I blame my sloth of late on Blue Booby.
A couple of weeks ago, she recommended the book STYLE STATEMENT, I looked at my local bookshop's website and saw that there were a couple of copies in stock, and I ran over and purchased one and bought it home.
And for the last two weeks, have been almost completely immersed in it.
It isn't so much a book, as a workbook, filled with a myriad of questionnaires to measure all aspects of your likes and dislikes, what makes your heart sing, what fills your soul, what depletes your soul (kind of like the anti-style muses folks referred to yesterday).
It is about style, but the style in the book is NOT simply fashion style per se, it is about such things as:
etc, etc, etc.
There are MANY questionnaires and exercises throughout the book, all of which are designed to help you create your own style statement, your own personal branding if you will.
I have done Myers-Briggs and other personality quizzes in the workplace - they help you define your comfort zones and your natural tendencies, but they do not help you zoom in on the intrinsic you, nor do they help you zero in on your personal life, from soup to nuts.
Working on your style statement does that.
It is not something you do in one or two or even three sittings. It probably took me about 10 hours of work to fully explore and answer the questions fully and honestly.
It was FUN. And sometimes uncomfortable. And always illuminating.
In the end, through the exercises, you are able to narrow yourself down to a statement that is summed up in two words, one of which is 80% foundation - what the authors define as the core of who you are, your essential self, your BEING and the other of which is 20% creativity edge - that thing that makes all the difference, that moves you forward - how you EXPRESS and DISTINGUISH your being.
When I got to the end (though to be truthful, I still have work to do - there are more exercises to complete when you are actually done your style statement), I had a "HOLY F*&^$! MOLY!" moment - I knew that the two words, and the descriptions behind them, were a true distillation of me and I also wished that I had done this exercise a long time ago, as the disconnect that I felt with my old work life makes absolute perfect sense to me now having really examined all aspects of myself. For those of you who loathe introspection and navel-gazing, this is likely not for you, but even for the hardest core cynical, rational individual, there is much to be gained by doing this.. I ran out and bought a copy for my daughter, since 21 is probably not a bad time to get a sense of your temperament. While the authors explain that some parts of ourselves evolve and change over time, our true selves are relatively constant and I am quite sure if I had done this at 21 my results would have been pretty much the same. I also conferred with Barry after the fact for confirmation and he said it was scarily bang on.
It appears it is out of regular stock at Chapters bookstore, but some of the Chapters do have it in their bargain sections, which I am sure they would order in for you if you are interested and Amazon.com (link above) had a lot of new and used ones that can be ordered - just make sure yours isn't already scribbled in!)
So, what did I turn out to be?
CREATIVE (80%) - NOSTALGIC(20%)
My descriptions are as follows:
Creative:
Creative is a life-affirming explorer. Gifted with fantastic imaginations, Creative will
seek out originality - unique people and experiences, abstract thinking, and fantastical, whimsical notions. Small-mindedness and regulations deeply pains Creative. Resourceful, determined, and passionate, they can find a way through any circumstance. Naturally flexible and positively capable of reinventing themselves and turning situations around, they tend to be comfortable with change. Fully expressed, Creative a powerful force that can inspire people to change for the better and shift directions. They are highly sensitive to their surroundings and, for better or worse, can be sponges for emotions and information. They feel most useful when they are being inspired or are inspiring others. They live to express themselves in their own way. On a dark day, they feel disconnected from their source of inspiration - whether it be material or immaterial, earthly or divine - adrift or on the "outside" of things. In the best of times, Creative feels a deep sense of harmony and synchronicity with positive forces that keep life moving forward. Creative endeavours to respect others' forms of expression and can be very tolerant.
Look & Feel: Original, unique, one-of-a-kind. Crafted, innovative, colourful, abstract, thought-out, free-flowing, artistic. Creative always puts things together in their own way.
aesthetic, artistic, clever, cool, crafty, cultivated, cultured, dramatic, elegant, exquisite, fertile, formative, gifted, graceful, grand, harmonious, hip, ideal, imaginative, ingenious, innovative, inspired, inventive, musical, original, ornamental, pictorial, picturesque, pleasing, poetic, productive, prolific, refined, rhythmical, satisfying, sensitive, skillful, stimulating, stylish, sublime, talented, tasteful, visionary.
Nostalgic:
Nostalgic is an ambassador of sentiment. They collect memories, trinkets, rare and precious things, and memorabilia. Nostalgic loves to pay homage to what has come before. Enamoured by the past - from royalty to rock stars, family heirlooms to classic films - they work it into the present with charm, quirkiness and often elegance. They are usually hopeful romantics, yearning and working toward creating fulfilling connections. Their social circle is very important to them, as are the basic social graves of politeness and a welcoming heart. Nostalgic likes to look good. They put creative thought into their home and appearance and love trying their treasures and good finds together with contemporary basics. Their bittersweet yearning for the past or fanaticized future can lead to melancholy, the cure for which is resolute trust and practical planning. Attracted to the whimsical and the precious, Nostalgic had a great eye and hear for detail and seeks to fill life with the small pleasures that matter most.
Look & Feel: Vintage, antiques, rarities, collectible. Gentility, sweetness, poise. Romantic, dreamy, cinematic, glamorous.
ancestry, culture, customs, enchanting, estate, fairy tale, fashion, fondness, heirloom, history, idealistic, imaginary, inheritance, legacy, mysterious, mythological, novel, passionate, picturesque, poetic, remembering, ritual, sentimental, tradition, wisdom.
If you could see the office I am currently making for myself (and you soon will) you will be gob-smacked by how my style is represented there.
Even learning this has helped me understand what the disconnects are in my wardrobe - there always needs to be a spin in what I wear and more than that, there always needs to be something that reflects my past or my family's past or has a vintage vibe. I think that is why brands like Nougat London and Anthropologie and Brora and Tory Burch are appealing to me for fashion or for the home. And why I would much rather go to the local junk shop than ever have anything modern in my house.
But that is just ME. Everyone of us is different and those differences are fascinating and make the world so interesting and if we are all kind to one another about those differences, can be a source of great celebration and learning! For example, you won't find modern in my house, but I LOVE to go to a modern hotel or to someone's modern house and marvel at the décor!
The interesting thing about the book is that once you have defined your style statement there is still work to be done. The authors help you work with it, envision it, listen to it, "let it seep into your bones" and as they say "your style statement will be as useful as you make it."
They invite us to "Go Forth and Live as Art!"
I also suspect, having recently lived through this myself, that if you are not living in accordance with the true you, your real essence, you might be destined to live a life that is often fraught with unhappiness and a feeling of being unfulfilled or of not being the sort of person who had a dream or an un-actualized essence. You might be frustrated and jealous of the perception that others know who they are and are pursuing it, or are just more content in life than you are. But I believe you would be wrong.
As soon as I named myself, recognized myself and celebrated myself (really, I ought to have bought champagne when I finished on the weekend - where are those baby bottles when you need them! Oh wait - I drank them..), I felt that there was a world of possibilities. Obviously, I was already stumbling in this direction quite resolutely, but this book had been a god send.
Your foundation and creative edge words will be different than mine (or in some cases not), but your responses to the questions asked will be as different as if we were living on different planets - our lives and experiences and temperaments all lead us on different journeys.
My style statement allows me to name and celebrate what makes me tick and will, I hope, help me choose more wisely in the future when I got to make purchases or write or decorate or try to decide if silver eyeliner is appropriate in the day time (it is for me!).
My closest friends would have recognized me in the descriptions above, though they might not have known what to call it. I certainly wanted you to know me as well. You are so kind as to drop by almost daily - I guess you need to be warned that we will be having these discussions from time to time, me being so sentimental and poetic and all ;-)
Have a lovely Thursday and stay safe out there!
A couple of weeks ago, she recommended the book STYLE STATEMENT, I looked at my local bookshop's website and saw that there were a couple of copies in stock, and I ran over and purchased one and bought it home.
And for the last two weeks, have been almost completely immersed in it.
It isn't so much a book, as a workbook, filled with a myriad of questionnaires to measure all aspects of your likes and dislikes, what makes your heart sing, what fills your soul, what depletes your soul (kind of like the anti-style muses folks referred to yesterday).
It is about style, but the style in the book is NOT simply fashion style per se, it is about such things as:
- how you like to do things
- where you feel most at home
- what do you love about yourself
- what are you fascinated by
- what is your philosophy of friendship
- how you express your mental and physical creativity
etc, etc, etc.
There are MANY questionnaires and exercises throughout the book, all of which are designed to help you create your own style statement, your own personal branding if you will.
I have done Myers-Briggs and other personality quizzes in the workplace - they help you define your comfort zones and your natural tendencies, but they do not help you zoom in on the intrinsic you, nor do they help you zero in on your personal life, from soup to nuts.
Working on your style statement does that.
It is not something you do in one or two or even three sittings. It probably took me about 10 hours of work to fully explore and answer the questions fully and honestly.
It was FUN. And sometimes uncomfortable. And always illuminating.
In the end, through the exercises, you are able to narrow yourself down to a statement that is summed up in two words, one of which is 80% foundation - what the authors define as the core of who you are, your essential self, your BEING and the other of which is 20% creativity edge - that thing that makes all the difference, that moves you forward - how you EXPRESS and DISTINGUISH your being.
When I got to the end (though to be truthful, I still have work to do - there are more exercises to complete when you are actually done your style statement), I had a "HOLY F*&^$! MOLY!" moment - I knew that the two words, and the descriptions behind them, were a true distillation of me and I also wished that I had done this exercise a long time ago, as the disconnect that I felt with my old work life makes absolute perfect sense to me now having really examined all aspects of myself. For those of you who loathe introspection and navel-gazing, this is likely not for you, but even for the hardest core cynical, rational individual, there is much to be gained by doing this.. I ran out and bought a copy for my daughter, since 21 is probably not a bad time to get a sense of your temperament. While the authors explain that some parts of ourselves evolve and change over time, our true selves are relatively constant and I am quite sure if I had done this at 21 my results would have been pretty much the same. I also conferred with Barry after the fact for confirmation and he said it was scarily bang on.
It appears it is out of regular stock at Chapters bookstore, but some of the Chapters do have it in their bargain sections, which I am sure they would order in for you if you are interested and Amazon.com (link above) had a lot of new and used ones that can be ordered - just make sure yours isn't already scribbled in!)
So, what did I turn out to be?
CREATIVE (80%) - NOSTALGIC(20%)
My descriptions are as follows:
Creative:
Creative is a life-affirming explorer. Gifted with fantastic imaginations, Creative will
seek out originality - unique people and experiences, abstract thinking, and fantastical, whimsical notions. Small-mindedness and regulations deeply pains Creative. Resourceful, determined, and passionate, they can find a way through any circumstance. Naturally flexible and positively capable of reinventing themselves and turning situations around, they tend to be comfortable with change. Fully expressed, Creative a powerful force that can inspire people to change for the better and shift directions. They are highly sensitive to their surroundings and, for better or worse, can be sponges for emotions and information. They feel most useful when they are being inspired or are inspiring others. They live to express themselves in their own way. On a dark day, they feel disconnected from their source of inspiration - whether it be material or immaterial, earthly or divine - adrift or on the "outside" of things. In the best of times, Creative feels a deep sense of harmony and synchronicity with positive forces that keep life moving forward. Creative endeavours to respect others' forms of expression and can be very tolerant.
Look & Feel: Original, unique, one-of-a-kind. Crafted, innovative, colourful, abstract, thought-out, free-flowing, artistic. Creative always puts things together in their own way.
aesthetic, artistic, clever, cool, crafty, cultivated, cultured, dramatic, elegant, exquisite, fertile, formative, gifted, graceful, grand, harmonious, hip, ideal, imaginative, ingenious, innovative, inspired, inventive, musical, original, ornamental, pictorial, picturesque, pleasing, poetic, productive, prolific, refined, rhythmical, satisfying, sensitive, skillful, stimulating, stylish, sublime, talented, tasteful, visionary.
Nostalgic:
Nostalgic is an ambassador of sentiment. They collect memories, trinkets, rare and precious things, and memorabilia. Nostalgic loves to pay homage to what has come before. Enamoured by the past - from royalty to rock stars, family heirlooms to classic films - they work it into the present with charm, quirkiness and often elegance. They are usually hopeful romantics, yearning and working toward creating fulfilling connections. Their social circle is very important to them, as are the basic social graves of politeness and a welcoming heart. Nostalgic likes to look good. They put creative thought into their home and appearance and love trying their treasures and good finds together with contemporary basics. Their bittersweet yearning for the past or fanaticized future can lead to melancholy, the cure for which is resolute trust and practical planning. Attracted to the whimsical and the precious, Nostalgic had a great eye and hear for detail and seeks to fill life with the small pleasures that matter most.
Look & Feel: Vintage, antiques, rarities, collectible. Gentility, sweetness, poise. Romantic, dreamy, cinematic, glamorous.
ancestry, culture, customs, enchanting, estate, fairy tale, fashion, fondness, heirloom, history, idealistic, imaginary, inheritance, legacy, mysterious, mythological, novel, passionate, picturesque, poetic, remembering, ritual, sentimental, tradition, wisdom.
If you could see the office I am currently making for myself (and you soon will) you will be gob-smacked by how my style is represented there.
Even learning this has helped me understand what the disconnects are in my wardrobe - there always needs to be a spin in what I wear and more than that, there always needs to be something that reflects my past or my family's past or has a vintage vibe. I think that is why brands like Nougat London and Anthropologie and Brora and Tory Burch are appealing to me for fashion or for the home. And why I would much rather go to the local junk shop than ever have anything modern in my house.
But that is just ME. Everyone of us is different and those differences are fascinating and make the world so interesting and if we are all kind to one another about those differences, can be a source of great celebration and learning! For example, you won't find modern in my house, but I LOVE to go to a modern hotel or to someone's modern house and marvel at the décor!
The interesting thing about the book is that once you have defined your style statement there is still work to be done. The authors help you work with it, envision it, listen to it, "let it seep into your bones" and as they say "your style statement will be as useful as you make it."
They invite us to "Go Forth and Live as Art!"
I also suspect, having recently lived through this myself, that if you are not living in accordance with the true you, your real essence, you might be destined to live a life that is often fraught with unhappiness and a feeling of being unfulfilled or of not being the sort of person who had a dream or an un-actualized essence. You might be frustrated and jealous of the perception that others know who they are and are pursuing it, or are just more content in life than you are. But I believe you would be wrong.
As soon as I named myself, recognized myself and celebrated myself (really, I ought to have bought champagne when I finished on the weekend - where are those baby bottles when you need them! Oh wait - I drank them..), I felt that there was a world of possibilities. Obviously, I was already stumbling in this direction quite resolutely, but this book had been a god send.
Your foundation and creative edge words will be different than mine (or in some cases not), but your responses to the questions asked will be as different as if we were living on different planets - our lives and experiences and temperaments all lead us on different journeys.
My style statement allows me to name and celebrate what makes me tick and will, I hope, help me choose more wisely in the future when I got to make purchases or write or decorate or try to decide if silver eyeliner is appropriate in the day time (it is for me!).
My closest friends would have recognized me in the descriptions above, though they might not have known what to call it. I certainly wanted you to know me as well. You are so kind as to drop by almost daily - I guess you need to be warned that we will be having these discussions from time to time, me being so sentimental and poetic and all ;-)
Have a lovely Thursday and stay safe out there!
