Discover your color palette and your style type.

How Do I Combine My Season with My Style Identity?

7/17/2017

Every one of the 63 style identities can be manifested within every seasonal palette. (Though your coloring may play a small role in your style ID.)

The trick is to read each recommendation for your style identity's color schemes and adapt it by adding your color season's name somewhere in the sentence.

For example, I would recommend deep reds and purples to create a Romantic look; if you're a Dark Autumn Romantic, you would think to yourself, "Choose the deep reds and purples from my Dark Autumn palette."

To create a Classic look, head-to-toe-conservative neutrals is effective; in the case of a Dark Autumn, she would choose from the most conservative neutrals from her Dark Autumn palette.

You can find more information about your style identity's palette recommendations in the shopping guide for your type.

15 Comments

Elizabeth

7/17/2017 02:58:30 pm

I am curious. Should you determine your season first or your style type first or should you do it at the same time?
Also, are certain seasons more in alignment with certain style types. For instance, I have read that Winters might be more likely to be Dramatic Style Types and should avoid Natural Style Types? Is this truth or "myth"? Can any season be any style type? Thank you.

Rosetta

7/18/2017 04:03:59 am

Elizabeth, I really truly believe (and hope) it's a myth! As how could your colouring decide your face & body structure...?
And I myself am a Romantic-Ethereal-Ingenue (with a bit of Natural), and also believe myself to be a True Autumn, so going by what you say, I wouldn't exist... ;D

Agnes

7/18/2017 07:07:27 am

But it is true, that a type is connected to person's colouring. So it's easier to dress if thery correlate. I'm Gamine and it does not go very well with Soft Summer.

7/18/2017 03:36:31 pm

I think one consideration is that coloring is relative to you. I'm a light summer, so while my colors would look too light on most people, on me, they read medium - just right. If I were dramatic, I'd wear the darker end of my palette (charcoal) to achieve the power effect that a winter would get with black. A winter natural would want to mix the most natural 'in' colors (the jewel tones).

I got the shopping guide from this site and I found the little blurb on what colors to pick from your palette was useful. I've got a blend ID (ethereal natural classic), so I pull from a range, but it was useful to know what colors to prioritize in shopping (neutrals, white, grey, some pinks and blues).

Rachel

7/18/2017 10:58:57 pm

Thanks for making the point, W., about color being relative to you. Blocks of charcoal grey and vanilla white would indeed read as Dramatic on a Light Summer. :-)

Rachel

7/18/2017 10:56:59 pm

Hi, Elizabeth!

I think determining one's season might be better to do first, because I think it's a bit easier. But some people might find determining the style easier. I recommend solving the easier problem first. :-)

Color does influence style type to some extent. High-contrast coloring can create a Dramatic (or sometimes Gamine) impression. Very faded coloring can create an Ethereal impression. Lighter eyes or hair relative to one's skin tone can create a youthful (Gamine or Ingenue) impression, while darker hair or eyes relative to one's skin tone can create a more mature (particularly Romantic) impression.

But coloring isn't determinative! The effects differ from person to person.

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7/19/2017 09:15:19 am

Best thing i choose to be look romantic is the colors of my dresses which are deep red, purple and the pink color increase my beauty... Truth is beauty is one of the trustworthy and informative platform from where I daily read posts and try to follow the tips to improve my beauty.

Julia

7/19/2017 05:43:22 pm

Hi Rachel,

I love your website. You have helped me enormously to discover and accept my natural colouring (lipstick draping for the win!). I am also immensely intrigued by your Style Identities, and have purchased the Style Identity Calculator, but I must confess I have trouble using it. I have tried calculating my style identity probably about a dozen times over the past several months, with VERY varying results.
Here's the thing: I find that the type of photo I use with the SIC is not only helpful, but also affects the result - if I'm smiling in the photo, I find more playful (usually Gamine or Natural) styles more acceptable. If I am not looking directly into the camera, Ethereal seems fitting ("looking into the distance"). If I, as you recommend, focus *only* on my face, Natural works (and Romantic seems... well, almost vulgar). Knowing my body, however, I know many Natural garments (the look of which I am instinctively drawn to and love!) just make me look super-frumpy and disproportional. Romantic styles do not seem to "fit" my face, but I know from experience form-fitting clothes are good for me. Or am I just *used to* wearing and liking them...? (Style Stockholm Syndrome?? Haha.)

Ultimately, I guess, my question is this: how can one really be *objective* when it comes to Style Identity Analysis? I honestly feel my knowledge of my body/face/hair (very curly!), fashion habits, coloring, as well as the mood I am in (!) all seem to significantly affect my results... The only constant seems to be that I'm a Dramatic (and almost always also Ethereal), but - again - can it really be separated from the person's character, namely the fact that I simply LIKE Dramatic (and Ethereal) looks and therefore am more likely to consider them something that would "fit" me?

Unfortunately, I have no close friends I could ask to invest the time into analyzing me using the Calculator, so I have to rely on my own attempts at understanding the system better - and your ever so enlightening and helpful explanations - to try and decode my "true" Style Identity, assuming there is (only) one.

Apologies for this lengthy a comment/question. If you manage to find the time to answer here or in one of your future blog posts, I'll be most grateful.

Rosetta

7/20/2017 04:55:02 am

Julia, I'm not Rachel, but just my two cents on this: I've concluded it's way better to do the style calculator quiz *without* using a photo, as like you said the type of photo used greatly affects the result!

I just do it keeping in mind the kind of garments you KNOW look good on you (and obviously the ones you know DON'T look good on you!), like you also mentioned. :) IMO that leads to the most accurate results.

Rachel

7/21/2017 11:53:14 am

Hi, Julia! So many great questions here. I'll try to respond helpfully.

- When I analyze other people, I *also* find that the type of picture used affects the results quite a bit. Over time, I've found I get the most accurate results with a happy face. I think this is because our best clothes complement our authentic selves, and our authentic selves are happy selves. "Happy face" doesn't have to mean an ear-to-ear grin, although it may; I suggest using the smile that you feel most flatters you.

- It's important to use a photo of yourself looking directly into the camera. Most of us don't find this our favorite type of picture; we prefer ourselves at an angle. But a photo of a face at an angle distorts the dimensions of the face. A head-on photo reveals what you actually look like, and will give the most accurate results.

- I hate to be yet another voice telling women not to trust their instincts! We get so much of that, don't we? Yet, for the sake of truthfulness, I have to say that many of us don't have an instinct for what looks good on us. I suspect that most of us are drawn to color and style analysis because we realize we often aren't objective about ourselves.

Being objective about oneself is a challenge, absolutely. When you're able to do it, you're in a state of mind where you're viewing yourself rather dispassionately, as a visual image you're responding to on an aesthetic level, but not on a personal level, or with value judgments. The aesthetic reaction is a sense of liking or not-liking, attraction or lack of attraction, that I personally sense in my chest: something there warms and lifts when I'm seeing visual harmony.

Selfies are more trustworthy than a mirror; for some reason, it's much easier to objectively evaluate a frozen image of ourselves. I also make a habit of going away from a picture of myself for a day or so, then coming back to it. Seeing myself with fresh eyes can help me notice my aesthetic reaction.

You might try this: put your picture next to one garment that you're absolutely certain complements you. In another screen, put your picture next to a garment that you're certain is awful for you. Then flip back and forth. As you flip back and forth, pay attention to what changes inside you. You should notice a switch that goes on and off, or a feeling that flows and ebbs. *That's* the feeling you should have when you're seeing yourself nect to your best clothes.

7/25/2017 09:51:05 am

I'm almost positive I don't have a single Dramatic bone in my body, but everyone always says Winters tend to have some D in their style identity. My favorite style looks like Ethereal Ingenue, I wore it long before I discovered style analysis because I thought it looked good on me. I just wear it in darker colors because I always thought these look good on me too! Obviously I can just wear the clothes I want and find retailers that produce them in colors I want and don't care about how it's called, but it's a bit weird to see people saying "wear light colors in your palette for Ethereal, avoid dark colors" because the overall effect of your style relies more on cut than on color imo. They dressed Liv Tyler in burgundy and dark green for Lord Of The Rings (which aren't the lightest colors in her palette either) and she looked just as Ethereal as Cate Blanchett in her whites and silvers!

Lilac

7/30/2017 09:50:07 pm

Hello Rachel!
I have a question: If a woman is an ingenue, but she is around 40 years old, will she still look appropriate with all those floral prints and bows? :)

Jen

4/10/2018 01:36:49 pm

I want to know the answer to this, as well!

Trisha

7/31/2017 04:10:48 am

I wason lucky enough to be style diagnosed as a Romantic/Dramatic/Natural by Rachel; something I could not see by myself, but fits me perfectly. Later I bought the colour sample full kit and self diagnosed as a Bright Spring; her online quiz had also come up with this answer. I had thought I was a deep Autumn or Winter! Just to check, I went to see an CMB consultant (at great cost) here in the UK, (I didn't say what Rachel had come up with before the consultation, only after). She found all by herself that I was Bright Spring too, so all confirmed! This very question of how to put those two elements together has been in my mind this year. I also lead a very casual, at home life, not at all dressy or in romantic or dramatic dresses most of the time. All natural looks entirely wrong though. So, I have tentatively gone for a still feminine look with peachy pink and turqoise tops and jeans/ leggings and jewellery, also little boots and bags that add an element of casual drama in black or darker, brighter pinks etc to add contrast I need in colour (I have dark hair and eyes and very pale skin). Not sure that I am totally getting it right, but I play with fairly cheap things from H&M etc and see what feels right. Selfies are important and always take one in the mirror in the fitting room before purchase!

Jamie

5/2/2018 02:49:15 am

Hi! I have a Classic Style ID and my season is Bright Spring. Isn’t it that Classics look good in neutrals? Should I stick to Bright Spring neutrals? Isn’t that too boring when my season calls for bright contrasting colors? Thank you.

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How Do I Combine My Season with My Style Identity?

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