365 True Things: 288/Clothes

A friend once observed that I don't dress; I put on clothes.

That's sadly true. My "style," such as it is, is casual to a fault. Jeans and t-shirts, a sweater or fleece jacket if it's chilly. My one concession to dressing up—since I can't dress much more down—is to wear a pair of leather boots.

I'm cleaning out some boxes of papers today, and I stumbled on a thirty-year-old remnant of a vague attempt to have some "personal style": a color analysis. As I recall, the analyst, whose name was John Kitchen, held pieces of fabric up to my face. It was that scientific. I think there was something about the shape of my face as well.

My results: ANIMATED Color Harmony 55%; SOFT secondary qualities 45%. I think that translates to primary colors and pastels. I do not remember what other categories there were.

Note: no orange.

On the beautifully calligraphed sheet that tells me those things I also wrote a breakdown (this may be where face shape came in):

Dramatic 0
Natural/Sportive 30
Classic 25
Romantic 0
Gamin/Pixie 5
Ingenue 40

The only one I identify with is Natural/Sportive, but that's probably because I don't know what the others mean. Well, Dramatic: I know what that means, and it's perfectly right that I get a 0 there.

When I told my mother that I'd done this, and then gone ahead and bought some clothes (I distinctly remember a yellow knit pant suit, shudder), and even gotten my one and only makeover, she commented that I should enjoy dressing beautifully while I was still young and had the looks to flaunt.

I did not follow her advice, or really class up my clothing act. I did, for a while, try to choose colors that were in my palette. At least there was that.

When it comes down to it, though, I'd rather just be comfortable in my clothes. Style is not in my repertoire.