Back to Dressing Your Truth

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Dressing Your Truth was one of the first systems I discovered, which I’m sure is true for many of you as well. I quickly moved onto Kibbe and then onto systems like Zyla, but while I never dressed in a Type, I always maintained an interest in the system, at least the psychological aspects of it.

Recently, though, I’ve signed up for the Lifestyle service, since I have always liked watching Carol Tuttle’s videos, even if I never really seriously tried to dress my Truth. I think that the style quotient has been upped since I first discovered it, and I’m started to see how Type 3 (I believe I’m 3/4) can be integrated with Flamboyant Gamine and Dark Autumn.

One thing I noticed when I was trying other seasons is that I could physically feel like they were wrong. Bright Spring, for instance, made me feel tired. I couldn’t keep up with that level of chroma. I can see and feel why Type 3 makes sense for me. Swiftness, angularity, rich colors–all things I need.

Another aspect of Dressing Your Truth that intrigues me is the idea that dressing in the correct way for you supports you and improves other areas of your life. This is present to an extent in other systems, such as Kibbe, and I’m actually working on a separate post about this right now. But I’ve recognized that I’ve spent a lot of my life leaning too much on my Type 4 secondary, which has led to me being seen in a negative way at times. Or perhaps it’s that when I wear black and gray, which is still my default, although I’m trying to wean myself off them, my natural Type 3 “push” comes off as rude or unexpected. So I’m excited to try and work on making sure my Type 3 dominates, and making sure that what I put on my body supports that.

Also, despite having a blog about it, I haven’t been the best at always dressing head to toe, or even correctly for my colors and type. Dressing Your Truth puts a lot of emphasis on doing this in a way that is accessible. Doing my hair and makeup and wearing jewelry every day is something that can make a real difference, and I don’t currently do that. I’m not planning on getting a new wardrobe overnight, even though I know Dressing Your Truth suggests committing to dressing in your type completely for a month. What I am going to do is not buy silver jewelry or the aforementioned black and gray, and focus on doing my hair and makeup and wearing jewelry every day.

One thing I will be careful of, however, is not to go too far into Flamboyant Natural territory. This is something I learned last year when I was experimenting with Gamine Autumn and Mellow Autumn. Things that look too handmade or like something you’d find on an archaelogical dig aren’t for me. This embossed leather cuff, with the paisley design and raw edges, isn’t for me. Instead, for a cuff I’d choose something like these:

These have a cleaner and more modern feel, while still being textured, edgy, and substantial. Then if I wanted to layer, I could add something like this bangle from the DYT store.

Since delving into the Lifestyle content, I’ve realized that Dressing Your Truth really is about you, and just because these styles that look more FN look right at home on some of the Type 3 experts doesn’t mean that all Type 3s will dress that way, or that it will feel right on them. I can have my own Type 3 style, and use Type 3 and FG in combination to support each other to have a style that is all my own.

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10 Comments on Back to Dressing Your Truth

  1. Rose
    November 28, 2016 at 6:33 pm

    Hi Vanessa
    This is such a timely post for me.

    I have been revisiting the DYT videos and am considering doing the “class”. A couple of things I haven’t been sure about are that the type and colors go together–while I understand this on one level (bold with bold, soft with soft) it seems to suggest that one’s coloring and type are somehow related…maybe they are?! But what about warm vs cool…it seems like a stretch that it is also defined by type.

    Another is that 4 types seems to rigid. I guess I don’t really understand how the secondary type comes into the picture for dress and color.

    Finally I could not see myself buying from most of the clothes on the site but I can see how you can use the online store as a guide.

    Have you looked at Style Core and Carla Mathis? I like her video on YouTube about voice, physicality, etc with respect dress.

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      November 28, 2016 at 6:50 pm

      It’s not your coloring, but your energy. I think you can see some Type 1s who look like stereotypical springs and Type 4s who look like stereotypical winters, but things like undertone and hair and eye color aren’t supposed to really be a factor in typing. It maybe goes as far as Type 2s tending toward blended or something like that, but that’s as far as it goes.

      Your secondary doesn’t affect your colors; it just helps you personalize your style. They have several helpful videos on this.

      I read Carla’s book, but it wasn’t really for me. Once measuring gets into it, I’m bored 🙂

      Reply
  2. Cory
    December 6, 2016 at 12:07 am

    I find DYT confusing, and haven’t ever made it past surface exploration… this post made me take another look. I STILL haven’t gotten draped for ridiculous scheduling reasons, but I’m semi-sure that in sci-art I’m either a Soft Autumn or (less likely but possible) a Soft Summer. The Type2 styles feel quite good to me, but I think the colors they select are too Summer and too grayed for me, and I wish there were more randomness in the prints and textures. On the other hand, the Type3 styles and even colors are too bold and dynamic for me. So I feel confused about how that system mixes primary and secondary types, and color and style. I think maybe I’m just not a person who’s good at mixing systems!

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      December 6, 2016 at 12:52 am

      Secondaries don’t affect colors at all. If you ended up a Type 2–which wouldn’t be a guarantee, since it is determined by facial features and movement primarily and your coloring isn’t considered–you wouldn’t necessarily have a 3 secondary. If you want more “randomness,” I would look at Type 1 as either a primary or secondary. If you were a 2/1, you could work with aspects of one in everything *except* color. So maybe a little lighter in feel and patterns with more randomness, for example.

      Reply
      • Cory
        December 6, 2016 at 4:07 am

        Huh… that’s interesting, but I should probably trust my instincts that this is not the system for me.

        Is there something about DYT that is helpful to you that you aren’t finding in marrying Kibbe-type recommendations with, say, Sci-Art ones in terms of textures and prints? The jewelry you mention here seems to be basically what the 12 Blueprints Signature Style newsletter would recommend for an Autumn/Gamine, between the Gamine patterns and textures and energy and the Autumn-influenced ones. (I bought a set of back issues in my suspected season and type and found it useful to see things paired, as examples.) Do any of the recommended earrings here seem like your thing? I think there’s just one recommendation for FG and DA though. https://hueandstripe.com/catalog/112H&SSnvX

        Reply
        • stylesyntax
          December 6, 2016 at 4:54 am

          I don’t consider how Rachel sees YangG to be in any way equivalent to FG and would not seek out her advice. I haven’t seen anything from Kibbe about combining autumn and FG. I did try to think about DA recs and applying them to FG, but in the end I decided I didn’t like that approach for various reasons. There is still more earthiness there than even if I were to use what I want to pull from DYT. For me it is partially about style, and partially about the emotional/energy side re: DYT.

          Reply
  3. Chris
    December 12, 2016 at 1:41 am

    I’m going through the same thing as you: My DYT type is a 3 but my seasonal colouring, cool summer, is at odds with that. Now, I really like my seasonal colours (blues, purples, pinks, greys) but something has always felt off, like my outfits were too boring. In an effort to feel less boring, I added some black. I thought black would be edgy, and urban, and it was, but I realized after two years of adding black that I’m not actually edgy and urban. I think what I am seeking, after looking into DYT, is a more dynamic, fun look. But are autumnal, type 3, colours more dynamic than grey and blue? I’m so not convinced! …Have you found you’re feeling more like yourself after switching to autumnal colours?
    The other thing I wanted to mention is that my favourite colours are tomato red and mustard and I’ve never allowed myself to wear these colours but They do feature prominently in all the art I’ve bought. Is that a sign?! 😉

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      December 12, 2016 at 3:00 am

      It could be a sign!
      I already was an autumn in other seasonal systems, so it’s not a huge change. It’s just that my other palette does have black and gray on it.

      Reply
  4. H
    April 9, 2017 at 9:27 am

    This is one of the systems I’ve known about the longest and I’ve always been very ambivalent about it. On the one hand the simplicity and potential for creating your own style from the basic elements is very appealing and keeps drawing me back and it seems clear that they genuinely care about especially children being allowed to live true to who they are. I also think some, but not all of the basic idea are quite sound. On the other hand, their use of manipulative techniques and their absolute refusal to allow criticism and questions that could be perceived as negative about the system speak to me of a lack of intellectual integrity. Most of that could be resolved if they were more honest about their intent with different videos and content and in their interactions with people and if they stopped making claims at universal applicability and allowed for criticism and genuine discussion of the system rather than saying “I created this, I’m the expert, this is THE TRUTH” – knowledge doesn’t work that way, if it did we wouldn’t have universities.

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      April 14, 2017 at 12:58 pm

      I don’t know; that hasn’t really been my experience with the system. I think they have chilled out a little bit in recent years. I don’t buy into everything–i.e., I don’t believe in tapping–but I think it’s a good system for people who just want to feel better about themselves and look better. I’ve actually had some negative experience myself with one of their harshest critics, so I think it’s a YMMV thing. I don’t think I’d like it as much without the extra knowledge I have about myself and what works for me, but I find it helpful.

      Reply

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