I know it’s been a long time since my last blog post. I was in the middle of a major move, and my mind was occupied with other things. But now I’m all settled in, and I hope to return to blogging regularly, as well as going through my archived posts and reworking some things so that there isn’t any misinformation about Kibbe’s system or anything else.
Today I’d like to talk about something I commissioned a couple of weeks ago: The Cat Animal Familiar in Fantastical Beauty. If you’re new to this system, I’d suggest going to Kati’s site and signing up for her mailing list so that you can receive the PDF that lays out the different elements of her system. In Fantastical Beauty, your Animal Familiar is the element that covers the particulars of your lines and facial features. It doesn’t have anything to do with vibe or personality.
The best way to figure out your AF, in my opinion, is simply to go through the list and rule out the ones that could not possibly apply to you. Unlike in, say, Kibbe, there’s no wiggle room for things like height. “Looking tall” doesn’t matter; only people who are literally tall will end up in a Tall Animal Familiar. So, for instance, in my process, I knew I wasn’t going to be “Tall” at 5’4″, so I eliminated Hawk, Snake, Panther, Wolf, and Lion immediately. Looking at what was left, it was pretty easy to come up with Cat: medium-short, medium-small, full and sharp mix of features. A collage with the Cat celebrities seemed to prove me right:
Unlike the Fantastical Beauty 9 types, however, since AF is really the literal lines and shapes that suit you, I couldn’t do much with this information. There wasn’t even a Pinterest board. So I decided to commission a guide, along with two other women who split the cost with me. What I wanted to see was how well I fit into the type, and whether it would deviate or replicate the line information I had from Flamboyant Gamine.
You can see the Pinboard that accompanied the guide here, but basically Cat is very similar to Flamboyant Gamine, but the physical description resonates with me more. In the back of my mind, while I couldn’t really see any other Image ID actually working, I had been questioning Flamboyant Gamine, because I have small hands and feet and my length is in my torso, not my legs, my shoulders are tapered, etc. My body lines are too yang for SG, and so is my face, but I wasn’t sure if I was quite yang enough for FG. And SN was always on my mind, since the text of the book description seemed to fit.
I’ve had some realizations in the past few weeks, though. Being inspired to try a more Gamine style has really altered my whole image, and I realized that a lot in the Gamine description fit. I felt secure that wherever I ended up exactly, the Gamine group contained the only Image ID themes that would work for me. This was only compounded by a comment David Kibbe made when I posted a picture of my haircut in the FG group on Facebook, wherein he mentioned Mia Farrow to me:
(Source)
Mia is a Kibbe Gamine in the book, and she’s one of the ones he hasn’t yet moved to either SG or FG. I think I could see an argument either way, but looking at a bunch of pictures of her, I think I’d go FG. Anyway, I don’t think he would have brought her up to me if the Gamines weren’t the right Image Identity family for me, so I’m really focusing on making sure that I don’t go too yang, as I am wont to do, as my friend’s very astute husband pointed out, and respecting my own place on the yin/yang scale, where my juxtaposed yin and yang are almost equal, with yang coming out on top just slightly, and being able to pull from a wide spectrum of Gamine ideas. The Cat physical description seems to hit right at that spot, too, so it’s good “custom” guide for me.
Have you checked out Animal Familiars? Have you found a perfect spot for yourself?
Needle-wielder
July 8, 2017 at 10:31 amFirst of all, it’s really nice to have you back!
Cat AF does seem to correspond with FG lines a lot, and judging from the face collage I thnik you found the right spot for yourself in this system. I, on the other hand, decided to take a shortcut and ordered Kati’s services. She gave me Maenad (which didn’t surprise me, and after watching her coctails video series I think one of the subtypes she considered for me does resonate with me better than any other, even personality-wise) and Ermine. Ermine did surprise me a lot, because while my 5’5 height fits, Ermine is suppoused to have balanced face, and I never thought of mine as being anywhere near balanced.
I’m still not sure about my Kibbe type, though, because recent reveals about Amy Adams and Emma Stone being FN made me go “Whaaaat?..” (especially Amy) and get back to considering this type for myself, since I ruled it out based on physical description, but neither of these ladies seem to perfectly fit it, and they are still considered FN by Kibbe.
stylesyntax
July 8, 2017 at 2:22 pmI would get a consult with her, but $1000 is out of my budget, sadly. I did get something else, which I’ll blog about here when I get it. 🙂 Congratulations on Maenad/Ermine!
The physical descriptions are supposed to give a general idea, not serve as a checklist–which is something that has tripped me up too. You can vary from the description as long as you maintain the yin/yang balance. So for FN, you’d need to have bluntness paired with elongation and an open face, and Amy Adams and Emma Stone qualify, even if they don’t match the image we may have of FN.
kristina
July 9, 2017 at 7:53 pmGreat to see you blogging again, Vanessa! Hope the big move went well.
I also decided to commission the Cat guide with two other women .:D I was happy with the custom analysis from Kati, and also curious about the Cat itself, separated from the other elements. I’m really happy with the guide, it helped me understand how the pieces interect to create the whole – both on the input (body and face) and the output (outfits). It gave me a strong ‘stuff finally makes sense’ feeling that still lasts. And my love for real cats is a nice bonus. I wasn’t sure about my FB type at first and guessed Fae (or Fae-Mae combo) because the Fae lines and colours worked nicely (haha we’re different but we seem to share a few miles on the style journey here). My face is nowhere near Linear though and I hoped for MQ. Did not happen, I only got a pinch of the MQ spirit and Imp as subtype inspiration. I asked Kati about the deviations of my personalized recs from the Angel guide and she started with this: The main things that come to mind, are that you need to be careful with the floaty fabrics. For you, because of GL (today it would be Cat), they must be paired with something more structured, and because of this, used as a separate and not a dress. . The floaty fabric rec simply becomes a part of (one possible way to do) the juxtaposition – I love that! The How beats the What again.
Cat is also perfect in the words that are repeated in the guide multiple times, they could make a nice TMIT word list for me.
The Cat guide was a great investment, and thank you for joining.
Meanwhile, in Kibbe, while nothing is sure until I see the man himself (which is probably never going to happen as it would require too much money (I would never take the risk and borrow money for this ☺) and another person not completely unknown to me to share the cost) – lately I’ve been thinking that whatever side I DYI it from (except the body part nitpicking – the placement of my hips and a medium/low height+height impression rather than being clearly obviously petite are my favourite ones. Same goes for two or three details within the FG book recs) I always end up in the G realm. Funny beacause it was my first guess back in 2011.
stylesyntax
July 10, 2017 at 8:30 pmYes, i think our parameters are similar, even if our styles are different. Seeing what Kati has given you has helped me to see how Cat/Angel works.