How Should I Wear Separates?

I didn't even think about separates before I knew my style type. But how you put separates together actually has a big effect on the impression you make. 

Romantics, Ethereals, Classic, and Dramatics are each best in a head-to-toe look. If you think about it, this makes sense, because all four of these types are formal and grown-up in their own way: the Romantic is mature womanly sexiness, the Classic is a "ladylike" adult woman, the Dramatic is a powerful ruler, and the Ethereal is an immortal being. None of these pure types is youthful or casual enough to look her best in an obvious use of separates.
​

Creating a head-to-toe look can seem difficult, because pretty much everything in the stores these days is separates. You'll occasionally have opportunities to purchase items as a set, but they can be hard to find. 

Often, the easiest way to create a head-to-toe look is to choose separates that are all the same color. When the color is a shocking hue, or pure white or pure black, this is an especially good look for Dramatics. 

​If you want to avoid the drama of a monochromatic look, you can also create a head-to-toe effect by repeating two main colors in different places. ​

Two main colors repeated in different places in the outfit creates the impression that the garments were purchased as a set.

Another easy way to do a head-to-toe look is to just wear a dress.  Ethereals, Romantics, and Classics have a lot of great dress options. 

Two fairly Ethereal separates, thrown together casually.

If you find it very difficult to create a head-to-toe look, the good news is that if even one of your essences is an essence that looks good in separates -- Natural, Ingenue, or Gamine -- you can bring in that essence through your use of separates. I'm an Ethereal Natural, and I tend to do this, because it's easy. I own a lot of very Ethereal separates, and when I throw them together casually, the effect reads as Natural. 

​Speaking of which: the message a Natural sends with her use of separates is, "I own nothing but separates, and I basically just throw them together because that's how confident I am, but the effect is never weird, because I can't be bothered to put in enough effort to make it deliberately weird, because that's how casual I am." 

A Natural use of separates looks unplanned, but not attention-getting. If it were an attention-getting look, that would imply that a Natural cares what anyone thinks, and part of the Natural impression is the sense that she's not dressing for the viewer. 

A Natural: not dressing for the viewer! She's dressing for comfort, and she's not overthinking it.

You can tell an Ingenue is wearing separates, but you can also tell she's paired them carefully to look harmonious and pretty.

An Ingenue's use of separates says, "Because of my childlike quality, I own mostly separates, but I am careful to put them together in a way that is harmonious and lovely to the eye, because I want to look pretty and finished." 

​

​

​A Gamine's use of separates says, "I deliberately combine separates no one else would dare to put together, because that's how fun and quirky I am. I want you to notice!"

Gamine's use of separates says, "You bet I did this on purpose. I want to make you chuckle!"

Like Naturals, Gamines don't aim to carefully coordinate separates. But unlike a Natural, a Gamine looks like she's definitely dressing for the viewer: she wants to make you smile and laugh. So the use of separates looks simultaneously carefully planned and really unusual. 

If you're a blend of two or three types, as most women are, and you manifest Natural, Gamine, or Ingenue through your use of separates, you'll want to lean a bit more heavily on your other essence (or two) to balance the effect. So, for example, A Natural-Classic-Ingenue combining separates in a casual, Natural way would take extra care to bring in Classic and Ingenue in other aspects of her look.



​

If you're not sure of your style type, try the Style ID Calculator!