkier I want things to be. Even our home, the evolution of my home style has really changed. Like I used to want really soft, palatable colors. And now we just painted our library like grape, like a deep, moody purple with a chartreuse rug. Very cool. It's just I want funky. I want interesting. I want color. And again, nothing sweet. I think there is a science behind how that color can make you feel energized. Absolutely. And even just I'm somebody that's very affected by my surroundings. Being around color is really important to me. We bought an old new home and. So we bought it. We moved into a new home last year, but it is a very old home. It's a 200-year-old home. Wow. And the previous owners had very, like, soft taste. And so being around somewhere that was, like, very, like, lack of color everywhere and the design evolution takes a long time, home stuff. So it's been mentally challenging for me. And the rooms where we've added color, I only want to spend time in those rooms. Speaker 2 (9:53) I love that you're so impacted by that. Was your childhood home bright and colorful? No, my mom had like no interior taste. Back then it was like shabby chic, like everything was white. It was Martha Stewart era. My mom's whole house Speaker 1 (10:04) is white. Speaker 2 (10:05) My Speaker 1 (10:06) mom and I are very close. We could not be more different. My grandmother, my mom's mom was so fabulous. Okay. It's Speaker 2 (10:15) gotta Speaker 1 (10:15) come from somewhere. Her home was fabulous. Yeah. And she loved fashion. Yes, it always comes from somewhere. It has to. Speaker 2 (10:20) Yes. Speaker 1 (10:21) I often think about like, can Speaker 2 (10:22) taste be nurtured or are you born with it? And I always say, I think it's 50-50. Like, I think you have to get it from somewhere, but then you have to go out there and do the things to nurture it. Yes. And I love that that's why you're saying like your home is colorful because I think your surroundings, what you look at every day, who you follow on Instagram, the colors of your home, like what you are looking at and taking in every day, like that's how you nurture your Speaker 1 (10:45) taste. Absolutely. I think there's a saying like you are what you're around. You are Speaker 2 (10:49) what you eat. Let's just say you are what you eat. Like you Speaker 1 (10:52) become who your friends are, like totally, you know, without you even realizing it. And so, yeah, like I think I've just sort of have created a world that I just even when we travel, I'm so picky about like the hotel I stay in and because I want the room to feel exciting. So you're looking at like design? Yes. Speaker 2 (11:12) Absolutely. Absolutely. Speaker 1 (11:15) If the room is worse Speaker 2 (11:17) than my house, I don't want to be there. Ooh, I want to know like the coolest looking hotel you've ever stayed in so badly. Paso Lacoa, Lake Como. I have not been Speaker 1 (11:27) there and it's on my list. It is. But I've not heard of that hotel. It is old Italian glamour. It's just beautiful. And Villa Faltronelli on Lake Garda. Someone told me to honeymoon there and I wish I listened to them. It is my number one Speaker 2 (11:44) favorite hotel Speaker 1 (11:45) of all time. You feel like you're in somebody's, I mean, it was a home. It's just so fabulous. So fabulous. Is that close to Lake Como? Don't ask me anything about geography. I have no idea. You're in Soho. Speaker 2 (12:00) We're in New York City. Speaker 2 (12:04) Okay, while we are always talking about really goodbyes on this show, we have officially reached one of my favorite fashion times of the entire year, and that is sweater weather. There is something about putting on that first sweater of the season that makes me irrationally happy. And maybe it's because I live in LA and have to wait approximately a thousand years for the temperature to drop a little bit. But the second I can wear jeans, a sweater, a great shoe, and not think too hard about the rest of my outfit, that is truly my Speaker 1 (12:30) ideal fall uniform. Speaker 2 (12:32) So today I wanted to talk and share with you guys about the sweaters that I'm so excited about for fall and more importantly, how I actually want to style them. And thanks to Macy's for sponsoring this segment. So one thing I love about sweaters is that they can completely set the tone for an outfit. You can go really classic, really sporty, oversized, casual. And Macy's has such a good range right now. The first one I've pulled is this Free People Mock Neck Zip Front Cardigan. It's this relaxed textured zip that feels very easy and cool. And I love that it's almost somewhere between a sweater and a light jacket. Like when you wear a sweater like this, that's the outfit. Jeans, a t-shirt underneath, and you're good. I would wear it with like probably a loafer or even like if you are on the go, it's great with leggings after a workout or a sneaker if you want something that. is comfortable, but still really pulled together. Then on the complete opposite end, I found this sweater from Polo Ralph Lauren. It's the Big Pony Rugby Sweater. This is my dream sweater. I love a graphic sweater. I'm obsessed