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Find and refine your personal style.

Having your personal fashion style not only raises your confidence in your image, but it also helps make shopping a more pleasant experience. If you find the sheer amount of clothes available to buy overwhelming, developing a personal style is definitely for you!

How do you find your personal style?
Personal style is not static; it changes and evolves as we grow and our lives change. But there are ways and methods to help you determine what suits you fashion-wise.

Two such useful tools are your colour palette and your style essence. Working with these tools will ensure that you will project a consistent personal image through your outfits.

Having a personal colour palette that you like and that brings out your natural appearance is so important if you don't want to look washed out.

And knowing your style essences will help you make sure your clothes truly suit and flatter you.

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Colour Analysis

The main tool that will help you develop your personal colour palette is (seasonal) colour analysis. The aim of this process is to match you with those colours that complement your natural appearance - your skin, eyes, and hair.

In this section, you will find resources explaining how seasonal colour analysis works and how to find your colour season.

Colour Analysis for People of Colour

Even though colour analysis was first developed with white people in mind, everyone can benefit from wearing the right colours. This article will show you how to determine your colour season if you are a person of colour.

Style Essences

Style essences or style identities are types of beauty or the natural lines and shapes of your face and body repeated in clothing. They teach us that clothing that repeats those lines looks natural and harmonious on us, whereas clothing that breaks with those lines looks off or uncomfortable.

By identifying your style essences, you will discover the best silhouettes, fabrics and patterns for you.

In this section, you will find resources on style essences and guidance to help you identify your blend of style essences.

Kibbe Body Types

The Kibbe body types are an array of 13 style style types that are based on physical characteristics and the principle of yin and yang. The theory was introduced during the 1980s by personal image consultant David Kibbe and breaks with traditional body type theories in that it doesn't seek balance but harmony.

In this section, you will find resources on Kibbe's archetype theory and guidance to help you find your Kibbe archetype.

Note: In Kibbe's book, the body types are called archetypes, as they are not body types per se.
On the internet, they have (incorrectly) become known as Kibbe body types. I will therefore use the two terms interchangeably.

Body Shape Analysis

The traditional body shape analysis is concerned with creating a symmetric silhouette. Though a little outdated and not as comprehensive as the above two theories, this is still a very popular theory.
If you are concerned about asymmetrical parts of your body, this theory will help you balance them out.