This post uses affiliate links.
Kati has started posting videos on Fantastical Beauty and other style-related topics to her YouTube channel. Two of the videos she’s posted so far are Style Personality exercises:
Since I’ve been deeply involved in my style personality crisis, despite having my own workbook to help me, I decided to do these to help jog my thought process. (I’ve also started a new pinboard, but that’s private for now.) The first exercise is a series a questions about your preferences to help you see patterns. I’m copying my answers here.
1. Favorite movie
Sunset Boulevard
Sabrina
2. Favorite Book
Harriet the Spy
3. Favorite Song
Confetti by Cold Cave
4. Favorite Animal
Cats and dogs
5. Favorite Style Icon
Audrey Hepburn, Jean Seberg, Edie Sedgwick
6. Favorite Cake
Funfetti with vanilla icing
7. Three Words That Describe Your Personality
Smart, creative, bossy
8. Three to Five Words That Describe What You Want to Communicate
Edgy, fun, youthful, smart, stylish
Then you are supposed to go back and add some adjectives for each of your answers and look for patterns. What I found is that I had a heavy 50s and 60s influence, with a playful tomboy/gamine slant, but also just a little bit of edge and darkness, which goes along with what I’ve been thinking. In recent years, I’ve really concentrated on this edgy and dark side, and ignored my love for vintage Gamine style. In high school, my style was heavily influenced by this and I wore a lot of nods to the 60s, especially.
The next exercise is to create a Polyvore set of statement pieces: a coat, a pair of shoes, a pair of pants, a statement necklace, and a blouse. When I was thinking about it, I realized that I don’t really like statement necklaces that much, so I chose a cuff, and then the kind of blouse I like is hard to find, so I chose a coat that I could wear indoors as part of an outfit instead.
I don’t know how successful this Polyvore is at conveying this style idea, but it’s a process.
Have you attempted these personality style exercises?
Stylesyntax.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Sarrah
May 9, 2017 at 2:55 amThank you for this. I have to tell you, reading about your journey is more illuminating for me than all the books and websites full of “expert” advice. I just joined the figure your season group and I bought the color cards for draping. I’m going to be posting to see what type of feedback I get. It is so helpful to have options other than going to someone and plunking down $300 for advice that may very well be wrong.
stylesyntax
May 9, 2017 at 6:27 pmThank you! Word of warning–FMS is a large group with a lot of different opinions and ways of seeing. Don’t let other people’s opinions color what you see in the mirror. There are a lot of people who just love soft seasons on everyone, for example. So it can be a great resource, but you have to be careful regarding whom you listen to and the advice you take to heart.
Sarrah
May 9, 2017 at 8:00 pmThat’s good to keep in mind. Thanks for posting your journey. Maybe I should start blogging about my feelings on this whole subject too. If for no other reason than catharsis.
H
June 5, 2017 at 8:26 pmThis reminds me somewhat of the Style Statement book from several years ago but is much more open ended and doesn’t force you into choosing two words.
I found it very helpful in clarifying a couple of aspects I’ve been missing without being able to put into words. I still haven’t got much of a clue of how to actually implement it in clothing but it’s a start to just know what it is I’m looking for. One is a sense of wildness – not edgy, more along the lines of wild horses, old growth forests, ruins reclaimed by nature. The other is a sense of weight and depth, substance, gravitas even. This is probably why I’ve always liked medium to dark colours better than light ones. It’s something to think about.
Psy
August 4, 2017 at 10:29 amThis was a fun exercise! I couldn’t decide which set to use from Polyvore, so I linked two.
1. Favorite movie
Clan of the Cave Bear, Lolita (w/ Jeremy Irons), Wanted, Fight Club – raw, primal, exploration
2. Favorite Book
Atlas Shrugged, The Collected Poetry of Dorothy Parker, The Satires of Juvenal – no-nonsense, cutting, dark, sarcastic, clarity
3. Favorite Song
Radioactive (Imagine Dragons), Stiletto (Billy Joel), Let Go (Frou Frou), Is this real? (lisahall), Heathens (Twenty One Pilots) – dark, pulsating, dangerous, free
4. Favorite Animal
Squirrel Monkey, Ocelot – adorable, sporty, tiny/little, impish/mischievous
5. Favorite Style Icon
no one…
6. Favorite Cake
Strawberry with Strawberry Icing or white with buttercream and lots of frosting flowers – sweet, delicious, straight-forward, indulgent
7. Three Words That Describe Your Personality
independent, insightful/visionary, tenacious
8. Three to Five Words That Describe What You Want to Communicate
casual, tough, wild (in a nature/natural way…true wild, not party wild), effortless, adorably sexy (in a free, easy, natural way, not overdone or trying too hard)
https://www.polyvore.com/chill_with/set?id=226090214
https://www.polyvore.com/urban_slopes/set?id=226090647
Shawna
November 2, 2017 at 4:04 amVery interesting. I looked at this before and in looking at it again I get no further. I can rarely choose favourites of anything and definitely not in songs, books or movies. Perhaps that says something about me right there but I don’t think I want my style choices to say ‘indecisive.’ LOL
stylesyntax
November 3, 2017 at 9:22 pmSpending some time and thinking about what you truly love will probably be very helpful regarding some kind of direction in your style <3