As someone who has never had a professional analysis of any kind, I’ve relied entirely on my own experience and instincts. Naturally, I have doubts. What these doubts boil down to is this: Am I seeing what is there, or am I seeing what I want to see?
Carol Tuttle often mentions our “beauty sixth sense.” Sometimes I question whether I’m actually listening to that, or just going with what I like. For instance, I’ve always been attracted to what is shown as the stereotypical Flamboyant Gamine look. In high school, there were periods where I dressed mod. Audrey Hepburn and Edie Sedgwick were my fashion idols.
FG feels good; often, when I have doubts about something, I go into the FG section of the book and realize that what was giving me doubts is actually an FG “no”–wide, unconstructed dresses, for example. But I have small hands and feet, and my length is in my torso. So sometimes I question whether I’m actually an SG or an SN. When I tried SN, though, not only did I feel lumpy, but I felt tired without the structure of FG supporting me. So while I’m not sure whether it’s what David would give me, FG is how I feel my best.
Color is a bit trickier. I put myself in the Dark Autumn palette, which seems counter-intuitive on paper. But out of the 12 seasons of Sci\ART, it’s the one that seems to work the best. Spring is too bright; the Softs seem too muted. A brighter Autumn seems to be what works. But sometimes I wonder, is this really harmonizing with me? Am I fooling myself and these lipsticks are too dark and I’d look better in Soft Autumn or Soft Summer?
Today I ordered one of the new Prism X11 palettes. These palettes are created using a Spectrophotometer to measure the colors’ levels of hue. value, and chroma.
click to enlarge
As you can see, compared to the Invent Your Image palette, this new palette seems a little darker and maybe even a bit cooler. (I am VERY excited to get my hands on those purples, though!) I will see how it works for me. I will do a full review and compare it to the palette I already own.
But still, seeing the depth of this palette really makes me question whether the DA color space is where I belong. In the end, though, I think what actually matters is how I feel in these colors and whether I look healthy and awake in them. I just have to be careful and make sure it’s not just because I happen to like these colors.
Raye
November 24, 2016 at 10:53 amOne problem I have with the seasonal color systems is that there doesn’t seem to be a neutral/warm medium clarity one. In theory I would be soft autumn, but it seems way too gray for me.
I’m really interested in Imogen’s Absolute Colour System – here’s the best break down I could find: https://pallasathena4.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/absolute-colour-system-18-fargtyper/
I also really like the simple Pantone based colortime sunlight palette – it’s the middle one of 3 – so alot more variety. I also love purple, but it’s hard to find ones that love me back.
stylesyntax
November 24, 2016 at 8:55 pmDA is neutral warm/medium-high clarity. I think people get put off by the “Dark” in the name.
I don’t follow Imogen’s work at all, and know nothing about the Pantone one 🙂
Needle-wielder
November 29, 2016 at 5:38 pmI’d also ask: “…or am I seeing what I always thought was there but what really wasn’t?”. Not only our desires can cloud our judgement, but preconceptions we have about ourselves, too.
I always believed myself to be rather small. My height is about 5’4, my hands are smaller than those of most people I know, I have average feet, my arms are thin, I even take very little space in transport compared to other people around me. So when I first learned about Kibbe, I ruled out all the tallest yang types (D, SD, FN) by their physical description alone. No way, I thougt, “long limbs” or “large bone structure” could apply to me. And objectively, it doesnt. Only problem being, if you see me in a picture alone, you won’t think I’m small at all…
I guess somewhere in my mind I knew that recomendations for shorter types wouldn’t work (i.e., I always unthinkingly search for longer tops in stores, trying to bring the waistline as low as possible). But I still thought I must be some kind of natural, or FG, maybe, because one thing I was sure about was that I’m on a yanger side of the spectrum. Most people I asked seemed to agree on FG, so off I went, trying to find myself something in accordance with the recs.
Shopping was a pain. I felt something was wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It wasn’t until I finally took some draping photos that it became glaringly obvious that FG just. So. Doesn’t. Work. Wearing cropped boxy things made me look like I raided my little brother’s closet. A long vertical line, however, looked absolutely natural on me. I don’t know how, must have something to do with proportions, but it just worked. Part of me still wanted to screem “Buuut! But I’m too short for this!”, but I told that part to shut up and bought a cheap, but really, really long skirt on a whim, just to try it out. And lo and behold, wearing it for a few hours I finally felt right.
I’m still not sure if I’m more D or SD, but at least now the possibilities narrowed greatly.
stylesyntax
December 1, 2016 at 8:43 pmThere are several verified SDs and Ds and FNs in the 5’3″-5’4″ range. It seems that is relatively common for shorter people to be in the taller types and very rare for it to be the other way around. But yes, “feeling” what is right and wrong is so important. I can always tell I’m on the wrong track when I start to hate shopping!
Kate
January 25, 2017 at 10:18 pmHi!
Firstly I wanted to apologise because I posted a comment (somewhere on your site) months ago about the Kibbe types of various celebrities – and I was absolutely and utterly wrong on almost all counts (although I still think that softer, rounder SNs often get typed by other stylists as Romantics). What can I say? I was pretty new to Kibbe and just didn’t really “get” what I was looking for in the different types. Just shooting my mouth off. I’m really sorry.
I thought I was a short Dramatic. In my try-ons, it was what I liked best, and everyone I asked seemed to think I had a strong Dramatic component and was D or FG. However, recently, having given up on Kibbe thinking it’s rubbish and doesn’t work, I accidentally stumbled across my type. Soft Gamine. Huh. Even though I’d hated the SG stuff I’d tried in my initial try-ons (poor colours, and just too cute little-girly for this SG)… How on earth could an SG think she was a D?! Partly a very strong resistance to the type (blame Pinterest) and largely misunderstanding / misinterpreting Kibbe.
If I’d really understood Dramatic and had pushed my try-ons to the extreme then it would have been clear the clothes weren’t right. FG was really not bad. Ok, this is truly weird, but in D (or FG) sharp lines, I look more D, the angles in my face and body are strongly emphasised. (But having taken loads of pictures I realise it just looks a little off….a little odd: it’s the crispness and cleanness and fitted-ness that works, but the lines and fabrics are too severe). In SG lines, suddenly all you see are the curves in my face and body. It’s really quite bizarre, like an optical illusion. I can do some sharp; I have a little more angularity than many SGs. But having compared it to FG and straight Gamine too, there’s no contest. I never expected to be SG at all, and yet it looks and feels completely right. I am never going to wear a Peter Pan collar. But – oh my goodness, I can’t even describe how I feel. I’d never seen the person in the mirror before. I feel like I’ve finally at 41 been given permission to be a girl. It feels like who I really am, who I’ve kept hidden under too baggy or too severe clothes all my life.
Thank you for your blog, Style Syntax, which is always a pleasure to read as well as extremely informative.
stylesyntax
January 27, 2017 at 1:31 pmI’m glad you find my blog useful 🙂
I think people get confused a little by SG because it’s presented as being much more yin than it is. Remember that Gamine as a whole is half yin/half yang, so while Soft Gamine will have more yin than yang, the yang is still significant. Peter Pan collars are definitely not necessary–it is as sophisticated an Image ID as any other. And isn’t that the magic of Kibbe–it allows you show who you are. 🙂