Mistakes I made trying to find my style types
In the three years since I started learning about style systems I have made plenty of mistakes, zig zags, twists and turns. Here are some of the errors I made along the way which took me the wrong way
Jumping to conclusions too quickly
Especially as I’m in a kind of limelight, I felt a lot of pressure to always know exactly how I felt about my style + my various style types which led to an occasional jump when I should have experimented, sat with things and then shared. I think often it was a case of how I phrased things - even when I felt sure at the time, I think the phrasing of “I am currently exploring x” is much more accurate than “I have realised that I am x” until I feel that that type has been thoroughly explored and experimented with.
On the other hand, I think experimentation is a big part of finding what works for you - having a kibbe consultation or a colour analysis doesn’t mean you will feel happy with the results - feeling satisfied with your style is ultimately internal and this is not an overnight thing. The good thing about this is I have lived it - I know how easy it is to rush to an answer because your really want one. Learning a new language (in this case, a kind of visual fashion language) takes time, and I see lots of you trying to jump when actually you just need to float for a bit
2. Getting swayed by outside opinions
Especially at the beginning where I was learning a lot from forums, I found outside perspectives really confusing. In the beginning most of us are relying on the opinions of others who are more knowledgeable than ourselves - that’s normal. However, anyone who has posted on one of the reddit or Facebook groups you are never going to a get consensus - and actually a different photo with a different angle can open up an entirely different set of opinions. There are even lots of “official” typings some of my audience have had that I really strongly disagree with. I have had comments posted with an extremely strong conviction - sometimes even anger! - sharing how I am so obviously natural essence, romantic essence, ingenue essence, gamine essence, ethereal essence, classic essence - a spring, summer, winter - each as passionately as the other. If I swayed every time I received a comment like this I would never ever settle on a type. I have learned over the years that its okay to go at my own pace, to learn about my features with curiosity and stop caring about what people on the internet think, because ultimately I am the one who decides what I feel good in.
3. Relying on my pinterest board
I get distracted really easy by bright, shiny ideas. Half my trouble is is that I literally love almost all styles - I just hate bad execution. This means it’s even more important for me than some of you to understand my personality better, because this is where my true, core style lies. Taking some time to analyse my values, rather than just going through my Pinterest board, was a much better method of finding my style roots than looking at the clothes I like because I flip flop every six months. The style roots I am experimenting with now (mountain flower sun) feel the closest I have ever gotten, which brings me to…
4. Ignoring what feels easy
One of the reasons I feel more confident in my current style root combination than ones I have explored in the past is because its so easy for me, When I look at my wardrobe it is already filled with clothes which help me to achieve these roots and I didn’t have to try very hard to put outfits together. My last roots I was playing with (mushroom, flower, earth) I felt like I was missing lots of pieces which were necessary to achieve the look I was going for, which implies these impulses were not already present and I was reaching too hard to settle on a combination
5. Ignoring what I know to be true
Deep down, I have known for a while that my roots are mountain x sun x flower. When I was finishing my 56 pinterest boards, when the outfits started to come together for this root combination I felt in my gut that it was me. I loved every single outfit on the board, and I could really see myself in the outfits. I questioned it because I had previously dismissed the sun root. I think now that the combination of mushroom and sun was wrong for me, and I simply got rid of the wrong root - mushroom for me just simply wasn’t formal enough. I have always loved formal, exaggerated styles and I love to be the most overdressed in a room, I find it really thrilling - this doesn’t sound very mushroom does it! Someone else who got me thinking about the sun root was N. Yeasmin who is in our style scholars membership community, a lot of her outfits really resonated with me and it got me thinking about how much I connect with that kind of style. Seeing that specific combination come together in outfits opened up a new door for me which I hadn’t previously considered, and gave me the visual I needed. There were lots of boards that I looked and thought “I wish that was me” - I didn’t have that response to mountain x sun x flower - I just felt a deep pull towards those styles and felt like it already was me
6. Trusting an online quiz
This is going RIGHT back to the start of my journey, when I first discovered the kibbe quiz. I was led to believe that finding your body type was as simple as quickly filling out a quiz and that the result you got was without a doubt your body type. Of course, I got completely the wrong one. I feel like most of us know the kibbe quiz has been largely debunked by the man himself, but I think this lesson applies to lots of quizzes on the internet. I am saying this with hesitation because I am actually in the process of putting some quizzes together for colour seasons and the boy matrix - but I am going to brand these as “quick quizzes” - they are a starting indicator as part of your larger journey to find your types. They might not give you 100% the right answer, but they could point you in the right direction and I think thats how you should approach all quizzes on the Internet - because you possibly don’t have enough information yet to answer them correctly!
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