The Swan Family: 5yrs DYT

I've been Dressing My Truth for almost five years now. Whew, what a journey it has been. A good one though. This last year especially, I've been really fine-tuning and tweaking my personal style. I think I spent the first four years exploring the options of what was possible within the Type 3 realm, and now I can really zone-in and define what is "me" and what elements of the style lend themselves to my unique personality. Love it!

I wore this outfit to Aaron's company party in January.

I want to walk through each outfit. This one above is 10 and one I go back to time and time again. It's a typical "date-night" outfit, haha! Peacock blue is one of my favorite T3 colors, so this cardigan is well-loved, and well-used by me. The tunic underneath, is technically a maternity top, but it's made of that awesome stretchy, spandexy material, so it didn't stay stretched out like a lot of my other maternity clothes. So I choose to wear it even when I'm not preggers. I love the random, asymmetrical pattern that creates swift movement to the outfit. I love that the browns, creams, and teals are more blended, and less bold contrast. I'm not as much a fan of bold contrasting colors, even ones that are within the bounds of the T3 color scheme. This aspect is where I differ from Carol quite a bit, you'll often see her in bold contrasting T3 colors. I like that the tunic is long enough to over my rear-end, but not any longer. This is about as long of a length as I can do on a top. And when I wear a long top like this, I have to pair it with skinny jeans or jeggings, something on the sleeker side. For whatever reason a long tunic with a boot cut jean feels too flowy/bulky to me, even though it really isn't. And anytime I wear my skinnies, I love to use the opportunity to wear my cowboy boots as well. One of my favorite pairs of shoes. To summarize, this outfit is good because the colors are rich, dirty, and warm shades; the design lines are angular and pointed; it has a swift, asymmetrical pattern; wearing layers creates texture, also my hair has a lot of texture, and the threads on my boots (which you can't see well in the picture) are raised to create texture. Really the only one of the five elements that this outfit is missing is fabrication. A T3 generally likes a more substantial fabrication, and technically I suppose my jeans could qualify, but the shirt and the cardigan are both pretty lightweight and soft. Fabrication is probably the hardest element for me, because I like my clothes to be comfortable and stiff scratchy fabrics just aren't, they also restrict movement, and I really need my clothes to allow for my swift, dynamic movement. So that fabrication element has always confused me a little bit. I just count my jeans, since that's the pant style I prefer to wear 99/100 times.

But I can't always wear pants....I mean sometimes I have to go to church, right? Here are a few church outfits:

I wear this combo quite a lot.

This outfit is probably a 7 or an 8 for me. Which is weird, I'd think it would be higher since a lot of the pieces are favorites by themselves, but maybe not together? I dunno. I still where this outfit quite often to church. If I switch out the heavy sweater for a lighter cardigan, or don't wear anything at all over the green top, I can wear this outfit year round, and I do. The brown sweater is a relic, back from my pre-married days. I actually bought it to wear on my trip to Washington to meet Aaron's family. Back then, I had no idea what to wear it with, and wore a white tank top underneath with jeans and tennis shoes, haha! (check out the picture below) I'm happy to say, I can style it much more effectively now. I love it's rich brown color, and it's thick, chunky texture. It's pretty rough and scratchy though, which is probably why I don't wear it more often. The green shirt is one of my very favorites. It's the exact right balance of T3 and S2. It's a rich color, it had an asymmetrical v-shaped neck, and the bottom of the shirt has a cool wrinkly texture that looks like a washboard. But it's soft and oh-so-comfy. And the sleeves (which you can't see in this picture) are loose and a little fluttery, but not too fluttery. The skirt is another of my favorites. Comfy. Awesome "wheat-field" pattern. It's one of the very first things I bought from the Dressing Your Truth Store. The second, up-close picture is to show off my jewelry. These earrings were a gift from a good friend and they are my favorite pair of earrings, no contest. They are hand-carved from wood from Samoa. They are earthy and edgy and beautiful. They make my soul sing. And the remind me of my connections with people I love every time I wear them. And the necklace is one given to me by Carol Tuttle after filming a video with her a few years ago. It's not my most favorite but I do like it. I like how the lots of little beads are strung together to make a big, chunky whole. And I like the feather inside the resin, again that's probably a nature thing.

Throwback to pre-marriage, pre-engagement. I went to WA over Christmas break to meet Aaron's family. They were having family pictures taken. I'd love to know what Aaron's mom thought when I showed up to pictures in a brown Target sweater with a white tank top underneath, jeans and tennis shoes. She had the whole family in shirts and ties. Oops. The only reason I was even wearing jewelry was because Aaron had made and given this necklace and earrings to me for Christmas. He didn't know then that I hated jewelry. He's relieved now, that I like it, even if what I like is a bit chunkier and edgier than the original style he made for me.

Let's look at these two outfits that start with the same base piece:

I like the first outfit SOOOOO much better than the second. Isn't that interesting, since they are practically the same with different accessories. Outfit number 2 bugs me because it's too color-blocky. There's not enough pattern, design line, and texture in it. I tried to use the scarf to create a pattern and a texture, but I feel like it's really top heavy. I also think the red stands out too much. The outfit really needs a third color to blend everything together and balance it. The first outfit does that really well. The teal and the yellow are both brighter, so neither one stands out more than the other, so they balance well. I also like that I wore the teal cardigan open, instead of buttoned. When it's open you can see the asymmetrical V-neck of the dress (which are the design lines outfit 2 was missing), you can also see the texture around the waste band. The square yellow necklace not only adds color, but a texture that the other outfit was missing. And in outfit number 1 I added my flower belt, which serves as another source of texture, but also to break up that solid block of smooth sweater dress. I think the only thing I like better in outfit 2 is my hair, haha!

That's enough of church outfits though, how about the every day outfits? The functional, comfortable ones that I can conquer the world in, let's look at those. One thing I've noticed about those this winter is that I am obsessed with plaid button ups and vests. Layers, layers, layers. Delicious comfortable layers.

This is my favorite vest. It would even qualify as an appropriate T3 fabrication, because it's thick and a little stiff, but since it's a vest it never touches my skin, and I can move freely and swiftly in it. And it has lot of pockets.

Can't see it very well, but I wear this green sweatshirt that I bought at the DYT store ALL the time. It's border-line T2 color, which is a-okay with me., but since I bought it from DYT I know it's T3 and I use it to color match all the time.