Spring for the Style Essences (Esp. Gamine)
This post focuses on the literal spring season rather than the Spring color season! : )
I’m ecstatic that it’s almost March 20th!
Here’s spring style staples for every essence. Plus, learn about what spring and Gamine have in common, and the many magical traits of Gamine.
Classic Spring Staple
The simplest Classic spring basic: the button-down.
To have more fun with it, you can add layers, like a top beneath in a contrasting (but still conservative) color, or a simple belt to create a peplum-style shape.
The Classic button-down or Classic Tee is also a great canvas for a dress, especially if you’re a Classic blend:
Gamine Spring Staple
A Classic Tee plus a fun, structured Gamine denim dress.
Various denim pieces are awesome for Gamine, and also for:
Natural
Loose denim and chambray tops are a perfect Natural warm(er) weather staple.
So are relaxed-fit jeans—wear them separately, or combine a denim top and jeans for a “Canadian tuxedo” effect.
Choose a lighter wash to really communicate spring’s sun-lightened feel.
Dramatic
Large amounts of navy might not scream spring, but a sleeveless structured top paired with long tailored pants suits warmer weather and evokes Dramatic. (Especially with a monochromatic color scheme.)
To make it undeniably spring, choose medium to lightweight (but still structured or tailored) fabrics.
Ingenue
Ingenues are amazing in spring’s knee-length and midi floral dresses.
Look for details like rounded but not revealing necklines, subtle puff sleeves, and smocking at the waist or hems.
Also ensure that the floral feels tiny and delicate, since more elaborate florals tend to be:
Romantic
Floral blouses and dresses are also fantastic Romantic spring staples.
Look for fitted, waist-emphasizing styles, especially wrap-tops.
Fabric that wraps around the body tends to appear sensuous and alluring. This high-neck top illustrates how you can wear Romantic fashion while remaining relatively covered.
Ethereal
The Ethereal spring staple is a flowy maxi skirt or maxi dress. Or, as shown here, the maxi jumpsuit!
To make it Ethereal, look for unconstructed, lightweight, and flowy fabrics that stay relatively close to the body without being skin-tight.
What about Color Season?
All 7 essences have spring style options. But can any color season wear warm weather fashion?
Definitely! The above spring fashion staples are mostly in various of shades of blue (and neutrals). And you can find various shades of blue (and neutrals) in any of the 12 seasonal color palettes.
Blue echoes spring’s vibe by making us think of clear skies and budding flowers.
Your palette’s most pigmented oranges, yellows, and pinks are also excellent for expressing a cheerful, warmer weather feel.
And intriguingly, those cheerful hues aren’t just iconic in spring fashion—they’re also iconically Gamine.
Gamine and Warm Weather Fashion
Many of us are drawn not just to literal but also figurative warmth: drawn to people, shows, and activities that make us smile and laugh, and that create a lighthearted, elevated mood.
The power to create this mood is one of the many amazing abilities of the Gamine essence.
Gamine is like joy personified. Highly Gamine faces look playful, lively, and effervescent. And so does Gamine fashion.
If you have Gamine, you get to dress in creative, playful ways that inherently boost people’s moods.
You also visually embody qualities that most people find extremely attractive—joyfulness, vitality, and positivity.
And as mentioned, Gamine fashion has a lot of overlap with spring fashion.
Here are key elements of Gamine fashion that can also be completely appropriate for spring:
Exuberant Color
Spring’s defining colors—like vibrant oranges and yellows—perfectly embody Gamine. In a literal sense, they mimic the colors of spring’s blooming florals. And in a figurative sense, they symbolize Gamine’s (and spring’s) energy and aliveness.
This is a great Gamine vivid orange cropped jacket with playful staggered lapels and narrow fitted pants (assuming the pants stay narrow and don’t turn into boot cuts or flares).
To make this outfit more dress code appropriate, layer it over a neutral shirt—or even a boldly colored one. Gamine is especially flattered by fearless color-blocking.
You can also choose tops where the color-combining has been done for you:
Inventive Prints
Out of all the essences, Gamine is the ultimate wearer of creative, colorful prints.
Cold-shoulder tops are often Romantic, but this one reads as a square (Gamine) top combined with Ingenue ruffles. If it’s a cooler day, or if shoulders violate your dress code, you could layer a long- or short-sleeve top under the cold-shoulder one. (A plain neutral is the obvious choice for the underlayer, but you could even choose a bold color—it is hard to emphasize enough that Gamine is emphatic and bold!)
Print-Mixing
Another fun aspect of having Gamine: you get to play with print-mixing, whether that’s polka-dots with stripes, stripes with plaids, plaids with other plaids, or any other combination you can imagine.
Here the color palette reads more stereotypically autumn than spring, and the loose flannel has a Natural silhouette. But the print combo feels so lively—extremely Gamine, and more like high-energy spring than autumn’s laidback vibe. (The not-completely-mainstream choice of wearing shorts over pants is also very Gamine.)
Print-mixing can take some practice. Some tips for success:
Pair prints that share similar colors (as seen above)
Pair prints with different scales (like larger scale with smaller scale)
Pair simpler with more complicated prints. (If you’re trying to print-mix with a complicated print, consider pairing it with something that reads as more “basic,” like a black and white stripe. Iconic prints like leopard can also read as “basic” prints, since they’re so familiar.)
Graphic Tees (and Mini Skirts)
Graphic tees with loud prints are another Gamine staple (though baggy Tees typically have Natural, too, and sometimes the Tee’s print will add other essences).
Gamine is great in mini skirts, too, especially when they form mostly straight shapes in colorful hues.
Gamine Symbolism
One of the coolest things about style analysis is that all seven essences symbolize such important and meaningful traits. (You can even argue they embody the meaning of life.)
Specifically, the style essences seem to symbolize core human needs or desires: things like love and passion for Romantic; friendship and commitment for Natural; and knowledge and transcedence for Ethereal.
Many people agree that Gamine shapes (which tend to be short and sharp, though can also take on other shapes in faces and fashion) tend to symbolize qualities like boldness, liveliness, and playfulness.
Here’s a summary of just some of the other incredible concepts that Gamine faces and fashion can symbolize:
Creativity and Innovation (like through inventive prints)
Open-mindedness (like by Gamine’s tendency to combine pieces that may initially not seem to go together)
Humor (like by combining pieces in a way that makes us smile and feel surprised)
Positivity (through cheerful colors)
Fun and Joy (through all of the above)
If you have Gamine, you visually embody some of the most meaningful and enjoyable concepts in existence.
And just like spring, Gamine even embodies life itself—creation, vitality, change, and growth.
