Oh my gosh - I am back in the midwest staying with my mother and we just went to a church potluck today! I'm positive that some of the dishes lined up on the tables were taken straight out of the vintage mold recipe books!

I think whether something like Kibbe is appealing to you comes down to personality. For me, having boundaries and an analytical approach is more fun than just sort of going about it blindly. I think that we all develop, with time, an understanding of what works for us and what doesn't. And for me, Kibbe gives me a detailed list of the things that do, and they really do work for me. If I stick with my type, the things I buy will be things that look really good on me and that I will wear over and over.

I do know that for some people, it sounds really boring and limiting. I think it definitely comes down to personality types and the way your mind works. I have never seen so many female INTJs in one place as I do in Kibbe groups!

I enjoy the analytical side of dressing and shopping, but I don't let myself become bogged down by it. For instance, I hadn't heard of Kibbe until quite recently, and haven't read the book, but I did the quiz out of curiosity to see if it threw up anything which might be useful. I took away anything that seemed relevant to me and left the rest.

I think that guidelines are useful, especially for those who are less confident about their style, and that we need to be aware of the "rules" before we can go our own way. In the end, though, our best guidelines can be our intuition and a good, all-round mirror.

I love analyzing everything and understanding why something works. I am not sure if I will be interested in Kibbe, Kitchener, etc. next month. I am INFP by the way psychedelicate.

Style Fan, I'm not super into MBTI, but it does seem to attract intuitives rather than sensors for the most part

I didn't understand Kibbe at all until I saw the quiz. When I did the quiz and every answer except two came out the same and put me in the Dramatic category, I was surprised and it made me look closer. I am most definitely the analytical type though as everyone here knows, but not when I am shopping.m I let my heart and intuition lead the way. I need more thought when I shop, and less here I guess!

Oh, and you should see the Gelatin stacked in the grocery stores in MI! I was just there visiting family. We consider ourselves Midwesterners. Oh my! I have to check our grocery store, but I don't think we have as much.

I'm with KM and rachylou. I find it mildly entertaining, like astrology, but actually give it a little less credence than color analysis, based on what I've read. Every time I've tried one of the quizzes, I get frustrated at the level of analysis, and I'm saying that as a person who is highly analytical in many aspects of my life!

But I get the feeling that you can take this stuff so far and end up being in a category of one. Yes, I am Janet-shaped, and that's the final analysis. But I am not just a shape or an assortment of lines, planes, and features. All of the Kibbe stuff I have seen focuses on the visual and ignores personality and preferences (I understand that perhaps the book takes this more into account, but I have not seen that in the threads). So yeah, what if I'm supposed to be some sort of Romantic (which seemed to be one of the more apt categories for me) and that means I should be dressing in flounces and ruffles and details? That's just. not. me. I dunno, I just can't get into that, when I've done it before at other times in my life and it has made me feel unfab. My style is getting simpler lately, and I'm happier for it. I tend to be much more instinctive and emotional about my dressing, despite my analytical side (although I am an INFP).

My final analysis is in my mirror, my heart, and my gut.

My mother was from the midwest, so that's the food I grew up eating, even though I grew up in the south. She never used a recipe except for baking, so I had to learn to cook by being in the kitchen with her. Later, after I got married, I started using recipes to learn to cook a wider variety of things. I also learned the importance of following a formula when it came to baking, and the importance of going by feel (of the dough) when making homemade bread and pizza.

So here's the thing. Through cooking, I learned how to both follow and break rules, and I developed some judgement and intuition. I try to do the same with the way I dress, and love to read everything I can about fashion and style. It's all about learning and growing. Sometimes I follow a formula, and sometimes I use my own judgement.

I have to ignore the pictures in Kibbe's book and concentrate on his recommendations--particularly what to avoid.

I can't get into the analytical boxes either. In my personal life I'm usually looking to escape analysis. That's why I like fashion and escapist novels.

Somehow this made me think of the Myers Briggs personality boxes, so I googled that and of course it's been discussed on the forum in the past <http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....your-style>, but I thought this pinterest board with outfits for different personality type was amusing:<https://www.pinterest.com/ahme.....bti-types/>

I don't know how to give the little awards to people, bettycrocker, but I really like that cooking analogy!
Kibbe, in all actuality, is no different than the body shape guidelines many people here follow. It gets combined with personal style and personality for some reason (and part of that is his own fault), but at its core, it's really just about dressing for your body lines. If you are in the right type, the lines he prescribes work really well and easily, and then you can express anything you want using them. So I don't see why it's any different than people discussing their X or V body shapes, etc.

I can't go far down the Kibbe rabbit hole but I did look at some of the information approprio recently posted and I found it interesting. I just put it in the big stew pot of information, along with body type guidelines, etc. -- for me to consider.

I can see how some people who are really analytical in a certain way would love to immerse themselves in all the detail, as there is a lot to chew on. For me, it was more of just a quick hit.

But to each her own! There are SO MANY different approaches to fashion, dressing, wardrobe management, shopping, etc., represented on this forum. I'm not sure we have to shut down any line of inquiry.

(Anna, hugs and nice to see you back on the forum this morning. I missed you. And am thinking about Dad's op tomorrow. Much love).

Thanks for the kind words about me and YLF. I wholeheartedly believe that there is only ONE style rule, and you know which that is. The rest is a guide that you can take or leave depending on whether it helps or annoys you.

The happiness-factor of an outfit is the point in all of this so high five. The way we establish that level of happiness differs among people. Some enjoy an enormous amount of style analysis, while others prefer the bare minimum. Personally I can't go down Kibbe's rabbit hole because I wouldn't enjoy it, unless I took it with a big grain of salt (like my astrological forecast). I do understand the appeal of the analysis though, and respect the popularity of it on this forum. As long as people enjoy the process, it's all good. You make important points about why the analysis can be dated and incomplete, and it's my job to gently remind people when that happens.

Hah yeah. Sorry about that. I had no idea it was going to provoke that level of discussion. And I've just come back from a week away to find it still raging.

I guess I enjoyed the parlour game and I think there's quite some merit in the underlying principles, which aren't as vague or nonsensical as they appear at first glance. I'm still processing some of the learnings, which may or may not lead me towards a more disciplined use of proportion and silhouette.

And I had to laugh at UmmLila's MBTI Pinterest link. My type indicator looklet is wearing an outfit scarily like something I actually wore about 15 years ago.

Anna! I love that you remind us not to take ourselves too seriously. I am beyond elated that you are back on the forum. You know I love you.

Thinking deeply about your clothes, your wardrobe -- makes me feel good. It is so much less stressful than thinking deeply about -- the health of my aging Mother, long term financing for our small business, pending EEOC investigations, increasing costs/flat income, etc...

It's a way for me to know myself better. Plus, it's just plain fun. The Kibbe rabbit hole has been entertaining for me, so thank you Approprio, Suz and Caro in Oz for your wisdom and humor along the way. How seriously do I take it? Not very, but this morning, when I was getting dressed, I really saw everything sum up nicely in a Soft Dramatic way, and it felt like me, and that gave me confidence in my outfit.

To me Kibbe is not so much about analysis and prescription as it is about recognition and reality. Recognizing what looks good on you and accepting that reality. Not pining endlessly over styles that look good on someone else, with the resultant self-criticism and vows to lose weight (or whatever seems to be standing in the way). For some of us it's harder to get to that place of acceptance, I guess, but I don't think it contradicts anything in Angie's principles. And who would argue against having fun with clothes, looking current and expressing one's personality? (Those would seem to be a given in a fashion forum.) No one wants to be compared to Spam in aspic though!

Ok, first have to say I don't take fashion particularly seriously, but I do like learning and since I don't enjoy shopping that much, anything that can make it easier is a plus for me. One of the things that I've enjoyed about You Look Fab is both the variety of viewpoints and interests at any point in time which seem to change and wax and wane, and also the focus on fashion, wardrobe management and other topics and how they apply personally.
Since I've been reading YLF I've learned that I am a "rectangle" per body shape and following others leads have checked out other sources and know that I am a "dark autumn" and reading Kibbee that I very solidly fall in the "dramatic" category.
To the extent that these things appear valid to me and they do to some extent, they are things that I can factor into the equation as to what I can consider would work better for me and why. At the same time, quite sure I'll be wearing colors that don't fit into the "dark autumn" category, and Kibbee recommended shoulder pads which won't work for me and longer skirts, when I like relatively short skirts.
Have to say that I am color blind to a slight degree in a few colors which has meant that I think I have a relatively analytical and non visually cued orientation to picking outfit pieces that go together. So that might be a factor in terms of my finding an analytical approach useful as well.

UmmLila, that's a great link on dressing and personality type. I may not be dressing according to my Kibbe type, but I sure do represent my Myers-Briggs type--it's rather uncanny.

Dart placement is important, Rachylou! Just saying...

I was really drawn to the sole outfit in my MBTI type, too. (INFJ)

Suz, I like mine too (ISTJ). Although to be fair I'm not sure if I typed myself correctly, I did it a while ago when we were talking about it here on the forum.

To me, these types or systems can offer helpful boundaries, but I have to take care not be obsessive about it. I think especially the color typing very useful and I love that I can use it to choose colors that all look good on me and even more important all work together. But I wouldn't leave a piece I love in the store because of a color that's slightly off. Totally off is a no go, because I know that the item would get no use. But I definitely don't want to analyse everything to death. So if I find guidelines that make sense to me and seem to work, why not? I like to keep them in mind, just in case they might be helpful.