Dressing Your Truth: Getting Cluebombed, Part One

If you’re not familiar with Dressing Your Truth and aren’t a member of the Lifestyle Facebook group, getting “cluebombed” means Carol Tuttle comments on your post and confirms your type for you. You can’t request this; it’s something she does when she feels like it would help the person and they’re ready.

I’ve a long journey with Dressing Your Truth. It’s a system I discovered around the same time as Kibbe, so 2014. I initially typed myself as a Type 3 from watching the beginner’s videos and reading It’s Just My Nature. Facial typing is the determining factor when typing yourself, and I related to the T3 face description somewhat, like the lump of clay nose, but not really the parts like having textured skin or a lot of lines on my face. In fact, I look much younger than I am. But T3 seemed closest, so I went with it.

T4 was the type I related to in terms of personality. I knew I had to had some degree of introversion there, and I loved T4 colors and clothing. Your style preferences clue you in to your secondary, so I figured I was a 3/4. But I never truly settled into it. I didn’t want to dress T3. I was way more drawn to T4 patterns, for instance, and I’d buy items from the Dressing Your Truth store, and they’d just sit in the cellophane wrappers they came in. Even the earrings seemed too big for me!

I briefly considered whether I was a 3/1, because I did look youthful, but I couldn’t imagine myself in a type that was the highest movement on the planet, a double extrovert, and I didn’t feel particularly drawn to lightness in my clothing. I felt like a lot of what people wore in the T3 group just wouldn’t look good on me, and my face just didn’t seem to have the same strength and substance. Eventually, I decided that I must be a 4/1 who mistook herself for a T3, and then eventually I settled on 4/3, and it made sense that I had just flipped my primary and secondary. I thought maybe my inability to see a type strongly in my face maybe meant that I had rectangles and parallel lines, even though I had never thought of myself as having a symmetrical face. I thought maybe I took the idea of facial symmetry too literally, as a T4 would.

I was very happy to be a T4, and I enjoyed the discussion with other T4 women, although I felt that they got upset about a lot of things I don’t care about. I figured that boldness showed itself more strongly in me than being reflective and still. I was very happy living in T4 for about two years, as I completed a masters degree, and I did very well and I felt like people were seeing me for who I was–a bold, analytical person who was more introverted, but could also lead. I actually had a classmate give me feedback that they saw me as someone who saw the big picture and could perfect things.

But I didn’t really feel like I looked stunning in T4. Black didn’t do much for me. I gained something like 40 lbs. very quickly. Once I finished school, and I needed to start finding a job and entering the real world, I had a hard time finding motivation and energy.

I also started to want to dress in the Autumn palette again. While I had loved the T4 hues, they suddenly stopped being as appealing to me. And I noticed that I never decorated my house in them. I had seemed to want to surround myself with more of an Autumn palette as well. At first I thought I would stay with T4, but just have some Autumn outfits, but the difference was stark. I came alive in Autumn; I looked dull in the T4 colors.

I also looked at my movement, which is loud, substantial, and swift. I don’t talk a lot or very loudly, but you hear me move, and I am rough on things. It’s been this way for as long as I can remember. I watched videos with an open mind, like on the T3 women’s purse and how T3s express themselves, and I saw how obviously T3 I am.

I’m going to stop this story here, and talk about my cluebombing experience in the next post. Carol actually gave me both my primary and secondary types, so I’d love to hear your guesses!

4 Comments on Dressing Your Truth: Getting Cluebombed, Part One

  1. Helena
    June 21, 2021 at 2:57 pm

    Fun to read your post! I am a 4/1 in this system (although I will say, I am very much NOT a believer in the facial profiling piece; it makes me pretty uncomfortable actually) and I think it’s pretty accurate and helpful (Carol confirmed me back in the day when she did consults, and I still agree with her assessment) … my only issue is, the clothing recommendations and example are …. not great (in my opinion at least). Have you found good sources of inspiration for your type outside of the DYT environment?

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      June 21, 2021 at 3:19 pm

      If you haven’t been around DYT since back in the day, I’d recommend coming back. The clothing recommendations and styles have gotten SO much better since then. The experts themselves look a lot better, and people share their own outfits in the Lifestyle and type-specific Facebook groups. You’ll find a 4/1 whose style resonates with you. I’m not one for unofficial sources, since I find they get stuff wrong, but I know that Stunning Style is a person a lot of T4s follow and her stuff seems to have grown out of DYT T4: https://stunningstyle.com/classic-style-types

      Reply
  2. LCH
    June 24, 2021 at 11:12 pm

    Interesting post. I was typed as a 4/1 by Anne, back in the day, From a face standpoint, and a personality standpoint, that’s pretty accurate. But my coloring just doesn’t hold up to the colors of either of those palettes, and bold stripes and polkadots are both dreadful on me. I like them on objects, but not on me. My coloring is what Kettlewell would call a Dark SUMMER. I can do black, but not pure saturated hues, And as much as I love pure white, it doesn’t love me. I tend to wear white pants with black tops that are left over from my DYT days.. My colors need to be deeper, some with Gray, some blackened. That’s when the compliment start rolling in. Midnight blue, especially.. I think Zyla is more helpful for color.… But these darn archetypes are so tricky. years ago, I was typed as a cool summer, classic body type. In Kibbe world, I can’t be a classic because I’m too tall. I’m closer to the Kibbe dramatic than I am to soft dramatic or flamboyant natural, the only options available to someone of my height. I don’t even qualify for dramatic classic which sounds like the logical choice… And dramatic classics are supposed to wear all those chevrons and stripes that go along with DYT4 and DYT3. Those are awful on me.

    I think a lot of people don’t fit into the boxes. Sometimes I still try to put myself into one of those boxes, but mostly I’ve just figured out What looks better on me. Color, texture, shine, pattern/print, sheen, shape, fabric white, jewelry, accessories, All the little details.

    The tricky part? Finding the garments or the fabric to make the garments that tick the boxes I want .And I might call my type “dramatic with a classic aesthetic, cool deep soft summer..

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      July 16, 2021 at 12:24 pm

      I personally find it easier just to go with a variation of four palettes, unless you have something custom like a Zyla palette, where you can see where you can take colors from across the spectrum of “seasons.”

      I don’t think anyone has to wear chevrons or stripes if they don’t like them, in DYT or Kibbe. Both are very open in terms of what feels right to a person (despite what the internet would have you believe!). The advice I get from David is completely different from what he might give to another FG with a different personality, and DYT is entirely about noticing what your “beauty sixth sense” draws you toward. Dramatic Classic means a person who is symmetrical and not too extreme in any way, which is why you can’t be tall and be a DC. It doesn’t mean that you can’t wear stuff that doesn’t fall under the umbrella of a classic aesthetic if you’re not physically a Classic in your yin/yang balance. “Dramatic with a classic aesthetic” seems perfectly reasonable to aim for!

      Reply

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