Here at 16 Style Types, we are all about helping you get more closely in touch with your style essence. That’s what we mean by our tagline: the psychology of style. We provide you with a completely new approach to claiming your personal style by understanding your personality type. It’s style from the inside out.
We have spent considerable time pulling apart two style concepts which are often interwoven and used interchangeably – style essence and style expression.
In our experience and based on our research, our perspective is that style essence and style expression are two separate yet inter-dependent style concepts and ideas – they relate to one another, they are part of the same style equation, but they are most definitely not the same thing.
You can read more about how we believe that identifying your style essence by discovering your Style Type is the missing piece in this article.
Don’t Be Confused
When you confuse style essence and style expression and treat them as though they were the same thing, your style journey can be problematic. This confusion has gotten in the way of many women coming to a clearer understanding of and relationship to their authentic style pathway.
Like any good equation, you need to put the components in their proper place. Understanding your style essence comes first – next comes the expression of your style.
Watch The Video
In this video, Imogen, Jill and Jane talk about how you can successfully travel from an understanding of your style essence to confidently expressing your style.
Your Style Statement or Recipe
One of the first steps to journeying between your style essence and your style expression is identifying your style recipe or style statement.
Your style recipe constitutes the ingredients that go into making up your unique style. It’s also known as a style statement which is two or more words that represent how you want to experience style.
You can start to create your style recipe by identifying a handful of words that represent your style. For example, your style statement may include “unique”, as Jane explains in the video as a key driver as part of her INFJ style pathway.
The second part of your style statement is then identifying items of clothing and accessories, including shoes, which encompass these key words in your style statement. For Jane, she talks in the video about the necklace she’s wearing, and how it represents — perfectly for her — the uniqueness she so needs to feel authentic in her style.
And so it is that you can start to walk the pathway between style essence and style expression. Identify first your style statement, then start to identify pieces which embody that style statement.
When you discover your Style Type, you receive also a Style Profile – a resource that walks you step by step through this process of identifying your style statement PLUS through many other steps which help you bring your style essence and your style expression more closely together. It’s a fabulous resource only available to those who discover or download their Style Type.
The Super Styles and How They Help You Bridge Style Essence and Style Expression
In the video, we also discuss the 4 Super Styles and how these can be used to develop and walk your authentic style pathway. You can read more about the Super Styles, identifying yours first, and then how you can use your Super Style to navigate your style pathway.
The Super Styles, being only four groups (instead of the 16 groups for the 16 Style Types) are a simpler way to get in touch with your style essence. They lack the specific details that understanding your Style Type brings, but the upside is that there isn’t as much information to take in or remember, as these are the ‘broad brush strokes’ of your style essence.
We also discuss in the video how the Super Styles act as a compass, helping you navigate and ‘journey home’ to your true style essence.
What your Style Essence Can’t Tell You
Understanding your style essence is a huge breakthrough for many women. We have received reports from women around the world who have told us the relief they have felt, the acknowledgement they have received, and the insights they have gained by finally — finally — having their style essence explained. Receiving their Style Report has been a homecoming, a journey of enormous illumination – their approach to style has been honoured!
This is a huge benefit to any woman travelling her authentic style journey. And (and it’s definitely an and not a but) discovering your Style Type and embracing your style essence does not tell you everything there is about your style.
You can read more about what your style essence (and your Style Type Report) can and cannot tell you here, and why there’s so much more to the style – and life – picture than your style essence here.
Travel Your Authentic True Style Pathway
You can read more about your individual style pathway by clicking on the Articles – Psychological Type link and dropping down to your particular Style Type, we have 16 articles on authentic style pathways – one for each of the 16 Style Types.
If you are yet to discover your style type, when is there ever going to be a better time than now? Click here to discover your style type.
