It's not a kludge to have an outer style affect the list ( including the bullets/numbers ) and have an inner style affect the content of items themselves. Use 'relative' styles if possible , e.g use font-size: 80%; on the outside, font-size: 125%; on the inside. If you have no way to speak 'relatively' e.g. if you're setting font-face for the list and want to restore it within items; plan this from the beginning and make style selectors that summarize and apply properties to the 'outer' body text, and text inside list items. Then use deep, more specific selectors to affect certain lists and their outer areas differently, etc, etc. You may find that it becomes quite less of a problem than you imagine it may be.