Building our style toolbox
How do you find out what clothing “works” for you?
I’ve been building my “style toolbox” of clothing, colours and aesthetics that suit my personality, lifestyle, and features for the past 11 years. But, as I’ve written about before, pregnancy and motherhood kind of disrupted that process. Body and lifestyle changes, and even moving to a different community, made it so I’ve had to go back to the drawing board again and again.
One piece of the puzzle was my soft summer colour analysis from Created Colorful. But I felt like I was still missing something. I would try items on that were in my season and looked great on the model, or on the hanger, but on me they fell flat.
Enter the body and style girlies of the internet! Namely, Ellie-Jean Royde, of Body and Style, Rachel of Truth is Beauty, and Rita of The Style Key (who I have already talked about sooo many times because her system is just so beautiful).
I have loved Rachel’s blog for many, many, many years. She has incredible research and is very knowledgeable about colour season and essences. If you haven’t heard of style essences, they’re a way of analyzing a person’s unique beauty, originally theorized by Harriet McJimsey, that categorizes their features into seven distinct genres:
Angelic/Ethereal
Youthful/Ingenue
High Spirited/Gamine
Romantic
Natural
Classic
Dramatic
We will all have a blend of these essences, but there are usually two or three that will be dominant, and from these we can learn to dress in a way that reflects our unique beauty in our clothing.
I have long identified with the Classic Ingenue essence, but as I’ve gotten older, the Ingenue has mellowed a bit, and I am playing with the idea of whether it’s actually more of a mix of Ethereal and Gamine. Plus, despite being pretty sure I have little to no natural, I just really like to add in elements of that essence!
What has really helped recently has been looking at my body proportions. I don’t mean the old-school apple, pear, rectangle or hourglass nonsense. Instead, I’ve really enjoyed thinking through Ellie-Jean’s system of body typing, where I’ve determined that I am medium, medium and round. This means I benefit from clothing with moderate length, slightly open necklines, and that is fitted but not tight. All of this rings especially true now that I am older and a slightly larger size than I was in my 20s, and don’t feel I can comfortably “get away with” tighter and shorter styles, or items that are excessively oversized. Those things never felt quite right anyway!
Of course, I still filter this through my lens of being a Right Up Moonstone in Rita’s Style Key system, which means that the way I approach getting dressed is by taking in the scenario and what my surroundings are/will be on that day, and determining what clothing will best support my goals for the day. Do I want to feel confident on a client call? Do I want to feel cozy and cute for a playdate with Luka? Dress accordingly.
It’s all easier said than done, especially as I continue to navigate body changes, our four seasons weather, and shifting priorities. But it’s an area when I can let my creativity and personality, plus the little things I am interested in that week come into play.
What have you added to your style toolbox recently?