Initially I wasn’t thinking about style at all. I was simply thinking about the manner, the way, of making something, so that the result becomes its specific look. Then in the dictionary I discovered that that was the definition of style. So I went into Encyclopedia.com to look up the subject in more detail, and there things got complicated.
Their article differentiates between the anthropological meaning that every kind of object, like a raft, has a style, a distinct manner of looking, and the meaning of style as describing distinction, quoting Mark Twain writing in Huckleberry Finn, chapter 16, “There was a power of style about her. It amounts to something being a raftsman on such a raft as that.”
In addition, reading in my Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 12th edition, I found three types of styles identified – period style, regional style, and personal style.
Before I go any further, here is a quick history of the word style. It comes from the Latin “stilus”, which was the writing instrument of the Romans. According to the above-mentioned article in Encyclopedia.com, the word was used to describe an author’s manner of writing, and analyses of style are found in the writings of Greek and Roman teachers of rhetoric. At that time style had strictly to do with the choosing of words to produce a desired effect on an audience, particularly a jury. Any mention of style applied to other arts (music, architecture, visual arts) comes much, much later – beginning during the Renaissance. Style becomes established as a term of art history in the eighteenth century.
All this to say that if we find it very easy today to see style (in fashion, technology, fonts, and many others), it is because we have had three centuries of studies on it, which have given us many choices in forming a personal style.
But what interests me, yet again, are the beginnings. When there weren’t options of styles, why is it that we can distinguish the anthropological kind of style – the regional and period style of art history textbooks? Why didn’t the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Zulus, and the Mayans come up with the same style of bucket, since they didn’t have anywhere to see it from, to compare and devise their own style? If they simply needed to carry water, how come the vessels are so similar, yet so different?
Art and the Invisible 
There are several theories within psychology that stay that culture influences many aspects of our psyche. Thus, style could be seen as an expression of our culture, individuality,etc. So, for me it works as an expression or opinion that raises dialogue.
Best, Ivelina
I agree – culture and individuality are factors, expression and opinion are results. But today these words have so many meanings! I think very soon I will be talking more about them. Thank you for writing!