Blitzing through Wardrobe Architect
ashamanja_babu left a great link to my previous post on wardrobe/style: Coletterie's Wardrobe Architect series. I took a look, got interesting, and had to start trying some things.
The first two (out of 14) were pretty quick for me. They were mostly geared toward identifying one's "Core Style," taking an in-depth approach that includes both why you like things as well as what you like. The one part that didn't work was, of course, the style icon. I just don't get that one. (As close as I come is early 1950s Grace Kelly, and that's more for her aura of refinement, completeness, and lack of flashiness; not really her actual early 50s clothing, pale blonde color palette, or pearls.) But for the rest, it did help me even better define my style, which I identified as Classic & Eclectic last time. The end of the Core Style exercise is five words. Alphabetically, mine are:
* Appropriate. Includes modesty, but also appropriateness for everything from weather to activity to setting to a reasonable consideration of what makes others uncomfortable.
* Colorful. I dislike most traditional neutrals, and very rarely wear nothing but neutrals I like. I like color, a reasonable amount of pattern, and interest.
* Feminine. I'm happy to dress this way. It doesn't mean skirts and dresses all the time; pants, shorts, and jeans can be feminine.
* Natural/genuine. This is harder to describe, because it's about my motivation, and how I feel in my clothes as a result. Example: Wearing long jeans in summer. Once when I was a kid, I made a mistake and wore jeans in the summer. I was entirely miserable miserable, driving around in the car in hideously hot, thick denim. Ever since I've loathed even the thought of long denim in the heat. So if I still did it, my motivation would be solely because it's fashionable. I would be doubly unhappy: both uncomfortable, and artificial. The natural or genuine thing for me would be shorts or a flared, knee-length skirt. Being genuine is not unwillingness to try new things; it's doing what feels right to me and trusting my instincts.
* Orderly. This is also harder to describe. It is clean lines, skillful use of color, good proportion, traditional figure flattering priorities, good design lines (see the text here for an example), and coordination. My notion of "orderly" may be minimal to a maximalist. The color and variety I include would look maximal to a minimalist. The matchiness could be totally undesirable to both camps.
The hardest part of that second entry was finding 15-20 images that went with the words; I've never been much of an "inspiration image" type. But I've got a fairly big Modern Fashion pinboard by now, so I was eventually able to come up with some. If you're curious, the new Core Style board is here. I've noted which Core Style words each image particularly evokes for me.
The next entries were about favorite silhouettes. The worksheet on preferences in the third entry wasn't hard; just 1-10 on this neckline shape and that skirt fullness and How Much Ease for this garment, etc. A good start. But the fourth entry was a disappointment. Instead of working with all those numbers, seeing trends and such, it just said to go use Polyvore to pull together outfits.
Um, what? Aside from the whole issue of having to learn Polyvore, it seems to skip at least one step. The previous worksheet was totally irrelevant as far as I can tell. How about looking for bigger trends in my preferences, common likes and dislikes, to narrow things down? Besides, I guess that Polyvore grabs images of current brand-name things? Absolutely useless for vintage or hard-to-find pieces - and since I'm hard to fit, clothes are hard to find. Plus, everything's always on the standard model size and shape, which is totally unhelpful for how a silhouette actually looks on ME.
What I did was just look at the numbers and analyze trends on my own. I think there's a better way to do it! But I did come up with overall preferences:
* Everything fitted, except for skirts (whether single pieces or as part of dresses)
* Tops & jackets hip-length or shorter
* Natural waistline ("high" in the modern definition, which leaves empire dresses where?)
* Coats long
* Pants long or short/very short
* Sleeves short, above elbow, or long only
* Nearly any neckline but the very open, jewel, or U-neck
And that brings me to the point where I was at the end of my last wardrobe entry: My silhouettes. The Wardrobe Architect example was differentiated by season, as was Recovering Shopaholic Wardrobe Size, but had more variety in silhouettes. Neither has variation by activity, which I need to do.
Cold
Work/Church
- Knee-length f&f woven or knit dress, tights/hose, heels/boots, waist-emphasis topper.
- Knit top with waist emphasis, tucked into woven knee-length skirt, tights/hose, heels/boots, waist-emphasis topper.
- Shorter knit tunic/dress, leggings, heels/boots, waist-emphasis topper.
Casual
- Mid-thigh knit tunic/skater dress, leggings, thick socks/boots. Fitted knit topper.
- Shaped sweater, knit skort/skirt, leggings, thick socks/boots.
- Sweater, jeans, shoes/boots.
Warm
Work/Church
- Knee length f&f woven or knit dress, hose/bare legs, heels/sandals, two short/waist-emphasis toppers.
- Blouse tucked into knee length woven skirt, hose/bare legs, heels/sandals, two short/waist-emphasis toppers.
Casual
- Sleeved tee, t-shirt, or blouse, tucked into woven skirt or over shorts, sandals.
- Tee or t-shirt, workout skort. (home or super casual)
- Knit dress (short or maxi) with waist emphasis, sandals.
- Tee or t-shirt over bf jeans, sandals. (new, untried silhouette)
This is pretty complicated, and I trimmed it down a lot. The overriding factors for silhouette are:
* Define the natural waist. I'm a pear-hourglass, and without at least some waist definition, I am an amorphous blob.
* Balance the hips. I'm an hourglass-pear and high-waisted for my height. Sleeves keep me from being too bottom-heavy.
Other thoughts that come to mind are how few outfits employ pants of any kind. Part of that is how hard it is to fit me: Tall, very high rise, and extreme waist/hip difference. Aside from that, I am so curvy that pants can't help but be very outline-revealing; and I'm not comfortable with that. So there's not just one but two significant challenges. At some point I do want to adapt a vintage trouser pattern, to find the sweet spot of fitting without outlining. Until that point, I don't have the time, energy, or honestly the need to incorporate trousers in a significant way.
Another issue is how I love knits and I want more; it does take trial to find the pieces that stretch enough but not too much. Fit without distortion or too much revelation. Waist-defining knit toppers and dresses are a big hole. I've over-indulged in eShakti in the last year, but they continue to expand (hah!) their knit dress range. That may be an excellent place to get knit dresses and over-leggings shorter things that aren't so short and flared as skater dresses.
The fifth and sixth entries are on color palettes. I was disinclined to actually do this one, because I have a pretty good sense of what colors I like and which ones look good on me. But as suededsilk can attest, I'm at a loss for what seasonal color palette I fall into:
* My skin has super strong pink/blue undertones. Even pink blushes turn brown and orange in comparison. The best and only is a bright fuchsia blush from Revlon - I think Wine Not? is the current name, but it was a discard of my mother's from the 1990s.
* My hair is mixed light/medium brown, blonde, and red. It is warm in tone. Pewter/gray accessories look awful, but gold works.
* White makes my skin glow; ivory and cream wash me out.
* I prefer silver metal jewelry.
* I'm neither low contrast nor high contrast.
* I don't like jewel tones; they're too harsh on me. But I like the soft versions of them that have nearly the same intensity.
As I continued with the fifth and sixth entries, I finally decided I'd try to throw together a palette and see what happened. The colors are highly influenced by monitor, of course, but here are the top 20 colors I came up with:
[Any color analysis people want to take a stab at this? If it's relevant, I try to keep both gray and khaki away from my face. I like it for basic skirts.]
Where it got really interesting was dividing the palette into categories: neutrals, nearly neutrals, and statement colors.
Neutrals are the most basic of all colors.
Nearly neutrals "act like neutrals but have more visual impact."
Everything else is a statement color.
This was very interesting. First, I don't have very many neutrals: 4 out of 20. Didn't I say last time that I hate most neutrals? I guess that's very true! Nearly neutrals were interesting; I'll get back to that. And fully 10 of 20 of my palette are statement colors! I do like color, and heavy on the blues and pinks/reds. I want more green, but it's trickier to find in shades I like. I like the single color of yellow; and I'm okay with lavender, but don't tend to choose other purple-influenced shades.
So the Wardrobe Architect example had fully 7 neutrals and another 6 nearly neutrals. But her nearly neutrals had a LOT more variety than mine. We also both had "Wine," but I did not put it as a neutral because I don't use it that way. In fact, ballet pink really should be in Statement Colors as well, because I don't really use it that way.
I already struggle from time to time with feeling like I use the same 2 or 3 bottoms for months on end. Seeing how few true neutrals are in my palette, that now makes sense. But now I'm also thinking I've been missing an opportunity. The concept of a "nearly neutral," using a color that acts like a neutral, has a lot more potential in my palette.
Whew, that's a lot! I've skimmed through the rest of Wardrobe Architect now. I don't think I'll go through it all entry-by-entry from here on; it focuses on building a capsule wardrobe that's season-specific. The process she outlines is excellent, but I don't have the time or money to shop and sew for a new capsule immediately. I do want to work through it in a different way, though. More to come, I'm sure!
The first two (out of 14) were pretty quick for me. They were mostly geared toward identifying one's "Core Style," taking an in-depth approach that includes both why you like things as well as what you like. The one part that didn't work was, of course, the style icon. I just don't get that one. (As close as I come is early 1950s Grace Kelly, and that's more for her aura of refinement, completeness, and lack of flashiness; not really her actual early 50s clothing, pale blonde color palette, or pearls.) But for the rest, it did help me even better define my style, which I identified as Classic & Eclectic last time. The end of the Core Style exercise is five words. Alphabetically, mine are:
* Appropriate. Includes modesty, but also appropriateness for everything from weather to activity to setting to a reasonable consideration of what makes others uncomfortable.
* Colorful. I dislike most traditional neutrals, and very rarely wear nothing but neutrals I like. I like color, a reasonable amount of pattern, and interest.
* Feminine. I'm happy to dress this way. It doesn't mean skirts and dresses all the time; pants, shorts, and jeans can be feminine.
* Natural/genuine. This is harder to describe, because it's about my motivation, and how I feel in my clothes as a result. Example: Wearing long jeans in summer. Once when I was a kid, I made a mistake and wore jeans in the summer. I was entirely miserable miserable, driving around in the car in hideously hot, thick denim. Ever since I've loathed even the thought of long denim in the heat. So if I still did it, my motivation would be solely because it's fashionable. I would be doubly unhappy: both uncomfortable, and artificial. The natural or genuine thing for me would be shorts or a flared, knee-length skirt. Being genuine is not unwillingness to try new things; it's doing what feels right to me and trusting my instincts.
* Orderly. This is also harder to describe. It is clean lines, skillful use of color, good proportion, traditional figure flattering priorities, good design lines (see the text here for an example), and coordination. My notion of "orderly" may be minimal to a maximalist. The color and variety I include would look maximal to a minimalist. The matchiness could be totally undesirable to both camps.
The hardest part of that second entry was finding 15-20 images that went with the words; I've never been much of an "inspiration image" type. But I've got a fairly big Modern Fashion pinboard by now, so I was eventually able to come up with some. If you're curious, the new Core Style board is here. I've noted which Core Style words each image particularly evokes for me.
The next entries were about favorite silhouettes. The worksheet on preferences in the third entry wasn't hard; just 1-10 on this neckline shape and that skirt fullness and How Much Ease for this garment, etc. A good start. But the fourth entry was a disappointment. Instead of working with all those numbers, seeing trends and such, it just said to go use Polyvore to pull together outfits.
Um, what? Aside from the whole issue of having to learn Polyvore, it seems to skip at least one step. The previous worksheet was totally irrelevant as far as I can tell. How about looking for bigger trends in my preferences, common likes and dislikes, to narrow things down? Besides, I guess that Polyvore grabs images of current brand-name things? Absolutely useless for vintage or hard-to-find pieces - and since I'm hard to fit, clothes are hard to find. Plus, everything's always on the standard model size and shape, which is totally unhelpful for how a silhouette actually looks on ME.
What I did was just look at the numbers and analyze trends on my own. I think there's a better way to do it! But I did come up with overall preferences:
* Everything fitted, except for skirts (whether single pieces or as part of dresses)
* Tops & jackets hip-length or shorter
* Natural waistline ("high" in the modern definition, which leaves empire dresses where?)
* Coats long
* Pants long or short/very short
* Sleeves short, above elbow, or long only
* Nearly any neckline but the very open, jewel, or U-neck
And that brings me to the point where I was at the end of my last wardrobe entry: My silhouettes. The Wardrobe Architect example was differentiated by season, as was Recovering Shopaholic Wardrobe Size, but had more variety in silhouettes. Neither has variation by activity, which I need to do.
Cold
Work/Church
- Knee-length f&f woven or knit dress, tights/hose, heels/boots, waist-emphasis topper.
- Knit top with waist emphasis, tucked into woven knee-length skirt, tights/hose, heels/boots, waist-emphasis topper.
- Shorter knit tunic/dress, leggings, heels/boots, waist-emphasis topper.
Casual
- Mid-thigh knit tunic/skater dress, leggings, thick socks/boots. Fitted knit topper.
- Shaped sweater, knit skort/skirt, leggings, thick socks/boots.
- Sweater, jeans, shoes/boots.
Warm
Work/Church
- Knee length f&f woven or knit dress, hose/bare legs, heels/sandals, two short/waist-emphasis toppers.
- Blouse tucked into knee length woven skirt, hose/bare legs, heels/sandals, two short/waist-emphasis toppers.
Casual
- Sleeved tee, t-shirt, or blouse, tucked into woven skirt or over shorts, sandals.
- Tee or t-shirt, workout skort. (home or super casual)
- Knit dress (short or maxi) with waist emphasis, sandals.
- Tee or t-shirt over bf jeans, sandals. (new, untried silhouette)
This is pretty complicated, and I trimmed it down a lot. The overriding factors for silhouette are:
* Define the natural waist. I'm a pear-hourglass, and without at least some waist definition, I am an amorphous blob.
* Balance the hips. I'm an hourglass-pear and high-waisted for my height. Sleeves keep me from being too bottom-heavy.
Other thoughts that come to mind are how few outfits employ pants of any kind. Part of that is how hard it is to fit me: Tall, very high rise, and extreme waist/hip difference. Aside from that, I am so curvy that pants can't help but be very outline-revealing; and I'm not comfortable with that. So there's not just one but two significant challenges. At some point I do want to adapt a vintage trouser pattern, to find the sweet spot of fitting without outlining. Until that point, I don't have the time, energy, or honestly the need to incorporate trousers in a significant way.
Another issue is how I love knits and I want more; it does take trial to find the pieces that stretch enough but not too much. Fit without distortion or too much revelation. Waist-defining knit toppers and dresses are a big hole. I've over-indulged in eShakti in the last year, but they continue to expand (hah!) their knit dress range. That may be an excellent place to get knit dresses and over-leggings shorter things that aren't so short and flared as skater dresses.
The fifth and sixth entries are on color palettes. I was disinclined to actually do this one, because I have a pretty good sense of what colors I like and which ones look good on me. But as suededsilk can attest, I'm at a loss for what seasonal color palette I fall into:
* My skin has super strong pink/blue undertones. Even pink blushes turn brown and orange in comparison. The best and only is a bright fuchsia blush from Revlon - I think Wine Not? is the current name, but it was a discard of my mother's from the 1990s.
* My hair is mixed light/medium brown, blonde, and red. It is warm in tone. Pewter/gray accessories look awful, but gold works.
* White makes my skin glow; ivory and cream wash me out.
* I prefer silver metal jewelry.
* I'm neither low contrast nor high contrast.
* I don't like jewel tones; they're too harsh on me. But I like the soft versions of them that have nearly the same intensity.
As I continued with the fifth and sixth entries, I finally decided I'd try to throw together a palette and see what happened. The colors are highly influenced by monitor, of course, but here are the top 20 colors I came up with:
[Any color analysis people want to take a stab at this? If it's relevant, I try to keep both gray and khaki away from my face. I like it for basic skirts.]
Where it got really interesting was dividing the palette into categories: neutrals, nearly neutrals, and statement colors.
Neutrals are the most basic of all colors.
Nearly neutrals "act like neutrals but have more visual impact."
Everything else is a statement color.
This was very interesting. First, I don't have very many neutrals: 4 out of 20. Didn't I say last time that I hate most neutrals? I guess that's very true! Nearly neutrals were interesting; I'll get back to that. And fully 10 of 20 of my palette are statement colors! I do like color, and heavy on the blues and pinks/reds. I want more green, but it's trickier to find in shades I like. I like the single color of yellow; and I'm okay with lavender, but don't tend to choose other purple-influenced shades.
So the Wardrobe Architect example had fully 7 neutrals and another 6 nearly neutrals. But her nearly neutrals had a LOT more variety than mine. We also both had "Wine," but I did not put it as a neutral because I don't use it that way. In fact, ballet pink really should be in Statement Colors as well, because I don't really use it that way.
I already struggle from time to time with feeling like I use the same 2 or 3 bottoms for months on end. Seeing how few true neutrals are in my palette, that now makes sense. But now I'm also thinking I've been missing an opportunity. The concept of a "nearly neutral," using a color that acts like a neutral, has a lot more potential in my palette.
Whew, that's a lot! I've skimmed through the rest of Wardrobe Architect now. I don't think I'll go through it all entry-by-entry from here on; it focuses on building a capsule wardrobe that's season-specific. The process she outlines is excellent, but I don't have the time or money to shop and sew for a new capsule immediately. I do want to work through it in a different way, though. More to come, I'm sure!