What Is Your Fashion Personality?

Do you know what your fashion personality is?  

Are you dramatic, romantic, sporty-natural, timeless classic or a combination?

How can discovering and understanding your fashion personality, enable you to present your most authentic self to others?

• It will be easier to be “yourself,” no matter where you go or who you meet because you feel truly comfortable physically and psychologically.

• When you feel “at home,” in your clothes and accessories, none of your energy is drained by physical or psychological discomfort.

• Your clothes and accessories will feel more like a second skin than a costume.

When you feel totally comfortable, you can be:                                                                        more playful

                                        more confident

                                        more energetic                                                                                                    

I believe fashion personality is an extension of our temperament and with us from an early age.  When I talk about “fashion personality” I am not referring to color, I am referring to style.

When you understand your fashion personality, it’s easier to shop for clothing and combine pieces you feel “at home in.”

This is the first in a series, describing different fashion personalities with photos of real people.

 These fashion personality posts with photos are not necessarily of clients, but people I meet and who give me permission to photograph and write about them.

Natalie J. Sokoloff, Time-less Class, Sporty-Natural-Dramatic Fashion Personality

I met Natalie J Sokoloff recently at a holiday celebration.  Natalie is a sociologist who has traveled all over the world.  When I first saw her I guessed she was a combination of two types,  “sporty-natural and dramatic,” fashion personality.

When I gave her the “fashion personality test,” I discovered she has a combination of three styles.  She has a time-less classic, sporty-natural, dramatic fashion personality.  The time-less classic part of her personality was the least obvious to me.

For more information, explanation and photos of different fashion personalities see my previous blog post. Permalink: http://blog.wardrobewiz.com/140/

Natalie told me she likes to be comfortable (sporty-natural) and only buys things that are on sale.  The vest she is wearing (time-less classic, dramatic) was purchased at Chicos on sale.   Her black tights and brown shoes are sporty-natural.

Natalie  says she always wears jewelry and has collected beautiful jewelry (dramatic) from her travels all over the world.

Why did I find how she dressed  so visually interesting?

1. She was casually dressed and looked comfortable yet “put together.”

2. She repeated colors, her shoes were the same color as her vest and had a shade of her hair in them.

   

   Brown shoes pick up a shade of her hair color

3. She combined some unexpected pieces.  (The textured vest, over a longer textured tunic top)

4. She wore interesting jewelry that had texture and a little shine but not too much shine.  (some color types, like me, a “Contrast Color Type,” need shiny jewelry) but not Natalie.

   

   textured vest over textured tunic

    

If you have a sporty-natural, fashion personality you probably like clothes that don’t need ironing and you must have a hair style that is easy to care for.  It’s very important for you to always feel comfortable in your clothes.  This means you prefer wearing clothes made of fabric that moves and breathes, (think knits and natural fibers.) 

If you have a dramatic fashion personality, you like to make a statement with what you wear and you don’t mind being noticed and even standing out from the crowd.

If you have a timeless classic fashion personality, you don’t buy the latest fads but prefer tried and true styles.

If you have a romantic fashion personality you like looking and feeling feminine.  You might do this with perfume, long skirts, dresses, flowing fabric and even ruffles.

The reason I thought Natalie was a “dramatic-sporty-natural,” instead of just a “sporty-natural,” was the jewelry she was wearing and her choice of dramatic clothing pieces

Since Natalie is not my client, I only had 2 suggestions for her.  (If she were my client and I had draped her and determined her color type and seen her existing wardrobe, I would have lots of tips and suggestions to make dressing and shopping easier for her.)

• I suggested she get smaller, more angular eyeglasses.  She told me when she tried smaller frames because she wears bifocals, it was too difficult to see out of the smaller frames.   (Another option for her would be to use contact lenses, or if she ever has to get cataracts removed, lenses will be implanted in her eyes to correct her vision and she will then only need reading glasses, which can easily be used in a smaller frame.)

• Brown that is similar to her hair color would be a better dark neutral than black for her. (Natalie said she has a lot of black clothes but always wears color with the black)  She should keep the black away from her face.  (If black is not one of your best dark neutrals, it can drain the color out of your face as well as emphasize shadows and wrinkles.