Namaste, Dear Readers!
Greetings from an autumnal Seoul...
We're still having hot days, although the mornings and evenings are cooler.
Here are my thoughts & learning from my Project 333 this week. :-)
Outfit #1. Casual Jeans | Color Ratios
I really love my light blue jeans and slightly fitted T-shirt. As I'm noticing the color groupings in this outfit, I can see how having less colors in one outfit is really important. Back in the day, I used to wear too many divergent styles and colors in one outfit. And so the lack of cohesion left me looking like a hot mess.
I see how here, there's my hair and phone that are both dark in value, against my skin color in my face, neck, and arms. Then, my lip color and my bag are the reddish hues. While the clothing items are all in light blue; with my watch strap that is a slightly darker blue. So, that's 4 different color groups. And my fashion items are either wine red, light blue, or little bits of darkened silver.
70% Light Blue
20% Wine red
5% Skin
5% Brown-black
OK. So, that's not exact math. But it's a good shorthand as a formula for future outfit combos.
Outfit #2. Work Wear | For Days When I Wear Glasses
In an ideal world, I wouldn't need glasses... but alas, my eyes require aid. And as I get older, wearing colored contact lenses everyday is no longer my reality. [Insert Grief Mode]
So, I get to wear glasses at least twice a week. Or more.
And as my glasses are wine-ish hue, I need to be careful with my color choices. Even though they are close-ish to the dark value of my hair, it still has redness, so I find that it's easier to make an outfit work, when I have less colors.
This outfit is a great example to illustrate that point. Here, my clothes are white pin-striped blouse + black pencil skirt with a slit. My skirt repeats my hair color. My bag matches my glasses. My lip color is a bright red which is in the same color family as the wine color. So, it's a simple black + white + wine/red combo.
50% Black
30% White
15% Wine/Red
5% Skin Color (My legs are not shown but they're included in the 5%)
Please forgive my rough math percentages here. Maybe when I can get a full length photo, I could use ChatGPT or Manus AI to calculate more accurate percentages.
Outfit #3. Goth Fash Lover Outfit | Gym Girl Mode
So, here's my favorite outfit among all of my 33 items thus far. I have added in a darkened silver necklace to my boxy Goth T-shirt. And for the first time ever, a lady who works at my neighborhood duck meat restaurant asked me if I was a fashion designer! Lol, that rarely ever happens to me in Seoul! My best friend is very bold in her fashion choices, so it's always her who gets noticed for her style.
The weirder thing too is that I wore this Tshirt like 20 times already, in the past 3-4 years. And nobody ever commented on it. So, I don't know. Is it the power off accessorizing? The necklace was the most visibly NEW thing I wore with this T-shirt.
Or was it the overall 'small improvements' I made, as I kept wearing my 33 items? Eg. My hair is consistently coiffed better, as I'm familiarizing myself with putting hair styling products (usually icky in texture!), more consistent with putting on makeup even for mundane occasions, and wearing lenses (they really matter visually).
When I began this blog way way way back in April 2011 (yikes! That's 15 years ago!), I had so little real knowledge on how to truly know what looked good on me, or how to look like I wanted to. I feel like after 15 years, I'm still learning how to style my hair better.
And after my explorations, endless shopping, trying things on, as well as the runway experiences, I see how Courage was the most crucial element.
Being a people pleaser and an Adler Lifestyle Assessment type known as 'Pleasing and Pleasure Seeking Type' as well as having a primary Goddess, and knowing my astrology based Selves (Natal-Draconic-Progressed), I have great building blocks to craft outfits that I find pleasing to my aesthetic sensibility. But as they say, God is in the details. And I'm still learning how to craft a better ensemble.
The thing about Style is that the fabric clothes are only the beginning.
I think it was Bridgette Raes who uses the term 'Chicken Outfits' to explain the importance of accessories and styling an outfit.
Creating a cohesive aesthetic Look requires orchestrating a very directed sequence of styling skills and efforting. The hair can't look a certain way without products that are often gunky or sticky. Getting over this hurdle as I don't like putting any products on my hair is an on-going thing! Wearing glasses vs contact lenses really forms a Crossroads moment in how an outfit looks. With glasses, you can't escape a certain Librarian Vibe, and it limits a lot of fashion styling choices. It 'clutters up' very quickly! Then, there's the skincare + makeup routine. This also determines the overall Level of Refinement or how put together you look. Even though, the hair trumps a lot of elements, if I wear zero makeup, I end up with 'Sleepy Vibes.'
Having Style Bundles - which is a concept the late Brenda Kinsel uses in her book "Fashion Makeover" however, streamlines the Accessorizing & Streamlining aspect of dressing for impact. For instance, having a chunky watch, 2 bracelets, 2 rings, and a necklace that go with it, instantly creates the Rock Punk Vibes. This part of me correlates to my Adlerian auxiliary type, Superiority Seeking identity. I like chunky. I NEED chunky. I express that through watches with big faces, mostly men's watches. I rarely like dainty small watch faces. I also express this through my chunky soles and platform shoes. I feel I'm more ME when I wear substantial soles.
It's fascinating too, that one of the transitions I'm going through is that I'm doing a committed practice of 5 minutes of creativity daily (not so daily). And so, I do some singing, hip hop dancing, wedding gown sketching, memoir writing, blogging with selfies (this blog post series!), and bag designing. Just the daily 5 minutes of creativity is really propelling me forward in my fashion & styling journey! They really help me to embody all aspects within me. And they encourage me to stop Self-Dimming. To stop putting other people before me. And to abstain from Self Abandonment.
Namaste, my Style Readers.
Wishing you joy & the gift of Self-Expression today!
xoxo
Noemi Nobu-Foxx
