What are Style Essences?

Simply put style essences are the natural lines and shapes of your face and body. Most people are aware of dressing for their body shape. Many believe that when dressing all they need to do is dress for their body. When dressing it is actually best to dress for your body and face. Style essences can help you to learn and dress uniquely for yourself.

There are many style typing systems out there. Arguably the most popular style system is David Kibbe's. The Kibbe system refers to essences as archetypes. This system has five basic archetypes, eight archetypes that are a mix of the basic archetypes, making for a a total of thirteen style archetypes.

Dramatic(Flamboyant): theatrical bold "yang"
Natural: relaxed casual  "yang"
Classic: simple elegant neutral
Gamine: fun boyish "yang"
Romantic(Soft): soft "yin"

Flamboyant Natural: Mix of dramatic and natural.
Soft Dramatic: Mix of mostly dramatic with some romantic.
Soft Natural: Mix of natural and romantic.
Dramatic Classic: Mix of classic and dramatic.
Soft Classic: Mix of classic and romantic
Flamboyant Gamine: Mix of dramatic and gamine.
Soft Gamine: Mix of romantic and gamine.
Theatrical Romantic: Mix of mostly romantic with some dramatic.

David Kibbe's system is good and relatively simple, but is inaccurate. Despite how easy and straightforward Kibbe is some people become frustrated and confused with this system. There are multiple reasons for this, I will use two Kibbe verified romantic celebrities, Christina Ricci and Beyonce, to prove my first point.

Beyonce in these romantic influenced clothing definitely looks mature, womanly, and sensual. She doesn't look overwhelmed or underwhelmed by her clothing. When you look at her, the dress is not wearing her, she is wearing the dress. She looks like herself.

Christina Ricci in similar romantic attire.

Christina Ricci simply cannot pull this off the way Beyonce does despite them both belonging in to the same archetype in the Kibbe system. I would even go as far to say that she looks like a little girl playing dress up. The reason for this is because Christina's primary style essence is INGENUE not romantic. The ingenue type is soft but not sensual, womanly, or mature in the way romantic is. The ingenue type is distinctly cute, feminine, youthful, and sweet. An ingenue reminds one of a young girl and can often getting away with wearing things a young girl would wear, like for example pigtails.

Christina is definitely pulling off the pigtails despite her being an adult woman.

Beyonce only looks okay in pigtails, and does not give of the girlish vibe Christina does. Compared to the first pictures I posted of Beyonce these looks are disappointing, Beyonce has the absence of ingenue in her style essences and is clearly a romantic while Christina is clearly an ingenue.

There is one more basic style essence missing from the Kibbe system. I will again use two Kibbe     verified celebrities to prove my point. Anjelica Huston and Tilda Swinton are both dramatics in the Kibbe system. Both of these women are considered "yang" or "angular"

Both these women belong to Kibbe dramatic. Both are tall, thin, and angular, but there is a softness to Tilda's face that Anjelica does not have. Anjelica looks more present and agressive than Tilda. What is the soft element that can be seen in Tilda's face? It isn't lush and womanly like a romantic nor is girly and cute like an ingenue. Doesn't Tilda look strange to you, almost like an alien, like she is not of this earth? The reason for this is because Tilda isn't just a dramatic she is also an ETHEREAL. The Ethereal style essence is unearthly and peaceful. Ethereals are complemented by clothing that is soft,sea and cloud-like, things that look like they are floating, flying, or slipping away. The ethereal essence is often confused as dramatic since the lines are often elongated like a that of a dramatic. But look what happens when you dress Tilda like a dramatic.

This honestly is good to me, probably because one of Tilda's primary style essences is dramatic. But  she looks even better and like herself when she adds ethereal to her style.

  


Ethereal style clothing is much more flattering on Tilda than dramatic only.
Now lets see what happens when Anjelica Huston wears ethereal clothing.

Anjelica definitely is not complemented by ethereal clothing like Tilda is. Anjelica has no curved or soft features and she overpowers this style of clothing.

So there are actually seven basic style essences.

Dramatic, Natural, Gamine, Classic, Romantic, Ingenue, and Ethereal.

The next problem with many style typing systems is that there are a limited amount of archetypes that everyone is expected to fit into. In Kibbe there are only thirteen style types that everyone fits in. Some of the basic essences never even get to mix. I am only aware of a couple style typing systems that acknowledge that someone may not just have multiple style essences but also may have a more dominant style essence.

The only system I know of that not just creates a custom style essence by mixing multiple essences but also advises people on how to dress when one style is more dominant is the Personal Style Counselors system. PSC have been around since 1964. Kitchener, a leading force in the PSC, actually discovered the ethereal style essence. PSC do it based on percentages. Someone they type may be 60% romantic, 15% natural, 15% dramatic, 5% ethereal, and 5% ingenue. I find percentages confusing because it is difficult to understand and implement how a percentage applies.

  I don't use only 2 or 3 archetypes and I don't use percentages. When I type a person I  assign them as many essences as are needed to complete their look. I use to the terms primary, secondary, and tertiary. The primary and secondary style essences are the most flattering. The tertiary essence can be worn in small amount, but it can simply be ignored, it does not make or break a look.

 Primary style essences are your most dominant style expression, if you go without wearing this you will look awkward. But If you at least wear your one of your Primary essences you will look okay but if you wear all of them you will look great! The secondary style essences are also important when dressing as well but are not dominant. If you wear your secondary essences only you will look passable. Not everyone has a tertiary style essence but when they do they can only handle hints of their tertiary essences in their personal style. This is better explained visually. I will use Rihanna  as an example.

Rihanna's primaries in my system are romantic and gamine . Rihanna's has two secondaries, ingenue and natural, and one tertiary which is dramatic. All that Rihanna's tertiary does is allow her looks to be a bit more flamboyant. Most people would describe the image that Rihanna projects as sexy and fun. I find it funny how these keywords are associated with Rihanna primary style essences. Romantic is sexy and womanly, while gamine is fun and boyish.

 Lets see how Rihanna looks when she dresses as if her tertiary essence, dramatic, is dominant.

 I know there is this idea that Rihanna can wear anything ( people often  feel this way about gamine types) but honestly in dramatic dominant clothing she looks uncomfortable and stiff, like she is trying way too hard.

Lets see what happens when Rihanna wears her secondary essence, ingenue
.

 

This is way better than dramatic, Rihanna has a good amount of ingenue. She has the ability to look sweet and cute. Rihanna even looks good in the ingenue's trademark hair, pigtails! 

How does Rihanna look when she dresses as a Natural?

 

 Rihanna looks normal in natural styles despite how feminine she looks. People without natural as a primary or a secondary look sloppy when wearing this style, but Rihanna just looks normal, maybe a bit overwhelmed by the clothing but normal nonetheless.

What does Rihanna look like when she dresses as a Gamine without consideration of her other primary essence?

 

  Rihanna looks good in her primary. The Gamine lines and shapes in the clothing bring out her boyish and feisty looks. Notice how good Rihanna looks with a pixie cut. If someone looks good with a pixie cut it is almost always because they are a gamine. Gamines have youthful boyish looks and as such look good in youthful boyish styles. A pixie cut is reminiscent of a style that a little boy would wear.

What does Rihanna look like when she dresses as a romantic without consideration to her other primary essence?

 

Answer is Rihanna looks good in these dresses. Romantic clothing does not make her look hard, overwhelm her, or make her look like a little kid playing dress up like what happens to people with the absence of the romantic style essence.

 So finally what happens when Rihanna dresses for all her style essences?
Here you go.

This is close to Rihanna's best personal style.These looks are very flattering and harmonize with her face and body. I would say the style here is what makes Rihanna look like Rihanna, the fun, sexy, relaxed, youthful, spirited woman that many of us know and love. Are you thinking "hey those are just nice clothes, I like that style, most people would look good in that!"

Well, lets take a look at Beyonce. In my system she is primarily a romantic. How does Beyonce look in romantic gamine natural ingenue clothing?

Neither of these women are more beautiful than the other but Rihanna is flattered by, and looks much more believable in this clothing style than Beyonce. Honestly this is not Beyonce's "best" style here. Take a look at the pictures I first posted of Beyonce in the beginning of this page then look back at these ones. It is difficult not to see how much better Beyonce looks in the style I first posted her in.

If you are interested me doing a personal style analysis on you please go my "My Services" page to find out more.