Style Essences, Perfectionism, and Identity?
Style analysis and self-criticism
If you’re like most people, you’ve probably criticized your appearance at least once or twice. Especially in the era of social media and selfies, it’s very easy to sometimes be (hyper)critical of your looks—and to convict your facial features as the culprits.
When you don’t know about style analysis, it’s very easy to, for example, wear a top that doesn’t harmonize with your essences and conclude that you dislike the shape of your nose or chin or face overall.
When you don’t know about style analysis, it’s extremely easy to judge your face based on how it looks paired with any type of outfit, makeup, or hairstyle, regardless of whether that styling is harmonious on you.
Shifting perspective
Style essence theory can provide an amazing perspective shift. The theory offers these refreshing truths:
You can’t look your best in every kind of clothing style, hairstyle, and makeup
It’s unrealistic to expect to look harmonious in every type of styling
And looking unharmonious is so different than looking unbeautiful
Because the truth is, no matter what you’re wearing, you are still beautiful. Your facial features don’t change even when framed by styles that don’t flatter you.
But because of the way the human mind works—because of the mind’s tendency to make comparisons to surrounding elements—it can feel like your facial features are changing based on what surrounds them.
If you know your style type, then you’ll not only be able to select harmonious outfits—you’ll also be able to recognize and appreciate your beauty regardless of what you’re wearing.
You’ll be able to perceive that your face is beautifully Dramatic, Gamine, Natural, Ethereal, Classic, Romantic, and/or Ingenue, and that your face still has its gorgeous literal and figurative qualities even when paired with an outfit that doesn’t ideally harmonize with your unique beauty.
Style analysis as a metaphor for life
Style essence analysis might be especially helpful for people with perfectionistic tendencies, because:
Style analysis helps you “blame” your outfits, hair, and makeup when you don’t look your best, rather than blaming your facial features.
By acknowledging that no one can look their best in everything, style analysis frees you from always having to look your best or up to any arbitrary aesthetic standard. Style analysis lets you acknowledge that sometimes your outfit and face might not ideally harmonize, and that that’s totally ok—it doesn’t mean that something is wrong with your face or that your face deserves criticism. It just means that your face doesn’t match its context.
This isn’t to say that style analysis can completely cure perfectionism. But at the core of style analysis is a principle that’s extremely useful not just for aesthetics but for every aspect of life: context matters. Context influences perception.
Context matters
We know this, for example, about intelligence. People are intelligent in different fields, so if you judge a person’s intelligence by how they perform only in one area—only in math or music or art or athletics, etc.—then you have a biased assessment. You aren’t getting an accurate picture of the true potential of that person’s intelligence.
Similarly, if you judge your appearance only in unharmonious contexts—only in unharmonious outfits, hair, and makeup—then you aren’t getting an accurate picture of the true potential of your beauty.
Critically, even when you learn your essences, the risk of perfectionism and unrealistic standards still remains. Even if you accept that as a Romantic Natural Gamine, you won’t look your best in the other four essences, you could still have the mindset of, “Well I need to figure out how to look 100% perfect in Romantic Natural Gamine styling and if I don’t then I’ve failed and I’m not sufficiently beautiful.”
Wouldn’t recommend that mindset.
Again, style analysis isn’t a cure for perfectionism or other unrealistic, unhealthy thinking patterns. But it can potentially be a helpful step in the process of becoming less perfectionistic, because it enforces the idea that context matters, and that it’s never fair to judge yourself—aesthetically or otherwise—without considering the context.
Style analysis and identity
Style analysis can also function as a metaphor for developing a core identity and sense of self-worth.
Just as learning your essences can help you see yourself as beautiful regardless of what you’re wearing, the principle that “context matters” can help you see yourself as having positive internal qualities even when your environment is suboptimal for highlighting those internal qualities.
For example, if you’re a very people-oriented, highly extraverted person, you may struggle in environments that require mostly independent work. Conversely, if you’re very introverted, you may struggle in environments that require constant interaction with many people.
And it’s easy to feel that we’re lacking when we have to navigate an environment that isn’t ideally suited to our personality or abilities.
But the principle that “context matters” can help us recognize that we still have valuable qualities even when we’re in an environment that doesn’t ideally suit those qualities. No one can be good at everything, and our worth isn’t diminished just because we may struggle in certain contexts.
Not every work or school or other environment is optimally suited to your identity—to your personality, abilities, values, or beliefs—just as not every outfit is optimally suited to your face.
If you can internalize the principle that “context matters,” and if you can be compassionate to yourself when your internal identity isn’t ideally suited to your environment, then this can help promote self-acceptance and a healthy self-image.
The best part
One of the coolest parts about style analysis theory is that when you really internalize its principles, you won’t just look more beautiful in clothes that fit your essences—you’ll look more beautiful in all clothes, in all contexts, because you’ll be able to better understand and appreciate your outer beauty, regardless of what you’re wearing.
And you’ll have a psychological metaphor for recognizing and appreciating your internal qualities—like your personality, values, and beliefs—even at times when your environment doesn’t optimally harmonize with your inner self.
Summary
Because you have beautifully unique facial geometry, it’s not possible to look harmonious in every type of fashion (or hair or makeup)
Just as your external features won’t look harmonious in every fashion style, your internal qualities (like your personality, abilities, interests, or values) may not be ideally suited to every type of environment you find yourself in
Your external beauty isn’t determined by how you look in unharmonious outfits. And your internal ability isn’t determined by how you perform in unharmonious environments
Style analysis can be a useful metaphor for having self-acceptance and self-compassion if you find yourself in an unharmonious environment
It can also be a useful metaphor for seeking out positive external environments that allow you to express your unique personality, abilities, and values
