The Genesis of My Outfit Creation Rules
What are your goals when you’re putting together an outfit? How do you want to feel? Today I’m going to share my three original style rules which will turn the way you think about what you wear upside down.
I’m talking about three liberating rules for getting dressed that I came up with back in the very early days of integrating artistic principles into my personal style philosophy.
I confess that when I started my blog, The Space Between My Peers, almost 20 years ago (in late 2005), my reason was mostly because I, as an extravert, had alot of words. And, sadly, not alot of people to share them with. In those days, I was a homeschool mom and the social landscape was pretty sparse. For me, a person with Extraverted Feeling as a driver function, my social life felt like starvation rations.Â
(Realistically, none of this would ever have come about if I had known and understood my Myers-Briggs type and how to set up my life ergonomically for the needs of my personality. So today I’m offering the lemonade I made from the lemons my life gave me. If you would like to discover what your personal flow state is and much more, you want my Personality Profile & Palette. )
So I blogged about what was on my mind, which was mostly all the stuff I was learning about the art and science of personal style.
During that season, I developed my top three rules for getting dressed. Nowadays I don’t think about them so much, because they’ve been with me so long it seems like they don’t need to be said. But they do need to be said, because there are still people who need to hear them.
These three rules should feel liberating. They put the person first. Arbitrary rules like no white before a certain date feel like they are just a rule to control people; these rules are to enhance your enjoyment of life.
And it should go without saying, but you always have permission to break anything you hear from me as a rule. Not that you need it!
Without further ado, my original three rules for getting dressed!Â
Rule #1 for Outfit Creation
Rule Number 1: Forget what the so-called fashion experts tell you, the focal point for every outfit should be your FACE (not any other body part or a piece of jewelry). It’s a matter of human dignity.
Techniques and tools:
- Use a balance point
- First balance point (the measurement from hairline to chin, repeated vertically from chin to chest)
- Second balance point (the measurement from widest point of face to chin, repeated vertically from base of neck)
- Don’t have any point of greater contrast somewhere else on your body (you may remember the story I told about wearing dark brown shoes with shorts and how hard my friends tried to look at my face but couldn’t help looking at my feet)
- Bookend your look by using shoes in a color similar to your hair
- Use accessories and details reminiscent of the shapes found in your face. If that sounds hard, it is something I analyze for you and teach you how to do in my Accessory Style Guide. Learn more at signaturestylesystems.com
- Use accessories as infrastructure in your outfit, to lead the eye to the face
Two More Rules of Outfit Creation
The next two rules are more about the function of the clothes than the technical style lines and colors and artistic principles.
- Rule Number 2: Everything you wear should make you feel like yourself, going where you are going and doing what you are doing. Nothing is more distracting than feeling inappropriately dressed. Be yourself. Then focus on reaching out and making others feel comfortable.
- Rule Number 3: Never wear anything that takes constant attention in order for you to be able to function. Tugging on your clothes is never elegant.
There you have it, short and sweet: three rules for getting dressed that put the person ahead of the clothes!