Can You Choose Your Season?

Getting your style type to work with your season is an important part of the workbook. A winter dressing one Kibbe type is going to be different from a summer dressing the same Kibbe type. I like to add more texture and tend to do less high contrast than a Bright or True Winter FG, for instance.

There was a discussion on the Kibbe group I co-admin recently, however, that got me thinking about this in a different way. Can our lines themselves affect what season works for us? Do our tastes and personality affect it, as in what feels authentic to us?

Some suggested that while one color may be flattering in the heavier fabric analysts use to drape, but if you’re a type with lighter-weight fabrics, other colors may work better when in the right fabric.

Then there are all the women who were draped one season and then received a vastly different palette from David Zyla or Beauty Valued. While some people receive pretty much the same palette from all the analysts they visit, some seem more like chameleons, with the ability to somehow wear both Bright Winter and something that would probably harmonize best with Soft Autumn–and look great in both.

So what do you do if you get wildly varying palettes? I think you could go with what feels authentic to you. If you like what Zyla (for example) gave you and you feel good in it, I think it’s fine to center your wardrobe around that.

Or you could use different seasons for different occasions. Use your darker/cooler/brighter season for Level Three looks for higher contrast and more drama. Plus, you’re not liable to mix these clothes in with your lower levels, so your wardrobe will still coordinate nicely.

The idea of choosing your palette brings to mind Dressing Your Truth. In this case, the vibe you want to give off, which is supposed to match your dominant energy, will be expressed by line and color. I know I look terrible in white and the colors that would be given to a Type 1. Do I look terrible in them because they’re just the wrong colors for me–or because they conflict with my energy?

I think I would be a 3/4 in DYT, and the palette I chose for myself, coincidentally, is Dark Autumn. I chose Dark Autumn, however, because I felt like it looked the best on me. But perhaps that’s so because it feels the most like me. If I were draped, however, and the analyst said that another palette looked better on me and I agreed, I would switch out my wardrobe.

In the end, I think we do have to make a conscious choice to whether we are going to dress in the palette and/or style we receive from an analyst. We have to decide whether this is the appearance that we want to project. So while I don’t think anyone gets free reign to just choose whichever palette they want–you still have to consider how you actually look in it–most people seem to have a bit of wiggle room and can consider which version of themselves communicates their style the best.

What has your experience been? Have you received wildly different palettes from different analysts?

9 Comments on Can You Choose Your Season?

  1. ruby
    February 5, 2016 at 9:14 am

    If I could have chosen a season it would have been bright spring, but there’s no getting around it, I’m some kind of autumn and that’s that. Probably toned autumn ( soft autumn deep ) in the 16 season system is the best fit but I tend to use TA and stray into the more muted bits of DA, because there’s more information available on 12 seasons. Coming to terms with the earthiness of autumn when I yearn to be a fiery spring rather reflects the way I have had to learn to accept the earthy aspects of my personality, introverted, and annoyingly sensible when I would like to be more outgoing & spontaneous. I used to wear a lot of bright colours almost like armour, to deflect the world from finding out what I was really like, but it’s nice to finally accept that my energies (and looks) are as they are not as I think they should be.

    Reply
    • Nikki
      February 6, 2016 at 2:26 am

      Oh, I’m totally the same way! Romantic dressing was my go to armour!! In fact last time I tried on formal wear I tried on Belle’s ballgown from “Beauty and the Best”, because my ten year old self haaaad to. I felt small and not myself. However, when I wear outfits that perfectly fit the Flamboyant Gamine recs I almost feel too myself. Still paring down that armour bit by bit.

      Reply
      • stylesyntax
        February 6, 2016 at 11:52 am

        LOL, I can imagine how that would look on an FG!

        Reply
    • stylesyntax
      February 6, 2016 at 11:51 am

      That’s interesting, because I feel like people tend to hide more behind muted colors and black. There are a ton of blog posts about people who were draped Bright seasons and were afraid of dressing in them! But yeah, part of it is coming to terms with who you actually are. If you’re familiar with MBTI, for years I tested as ENFP, when I’m really INTJ.

      Reply
      • ruby
        February 6, 2016 at 1:43 pm

        Oh I used to wear plenty of black as well. I had a Goth phase in my teens then a new-age-raver lurid phase for most of my 20s. It was basically ‘look at me!’ (So you won’t see Me).

        Reply
      • Nikki
        February 11, 2016 at 12:47 am

        Interesting on MBTI. How does that work? Had you just conditioned yourself to be something other than yourself?

        Reply
  2. Nikki
    February 6, 2016 at 2:19 am

    I’ve been thinking a lot about this, actually! What got me started is that Cate Linden’s go to makeup never works on me– I mean it’s better than say soft summer, but this week, I came to accept that what works on Cate doesn’t work on me. And then I started to think about how you and I tend to gravitate toward the same colors within the palette and I started wondering if it’s because she is a different archetype than us. And then you posted this. Too perfect! I still don’t think that type affects season, but I’m starting to think it does influence where you sit within your season and how the colors present themselves, but I am still in the very early stages of formulating these ideas. I wonder if we took a poll of the DA group if we’d find any correlation between best colors and type.

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      February 6, 2016 at 11:25 am

      Cate Linden is someone who feels like she doesn’t fit into the traditional DA makeup recs, though. She is extremely fair with a pinkish tint to her skin. Some of the stuff she recommends works for me, and some of it is too cool and makes me look grayish, since I’m equally fair, but with more yellow skin. I think you probably fit with traditional DA makeup recs just fine, but since she’s the only analyst that I know of who is a DA herself, her recs have become popular, even though they aren’t universal and she says as much.

      As far as colors for clothing go, though, I think it’s definitely an FG thing that we’re going to go for colors that are brighter and more vivid with the palette.

      Reply
    • ruby
      February 6, 2016 at 1:53 pm

      I would say type influences how you put the colours together, for example whether you can use light dark contrasts or opposing hues from within your palette, more than which hues are your best ones from the palette. My celebrity style twin is Julianne Moore (TA DC) but superficially our colouring is different, I am brunette with relatively dark skin, whereas she is auburn haired and pale skinned. I think she looks fabulous in the teals & turquoises but for me the moss greens & olive greens have the edge.

      Reply

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