Style: It’s not something you can buy. Yes, anyone with a credit card can stroll into a branded store and emerge looking like Fashion with a capital F—but that’s not necessarily what truly stylish people do.

Because style takes something else, something less tangible than the right label at the right time. While piling on “It” items might give you a boost of instant sartorial gratification, in six months those pieces will be obsolete, you’ll be out a month’s rent, and you’ll feel compelled to keep up with the cycle of buying the next round of coveted pieces. It’s exhausting. Still, so many women seem to be falling victim to that exact cycle.

In this day and age, street style photos are a bona fide source of fashion inspiration. In fact, we spend a pretty hefty portion of our day just getting ideas on how celebrities are dressing up. Don’t forget: Several big street-fashion players, editors, and bloggers get sent designer stuff for free to entice folks like us to go out and buy it. Others are, well, richer than us and it’s their day job to flit around the world in the latest designer clothes, which is fun to admire but not necessarily healthy to emulate.

Legitimately stylish women will troll any—and we mean any—store with zero snob factor, yet they manage to stay true to their aesthetic.

For example, she won’t be afraid to pop into a cheesy-seeming teen store at the mall, but that doesn’t mean she’ll leave with the same things her 12-year-old cousin would.

Highly stylish people are often in the habit of always appearing a teeny tiny bit too cool for every scenario they’re in. This might mean wearing a pair of slip-on sneakers when every other girl is teetering on sky-high heels, wearing a chic skinny pantsuit when every other woman is rocking glittery party dresses, or chopping her hair into a messy bob when everyone else has long beachy waves. Small things that always make them look a little less “done.”

It sounds cliché, but the most stylish women—and men, for that matter—in the world are ones who have confidence, and who know they don’t need the $700 sweatshirt or $2,000 handbag to make themselves appear cool.

Before blogs, before street style, and before Fashion Week became a three-ring circus that only matters for those who have the most attention-grabbing clothing, young women dressed for themselves, their lifestyle, and what looked good on them.

Believe us: It doesn’t matter if those heels are Alexander Wang—if you can’t walk in them, you won’t be considered stylish. Throw on a pair of comfortable ankle boots and you’ll look much cooler.