Fantastical Beauty: What I’ve Learned, Part 2

Today I found myself downtown with some time to kill, so I popped into Zara to see if I could find some hot-weather clothes. One thing I’ve noticed is that if my current style typing (Zyla, etc.) isn’t working for me, I find myself succumbing to shopping paralysis, and just nothing in the store feels right. After declaring myself Nymph and Puck in Fantastical Beauty, I found that I didn’t even know what to look for. I tried to make a secret pinboard for Nymph-Puck-Gamine Linear, but I just pinned a bunch of stuff from Kati’s pinboards for these types, and I wasn’t sure if the things I found on my own were “correct.”

After this experience at Zara, once I got to a computer, I took a look at the guides I had. I then looked at my personal style pinboard, and started adding and subtracting things. I thought about what the images meant together as a whole. I think they represent “me” and my aesthetic really well, and it reminded me of my personal style statement/archetypr, which I developed while creating my workbook.

My style statement is “Grown-up Punk,” which means that I retain both sophistication and edge at the same time, with a little bit of boyishness/youthfulness thrown in. One thing I noticed is that I have a lot of Alexander McQueen on the board.

This makes sense, because it’s a label with sophisticated designs, with motifs like skulls and moto added to give it some edge. For me, the “punk” part is easy. It is adding the “grown up,” the sophistication, that is hard.

Taken as a whole, my board to me means Puck Nymph Leaning Valkyrie. Maybe I can also pull from Nyx and Raven Rider at times, but this what feels essential. Nymph covers the “grown up,” Valkyrie the “edge,” and Puck partially the “edge” and wholly the “boyishness/youthfulness.” In addition, the Valkyrie color scheme of dark neutrals with “wildflower” pops of color works better for me than Nymph’s variations on browns and greens or what Puck’s color scheme seems to be, which is dark gray with pastel pink. But Nymph feels like the base to me and not Valkyrie, because the sophistication is what needs to remain front and center in my mind. The “punk” can always be added with accessories, but the main shape always has to remain firmly in Gamine Linear Nymph territory.

4 Comments on Fantastical Beauty: What I’ve Learned, Part 2

  1. JBurke
    July 13, 2016 at 7:25 am

    I really like this approach of breaking down what you’re taking from each piece of your personal puzzle and deciding which needs to be strongest and which will be supporting players, so to speak. I need the Mermaid fun, evasiveness and autonomy most but will always be a modest mermaid as I also have a good streak of proper girl next door. My evasive is so strong, in fact, that, at times, choosing to dress the proper girl next door has kept me “safe”, a way of evading lol. Time to get past that I say.

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      July 13, 2016 at 12:13 pm

      So are you going with a Mermaid base?

      Reply
  2. dia
    July 16, 2016 at 5:08 am

    Hi. First time commenter. Thank you for talking about this style system! I’d never heard of it before you, but it’s the first one that really feels like it’s going to work for me. I thought of myself as Soft Gamine for a long time, but it never felt quite right- now I’m looking into Valkyrie and Magic Queen and they’re much more inspiring.

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      July 21, 2016 at 9:38 pm

      Welcome! That’s great that you’re seeing yourself in this system. It’s really interesting and flexible.

      Reply

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