Most people think a style system will tell them what to wear. But recently I found one that reveals something missing from style advice: how your brain processes sensory information. Today, we’re diving into Rita’s Style Keys, what it really shows you about yourself, and why understanding your sensory processing pattern is the key to finally making sense of any style system.
Breaking Down Rita’s Style System
Recently, I found Rita’s Style Keys system on YouTube, and I wanted to understand what it was actually based on. What is this measuring? Maybe you can relate—I can’t really trust any style system unless I understand what the basis for it is.
Breaking this system down into simple terms, it’s a 2×2 framework with four quadrants. Rita doesn’t give specific style recommendations. Instead, she’s teaching you how to recognize how you feel in the right clothes.
She’s got two axes. Left versus right is dressing for self-expression versus to harmonize with the environment. This is roughly equivalent in both my style quiz and in my personality style blueprints to the judging versus perceiving dichotomy in the Myers-Briggs system. If you have a J, you’re normally going to be more focused on harmonizing with the environment. And a P is going to be more focused on dressing for self-expression.
The up versus down was the one I could not figure out without a little bit more research. This is how you prioritize different types of sensory information when you’re making style decisions. In that particular aspect, Rita’s system isn’t really about style—it’s accidentally revealing how your brain processes sensory information.
The Science Behind Sensory Processing
I looked into sensory processing sensitivity—maybe you’ve heard of the book about highly sensitive people (affiliate link). It’s measurable, heritable differences in how people process sensory information. There are three distinct types of sensory processing that are talked about under this umbrella theory.
One is ease of excitation, which you can probably imagine what that is, and that’s not actually going to figure into what I’m looking at in this episode.
The other two are low sensory threshold, which is like physical sensitivity—texture, temperature, comfort. You can probably imagine the person who takes their tags out because they can’t stand them scratching, or they’re very sensitive about what kinds of fabrics they wear.
And the other one is aesthetic sensitivity. That’s visual beauty, harmony, impact—how things look. This is maybe somebody who is highly sensitive in this area would be the one that walks into your house and straightens the picture that’s not hanging exactly square on the wall.
These differences are nature-based, genetically influenced. They’re not mutually exclusive—people can have both of these in varying degrees. What’s going to be helpful for you is just to understand which type you prioritize when making decisions. This could be a reason why, if you’re looking at the Style Keys framework and having trouble choosing whether you’re up or down, it could be that you are both or neither to a high degree.
A Real-World Example
Part of what was going on in the back of my mind while I was thinking about this is I had a client a few weeks ago. I’m going to give her the name Emily for this episode, and she is an ESTP, which is leading with extraverted sensing.
She’s incredibly sensitive to physical experience. She was planning a trip for some executives through Washington State, and she wanted to make sure they got up at 4:30 in the morning so that they could go out and taste a cherry picked fresh from the tree. But she’s not particularly tuned into visual aesthetics. Visual aesthetics is something we kind of look for as profilers for somebody having high extraverted sensing, but this person was obviously using extraverted sensing and not super high on the visual focus.
How This Maps to Your Cognitive Function Stack
I’m connecting this to extraverted sensing, the cognitive function. Now, you don’t have to be an extrovert to be using extraverted sensing. Everybody uses it at some place in their cognitive function stack—it’s either going to be in your stack, which is technically your first four, or it’ll be in your shadow.
Here’s the definition: it’s learning by sensory experience in real time. It’s being in the moment, it’s taking in sensation, which we have multiple channels for sensation. Everybody uses it, and some have it as more of a priority in the way that they interact with the world.
Extraverted Sensing Dominant (ESTP and ESFP): The people who use it as their first function would be extraverted sensing dominant—ESTP like my client Emily or ESFP. If a person that was ESTP or ESFP was more on the sensory tactile focused, they’re going to live in comfortable clothes, prioritize movement and physical experience. If they’re more visual focused, then that’s going to be the natural style icon who effortlessly creates striking looks. And then you could be both—someone who naturally makes an impact with their appearance and also finds it really important that it’s comfortable.
Personally, I have a value around comfort. I think everybody should be able to be comfortable—it’s a human right to be comfortable in your clothes.
Extraverted Sensing Auxiliary (ISTP and ISFP): If you have it as your second position, you are an introvert. If you have extraverted sensing auxiliary, those would be types ISTP and ISFP, then you’re using sensory awareness to support your dominant function, and you could be creating beautiful or comfortable environments selectively. I know some of the people that I know that effortlessly look amazing and create amazing, beautiful home environments. My friend here in town who is a landscape designer creates beautiful landscapes—that could be one of these types.
Extraverted Sensing Tertiary (ENTJ and ENFJ): ENTJ and ENFJ have extraverted sensing as their third or tertiary function. In this case, it could be used playfully and using sensory awareness to connect with others or to achieve goals. It’s going to be a little bit less prominent, but it’s still going to definitely show up.
Extraverted Sensing Inferior (INTJ and INFJ): Extraverted sensing inferior—we’re back to introverts, INTJ and INFJ. They can kind of become overwhelmed by either sensory input. I know several people in this personality type area who are just very, very sensitive to things being uncomfortable or heavy. They can also be overwhelmed by sensory decisions. This could be a reason why you would want to employ a uniform type or some simple method of deciding how you’re going to get dressed.
Shadow Functions: If I didn’t name your type above, you have it in your shadow. Extraverted sensing could come up in a subtle manifestation or like a challenge that comes up repeatedly. It could be just being dismissive of other people’s comfort when you’re stressed, could be when you’re stressed you’re critical of other people, could be you’re critical of yourself when you’re stressed, could be double binds around sensory aspects. It’s like, well, if I do this, it doesn’t work, and if I do that it doesn’t work in this other way.
Making This Work for Any Style System
How to adapt this to any style system: if you have a low sensory threshold or you’re tactile focused, then comfort and physical sensation is always going to win. If you’re visual focused with high aesthetic sensitivity, then aesthetic harmony or impact is the priority. And if you’re dual channel, you want to satisfy both needs.
For example, in Rita’s Style Keys system, most people think that the style system will tell you what to wear, but it actually reveals this aspect that’s missing from style advice: how your brain processes sensory information, which is kind of a big deal because our clothes are what we put on our bodies.
Here’s something simple you can do this week to integrate these principles into your wardrobe: pay attention to your decision-making process when you’re getting dressed. When you’re choosing between two options, notice what tips the scale—is it how it feels on your body, or how it looks in the mirror? This understanding will help you identify your natural sensory processing pattern and just know what’s important to you.
But I want to encourage you to not expect good style to have to be uncomfortable. I think you can have both.
If you’re ready to dive deeper into understanding your cognitive patterns and how they influence your style choices, I recommend booking in with me for personality profiling. It’s an excellent first step in style discovery because it helps you understand the foundation of how your mind works before you try to apply any style system.