DIYing The Triumph of Individual Style: What I Got Wrong!

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My Experience DIYing My Style

I often get asked how I got started in this line of work. 

Today I’m sharing the story of how I discovered there are actually principles of art and of science that you can use to guide your style decisions from a rational perspective. I’ll give you three things I got wrong in trying to DIY my style, and one surprising thing I got right.

This is for those days when you wonder why everybody else looks normal in the clothes that are available in stores and feel like you are the only one who doesn’t. 

I was not born knowing what to wear. I learned, and you can too!

Start by taking my free Style Personality Quiz.

Discovering The Triumph of Individual Style by Carla Mathis

This was probably 25 years ago. You know how sometimes you can go for a long time without getting invited to a wedding and then it seems like all of the sudden it’s wedding season and you need a dress? Well, this particular year, the styles in the stores that I could afford to shop in at the time were kinda long, flowy, shapeless dresses. And we had a wedding to go to. So I chose one of these unflattering dresses and at the last minute I threw on a suit jacket I had leftover from corporate days. It had a shaped waist, so it definitely helped, but I was self-conscious enough that this experience stuck with me.

Around that time, I got into a conversation with a friend about why certain things looked good on some people and not on other people. Honestly, I had no idea there were actual objective principles that could help with this. Then she told me about the book by Carla Mathis, The Triumph of Individual Style .

Lessons From The Triumph of Individual Style

The Triumph of Individual Style lays out basic artistic principles and connects them to visual appearance. And uses for illustrations famous works of art. It has been used over the years as a college textbook in both fashion design and art programs. If you work with a personal stylist or image consultant who has real training, much of the real training is based on this work.

So I kind of became obsessed. I borrowed the book from the library over and over, until I could finally afford to buy it. Sadly, it is no longer in print. 

Then, I blogged about it, talked to my friends about it, and thought I was getting pretty good at understanding the principles and working them into my own wardrobe.

Until I actually started training with Carla. Then I discovered several things I had gotten wrong. 

  1. The first thing was I had gotten my silhouette wrong. I thought I was a figure 8 because I thought my shoulders were sloped because sometimes I have problems with my bra straps slipping. The book does say that rounded shoulders create a figure 8 silhouette, but Carla has since changed her mind about that. Shoulder shape is not used to determine silhouette, hip shape is. The difference between an hourglass and a figure 8 is what is the widest point of the hip. If your shoulders and hips are basically the same width visually, no need to measure, and your waist is smaller, you are looking for whether the widest part of the hip is at the top hip/pelvic bone or at the thigh. If your hip is widest at the top, just a little below the waist, where it would be really handy to have a shelf to carry a toddler around on, you have a figure 8 silhouette. If the widest point of your hip is at the thigh, you are an hourglass.
  2. Another thing I got wrong was I thought I needed bangs to visually balance because my head is slightly long relative to my body. What I didn’t realize is that using bangs to shorten the head length, technically face length, only works when your hair contrasts with your skin. Since my skin is light yellow-orange and my hair is light yellow-white there isn’t enough contrast for that to work. One of the first things Carla said to me is that having bangs actually distracted from my face.
  3. The third thing I got wrong was around color. And it wasn’t really wrong it was just incomplete. The book only really talks about using inherent colors. It does go into alot of good information around residences, which are really important, and color harmonies which I talked about in a recent episode.

When I build a custom palette for you, I use your inherent colors, but that’s not all. Are use your visual favorites and create a unique palette that harmonizes all those colors.

Those were three things I got wrong.

The Surprising Concept I Got Right

Now here’s what I got right. One thing I almost never hear about but use all the time is the concept that tapered pants make your legs look longer. It really works.

If you are an hourglass who is having trouble giving up your skinny jeans, this could be why.

Homework for this episode is if you have a read The Triumph of Individual Style and have questions on applying it, send me an email at hello@signaturestylesystems.com. I will answer you. If you have not read it, why not check your library and see if you can find it?

Pretty much all of the artistic principles taught in The Triumph of Individual Style are part of my complete package, The Sabbatical. In addition I take you on a deep dive into your personality type and your Essential Aesthetic. So you can have fun being you!