Why Did I Return to DYT?

Of course, the last post on this blog before my unintentional hiatus was Why I Stopped Dressing My Truth, Part 2. And of course I stopped, because what I thought was my Truth was not my truth–the post before that was perfectly 4/1 and I was talking about disobeying my recommendations.

So I left DYT because I was tired of trying to fit myself into Type 3, where the jewelry was too big and the clothes were too textured and heavy. I think some people do find that DYT just does not work for them, but in my case, it wasn’t working because I had placed myself incorrectly within the system. Once I realized that, though, it was like getting everything back that I loved after years of thinking that I just wasn’t bright enough to handle black and white and pure colors.

This began to change a little when I realized that all of David Kibbe’s palettes go pretty bright. He doesn’t seem to be much of a fan of things in the Soft range. Accepting David’s view of color, I gave myself permission to go brighter, especially as even DYT T3 seemed to be moving in a more vivid direction.

I pretty much rejected T3 style but kept the T3 colors, thinking of it as a four-season Autumn. But once I realized I was 4/1, it was basically just giving a name to what I was doing already, and giving myself permission to add black and white to my wardrobe, as well as some colors like non-peacock blue.

I don’t think that I would get black from David–only Winters get black in his world, and his Winters are very cool and high contrast. But I’m still enjoying allowing myself to express myself using the T4 palette, and I find that keeping 4/1 helps me get my FG yin/yang balance correct. Like many Gamines, I have a tendency to go entirely to the yang side, and T1 reminds me to add back in more yin.

Besides Kibbe, the only stylist I’d want to go see is David Zyla, but that is forever a puzzle to me. For now, using 4/1 to inform my FG expression feels right to me.

How have you found working with DYT, if you use it? Does it work with your other style system discoveries?

12 Comments on Why Did I Return to DYT?

  1. Shawna
    October 30, 2018 at 5:32 pm

    I think at this point everything I have learned about what works best for me is relatively cohesive and I can find compatibility but only if I break rules. I wouldn’t be happy dressing as someone else’s vision for me anyhow and I don’t believe any style guru has all the answers so I take what I can learn and create my own style. I don’t use DYT as it is intended because I don’t follow the colour palette. I just can’t buy into the idea that either wearing colour that is in harmony with your own is irrelevant or that all people whose facial features belong in a certain category will also have the same colouring. I can’t do Kibbe literally either but I have learned quite a bit from reading his ideas. Zyla’s system is too esoteric for me and I also can’t figure out Fantastical Beauty. I think DYT is too simplified but in some ways that makes it easier to use as a springboard.

    Reply
  2. Bla31ze
    October 31, 2018 at 11:48 am

    I have become interested in Dressing Your Truth again after reading your last post. For me it is not easy to type myself, but I think there are good possibilities that I am a 1/4.
    Lately I have been thinking that I may actually be a SG in Kibbe’s system, despite what I have written in other comments, and I am pretty sure I will not go back from there easily. It seems that I can make SG and 1/4 work together.
    My next challenge will be finding a place for my soft autumn deep colouring within all this. I suppose I’ll have to break some rules, but I will try to have fun while doing it. Sometimes I think that in most cases perfect coherence may just be not possible 🙂

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      October 31, 2018 at 3:44 pm

      Sometimes you just have to choose, especially with color.

      Reply
  3. Myrna K Pouyatt
    November 2, 2018 at 4:47 pm

    Wow, your blog really spoke to me. I was trying to fit myself into the DYT thing and tried every type until I took it back to movement. I am a 4/1. I am not animated enough to be a dominant type 1, I sit positively still with correct posture, always have. I am a flamboyant gamine and a Clear Spring with a Winter inter-season according to Irene Riter’s textbook. I finally see myself, yay! I think 4/1 is a hard energy combination, it’s so bipolar, and I am not bipolar. I am constant. Thanks for sharing your insights.

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      November 13, 2018 at 2:56 am

      The movement threw me off, actually, because I am more clumsy than graceful and I don’t have perfect posture. But I am definitely lower movement and not a T2 😛

      Reply
    • stylesyntax
      November 13, 2018 at 2:48 am

      I’m familiar with PSC, but I don’t like it, hence why I don’t talk about it here 🙂 I don’t like the idea of percentages of essences (I much prefer Kibbe’s more unified approach to image) and I find his palettes to be all over the place.

      Reply
  4. Jane
    November 22, 2018 at 8:07 am

    I have a question about Kibbe’s last typings: what do you think of Jennifer Love Hewitt being Flamboyant Gamine? She’s typed Theatrical Romantic anywhere else, and her body doesn’t look anything like the other FGs.

    I ask because after much experimenting I’m 100% sure I’m not SG at all, and I test as TR. But a lot of the TR clothing/accessories look heavy on me, and my body is a smaller trimmer version of Jennifer’s, so it got me thinking FG might be a possibility.

    I already tried any other Romantic influenced type and it was a clear NO.

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      November 23, 2018 at 8:56 pm

      She was placed in TR by someone who completely misinterpreted his system, yet these misinterpretations greatly influenced the way people interpreted his work going forward. If you are ever confused as to why David put a celebrity somewhere, I would try to understand why they are there, and see how that changes your preconceived notions of what an Image ID looks like.

      There is no such thing as “testing” as a TR, since the quiz is no longer a diagnostic tool that David uses. Instead I would ask yourself about the yin/yang balance you see in yourself overall. There is also no such thing as type-specific clothing–it all depends on the body it is on and the complete outfit it is paired with.

      Reply
  5. stylesyntax
    November 23, 2018 at 9:00 pm

    I’m afraid I don’t know enough about attachment theory to engage in a real conversation about it, but are you suggesting that each of the DYT types corresponds to one of the attachment styles? Wouldn’t that mean that one of the types would be “secure,” and no further work would be necessary?

    Carol’s background is in energy healing, and DYT grew out of that, so there has always been that element. I know that Carol does not rely on face profiling alone, and I think few people only show one type in their face. Even I have caught others mistyping themselves from how they interact in the DYT Facebook groups (I should have realized that I was a 4 many years ago from this website alone). I know she will look at not only multiple photos, but also someone’s entire Facebook profile before she #cluebombs them in the Lifestlye group.

    I have definitely come across people in the color and style community who seem to be using color and style as a way to try to fix their life without facing the real issues. They cycle through type after type, system after system, without ever addressing their troubled marriage or issues with their family of origin, etc.

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      November 25, 2018 at 4:22 pm

      Oh yes, a T4 would be very unlikely to post and beg for help from Carol, although it can really differ. I am definitely more on the “I am my own authority” side than, say, the perfecting–my S1 really allows me to let things go where I can see other T4s wouldn’t. But some T4s really go for other aspects of being T4 and they are a little more willing to cede territory than I am. As far as attachment, I don’t know; I can behave one way when it comes to relationships re: attachment and another way in the rest of my life, but I’m also SX/1:1 in the Enneagram. If it’s not overstepping boundaries here, from your comments, I’d say you sound like a fellow Four, but I’m not Carol, and who knows 😉 I think that if I had ever gotten a color analysis, I would have gotten mixed results, too. While I don’t care for John Kitchener’s system, I saw Andrea Pflaumer say on Facebook today that if you fit really well in one color category (like 90%), you’re likely to have a lot of congruence among your palettes in all systems. I see this a lot with really distinct Winters, especially. But I don’t think I’d fit anywhere that easily, which gives me more flexibility, but less of a defined answer.

      Reply
  6. stylesyntax
    December 21, 2018 at 4:52 pm

    Gamines are not “compact Dramatics”… They are an equal mix of yin and yang. I am not sure where the “compact Dramatic” thing got started. Short Dramatics exist and they are just called Dramatics. Spring is also not more muted than Winter, at least in four seasons. One is warm, the other is cool.

    I don’t like very pale neutrals on me at al, actually. One, I spill things all the time so they don’t last long! Two, I prefer either a mid tone or a dark mixed with a bright. Lightness doesn’t work for me. Something like white or ivory I really only like either in a very formal dress in something like taffeta or as a background to a print.

    Reply

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