Dressing the Essence of…Khloe Kardashian
March 25, 2012 by Christine Scaman
or
The Flamboyant Natural (FN) Soft Summer
Design = Colour + Line.
We look best when we wear the colours that already exist within us. We look best when we wear the lines that we are too. Round bones and muscular builds look fantastic in certain lines, not the same as those for straight bones or narrow builds. It always comes back to dressing who you are rather than seeing how close you can get to media’s stereotype.
It’s good for a woman to have an understanding of the shape of her body and face. You’ll buy different earrings, I promise you. This is Mr. Kibbe’s book, the most usable book on body lines that I know.
Sticking to your colour and line guides actually opens doors. Like good manners, limiting our options when we shop appears to expand our opportunities, for looking 99 times better just in how a jacket closes, feeling stronger and more complete, and in the control we have over many other aspects of our lives.
Paisley and Taya did Flamboyant Natural Polyvores on facebook recently. I thought I’d try, should be easier than the Dramatic True Summer that still haunts me. Soft Summer colours are so plentiful, surely I could find them in any style? When will I learn to keep quiet?
I’m a Kibbe beginner so don’t assume that what you see below is correct or Kibbe-approved.
Flamboyant Natural (far more detailed descriptions in the book)
The Person: big-boned, wide, blunt features, not lush in body or facial elements. She’s Natural with a shot of Drama.
Example: I think of Andie MacDowell with her very strongly defined bone structure. Who else? Mrs. Obama is possible in that a suit can seem too stiff and constraining on her but sometimes her proportions look more Classic and contained in shape. Maybe it’s her Winter colouring and ethnicity that give her an appearance of being larger and more exotic. Could Jessica Simpson be FN?
Angelina Jolie seems too voluptuously Yin in the face and petite in the body. Julia Roberts? Not blunt enough. We need a strong Yang presence, more masculine features, as I have in my Classic way, so not the ultra-girly version of big-boned as Mariah Carey. How about Khloe Kardashian? Using this photo, let’s pretend she’s a Soft Summer. In fact, she probably is. Scroll down this page and compare her shape and colours to her sisters’. Do you find she looks fabulous in the picture near the bottom in the blue outfit? The bag, earring, and shoes all look so good.
The Effect: wild, free, uninhibited, bold, strong. Makes me think of Dynasty meets Bohemian.
Jewelry: big, bulky, and not just artistic but extremely artistic. Here lives the drama side.
Clothes: oversized rectangle, oblong, or asymmetric. To me, that = straight sides with round edges. Must remember ‘not square’ and ‘no points’ when purse shopping. No hourglass, sharp, very straight, or delicate, all of which don’t sound like a good fit for Khloe. Also lots of separates are good (thank heavens, the shopping for top-to-toe looks for my Dramatic Classic shape is seriously hard). Will keep in mind ‘wide-loose-simple neck-sleeve-waist’ when shopping.
Accessories: this woman has a wild side and so should her stuff. She’d even be a rule-breaker and step outside the prescribed molds, wear colour a bit too saturated, wear many pieces at once putting a whole new spin on ‘unmatched’. Bold, big, simple, unique, with round edges. Makes me think of a Cossack hat, which actually could look really good on Khloe. Seems a natural fit, oddly. Every pot has a lid, ay?
It can be easier to know which colours suit which people by imagining many different colours of lipstick and hair on them. It’s always in making the comparison that we see what seems so obvious afterwards. I saw all the wonderful NYPD officers in Manhattan and thought their uniform could be my perfect Dramatic Classic outfit, epaulets, gun, hat, and all. I think of our DC women, variations on Demi Moore, and we’d all look darn good in that get-up, like Khloe in a coonskin Davey Crockett/Daniel Boone hat.
I imagine extremes for all the Kibbe types and see what feels like the best fit – not that this is how I see the woman but that she could wear these outfits and look surprisingly good and right, while everyone else would look strange.
Dramatic : Vampire Queen, Catwoman.
Soft Dramatic: extreme in a luxuriant way, whether fabric, detail, shape – the clothes Valentino designs. Sensuality above all. Nevermind how big the bow is. Or where it is. Why is there always a feeling of a tragic past or overcoming some deep adversity in this group (not unlike the ‘born for a gentler era’ of the Soft Classic)? Is it their regal yet vulnerable bearing? I guess that’s the Diva part. Often exotic looking. Cher.
Flamboyant Natural: sarong worn as long dress with huge Georgia O’Keefe flowers and loads of big colourful necklaces.
Natural: 1920s tennis dresses, or any dresses while skirts were still straight, with the loose sailor style neck, box pleats, and the big ol’ wide brim hat. Most women’s sporting outfits from back then could be good. (KB, this feels like your natural home, I could even see the turban hat with large flower on side. Google ‘dress patterns 1920s’ and you’d be set).
Soft Natural: flapper styles, clothes from J.Jill. I once thought of the Olsen twins as being here, but I’m thinking they’re straight N. This woman is more feminine, less broad and blunt in her bones. Tori Amos?
Dramatic Classic: police uniforms. Talbot’s to White House Black Market. No wonder I’ve always loved men’s shirts and ties. If anyone knows where I could buy some of those NYPD pants, please LMK.
Classic: soccer Mom, khakis, twinset, pearls, classic Timex. Also 1960s TV housewife attire. Stewardess suit. Brooks Brothers to J.Crew. LL Bean. Martha Stewart wear.
Soft Classic: Talbot’s moving to Garnet Hill. Draping, knits, curves, the traditional feminine. The outfits you see when they do the 360 on What Not To Wear.
Theatrical Romantic: skating outfits.
Romantic: Scarlett O’Hara gown, parasol, lace gloves, and veranda. Not hard to picture Mariah Carey on the tree swing. A nostalgic feeling, Mr Kibbe calls it ‘from another era’.
The three Gamines : I have no handle on this look yet. I keep seeing Fortune Teller for FG but I’m still studying. Feel free to help out.
———
Back to FN.
The problem with these oversize loose tops is that they can look like tents unless the garment is built to define the shouler line. Holding in my mind that strong horizontal element across the shoulders to give the shape and an easy sleeve let me scan clothes really fast. Do you think length of the blouse matters? Long sounds better on the women I think of, unless you’re Farrah Fawcett tiny sporty. Long jackets are better. From the photos of Khloe, various lengths seem to work. The length of her taupish jacket seems less relevant than the strong shoulder and heavier texture.
Oversize-irregular-but-stiff felt like searching for a kimono with shoulder pads and no belt, not so much a flimsy tunic. Smocks must be out, too fussy. Peasant styles are too flowy and would seem to droop in the shoulder. Hoodies with a shoulder shape would be good, with their low heavy draping and plush texture.
Wraps seem a style that flatters many bodies, but this woman could look bandaged if not mummified if they were too skintight. She needs freedom to move.
Went out on a limb with the one shoulder blouse, I think it could be great if it sticks to other guidelines. The bone size on the woman would establish the strong horizontal across the shoulder.
Learned
- Texture makes a difference. It felt important and necessary. Rough is natural.
- Jewelry- anything that most people would feel was wearing them. Look at the ring with the blue outfit. This is the flamboyant part. You can buzz through 100 Polyvore pages or store displays in 5 minutes. Belts too, looking for the opposite of shy. Also, jewelry can add a lot of texture, as the chain mail bracelet. Can do a lot of jewelry at once.
- Found no prints that really work.
- Dresses big, bold, sweeping? No finds. Dresses in general are hard because they create a continuity that can seem monochromatic in Soft Summer colours. On this person, the piece are better broken up and layered. Even, unbroken lines aren’t really found in Nature. Rough is better than resin. The blue and grey dress (not, it’s grey, not white 
) in the last Polyvore might be D, though it does feel ‘big, bold, sweeping’. The print elements and shoulders are round-edged, which, along with the pastel colours, I hoped would add enough Yin (curve) to work.
- This is one of those looks that doesn’t come together on a hanger. The right woman has to wear it. I keep thinking these images should scream “FLAMBOYANT!!!” but they don’t. Is it just the cool palette? No, I think it’s the straightness and simplicity. If he’d called it Intrepid Natural, I’d have different expectations.
- The asymmetry appears to matter a lot. Though not essential, the look works better when the left side is not the same as the right. The opposite would be true on a Classic type.
- Hard to do wild colour combinations in Soft Summer. Worked at using warm and cool versions of same hue together, going slightly outside the Season’s colours, as a slightly too warm green, and using wide variety of colours in one ensemble instead of being carefully matchy – interesting how a more natural and relaxed vibe comes across from that alone.
- Back to Intrepid Natural. A daredevil element should figure into each ensemble for this to feel right on this woman. It can’t be too safe, even if it’s just a big watch, a huge purse, some piece needs over the top in size or artistic prominence, regardless of the palette, because that’s what these people are to look at, as Carrie so smartly pointed out (Farrah’s hair and teeth).
- A crease down the front of pants is a good way of establishing vertical line. It helps make a good T effect in the ensemble grey pants/white top, lower R, 3rd collection.
- It really takes all the elements for the geometry to come together. Once I started selecting items, I had no idea where this was going. It just felt odd. Add in the jewelry, shoes, pants for tops, and I could see the end result as making sense and could then tell what needed removing. The accessories seem to be running the show but they need the right backdrop. I’m still blown away by how effective this book is but it does take patience and willingness to be wrong, like everything else. All you need to see is one photo of yourself in three different necklaces to light up your sense of why it works and get the value.
- The most important aspect of the shoes went through some shopping stages and evolved into ‘simple’. Too strappy would look as if it couldn’t hold her up. Too chunky and the picture gets bottom-heavy. Rather than just looking at Khloe, your learn more by comparing the shoes (and everything else) on the sisters. Khloe’s are good! Texture via shoes counts, as rope on a wedge heel or sole detail.
PS – Khloe, your hair is perfect. I admire your ability to dress for your body type. If you go lipstick shopping, look at Givenchy Paradise Pink. Remember to celebrate that you have more inches of completely gorgeous than most anyone else.
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31 Responses to “Dressing the Essence of…Khloe Kardashian”
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Flamboyant gamine: Gothic Lolita style, a popular youth trend in Japan. Estonian singer Kerli in the music video for her song Walking on Air.
Gamine: pigtails, matchy-matchy and/or cutesy prints, Sally Field in Gidget.
Soft Gamine: Baby doll dresses, billowy “sack” dresses, Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby.
I mentioned before that I’m not convinced with Kibbe’s guidelines, but I still enjoy reading these articles.
I like your own descriptions of the types. And yes, Brooks Brothers and J.Crew are usual stomping grounds. Lands’End can also be good, same for Pure Collection. Talbots tends to be more tailored than I need, though Classic styles can still be found. Had to give up on JJill, now I see why.
Well I think you did very well. One thing I’d question–though perhaps I missed this in the reading–is FG being a mix of d and n. Kibbe describes her as G (combination of opposites) with extra yang specifically from the D. With each G type he stresses that she is first and foremost a G, that the combination of opposites in her frame is TMIT and the drama (or romance) is the undercurrent, not the water itself. If you start defining it as N, you might miss the full spectrum of features here. N is by nature in between…I think the N vibe is a little high here, even for a ss. Because without the flash FG looks matronly. The right metallic seem to be great for them. Also, mod is a fantastic look for FG (see twiggy). I like your typing of k. Kardashian, too, although I’d wonder if she’s muscular enough. She’s also quite tall, and I see her as lush, but then lush has never been well defined. She worked very well for your purposes.
This article was about FN, not FG, so I think the ideas and polyvores were helpful to understand this Kibbe type.
As a TR I LOVED the “skating outfit” comment. I would add ballerina costumes to that.
This is great
I am still trying to work out where I would fit it the world of Kibbe. But seeing a current example and then a wardrobe that they might wear is terrific. It helps me to see what I am not. So far flamboyant gamine seems the best fit – tiny, a bit angular and muscley, broad shoulders and big hands. I didn’t want to be this type, I am slightly repelled by the idea of looking like Tina Turner (fabulous though she is) but so far the style recommendations seem to work, which was a real surprise. I looked up Japanese Lolita style and it seems much too ruffley and flouncy and girly (maybe I didn’t look at the right images) For me I see skinny jeans an ankle boot with a heel a fitted top and then an angular creative maybe 60s jacket over the top being a good look. It seems fitted is good with something a bit arty on top. 60s styles seem good. But I am just learning!
I should clarify: 60s style for flamboyant gamine to me seems 60s mod, cropped skinny pants, simple fitted tops with clean necklines, short, narrow pea coats etc. Not 60s Betty Draper, massive full skirts, pearl buttoned cardigans, and gloves!
And I wouldn’t trade my $20 Timex for any other watch
your PS message to Khloe is so sweet and tender – I hope she gets to read it.
You are a genius and a great artist.
Good job, Christine! Love the way your imagination frames the archetypes for all these categories! And isn’t it odd, that just two days ago a lady sent me a link to 1920′s and 1930′s tennis outfits for women…thepaintedwoman.blogspot.com
Actually, the specific address for the tennis outfits is here: http://thepaintedwoman.blogspot.com/2010/05/match-game-1920s-30s-ladies-tennis.html
I need to peruse that entire site, though. Looks very promising. Wow!
Yes, FN styles are awesome… I saw this not too long ago and thought “WOW!” before I looked closer and thought “what IS she wearing??”. FN heaven:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PUQz9Bt2_KI/T2NtfMX4OlI/AAAAAAAAB3s/chCMsDqg3fA/s1600/iris+apfel+2.jpg
FN’s – search for pics of Iris Apfel and the land of exotic textures, prints and ridiculously large accessories (on anyone else, that is) will open up.
Great post!!
SN is flapper styles……………….. NOW I get it!! Yes of course! Christine, you’re amazing.
Great article Christine, I love it… I thought to be’ FN but seen it’s very difficult to’ judge ourself I asked an opinion to’ John kitchener that I think he’s really great! He said I’ m a romantic type with some natural, despite my heigh (I’m 179 Cms tall)…. I think he is right, my face fits the romantic celebrity collages
Anna – I got it on the FG: Anime!! I see it, the boxy, unconstructed clothes with all the odd angles, the big eyes small mouth. Excellent! I’m still floaty on the others. They make me think of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Also a bit Pippi Longstocking, but those images are not the same.
Fil – and LLBean, ultimate C store of them all.
Courtney – and Mod, of course. I’m like Ellie, suddenly the whole thing comes clear. I got a little mixed up, did I write FG somewhere about Khloe? I meant FN. And yes, maybe Khloe isn’t broad and blunt enough, a good point. In a discussion about SD, I decide lush in that context means large features in a normal size face (as opposed to the G group who have large features in a little face and eyes bigger than lips).
Kathryn – the Painted Woman! Yes! There’s the turban come to life.
Zandra – my word, that is not what I expected to see. I don’t think she’s an FN. In fact, that’s what my body would look like if I dressed FN.
Christy – I haven’t studied N yet but I absolutely LOVE all the items you put together. Grownup, modern, beautiful to the eye. And what impressed me even more (and I’m so thrilled to say that I can do it too now for my group) is that you could critique it. You KNOW what you’re looking for and how items do or don’t meet your goal. And you know, the instant you can visualize something strongly, you are 99.99% of the way to having it become real in your physical life.
Sneza – thank you! All of us are both those things, I think. Maybe I’m just willing to be wrong over and over and over till my bones can feel it. I appreciate the thought that I might be getting better
Ellie – got any good ones for N as distinct from SN? My 2 examples feel like they overlap too much.
Luana – John is outstanding, I agree. You seem N and R to me as a very easy fit.
Christine, I love what you’ve put together and I can see all of this on Khloe. I’m really enjoying your discoveries here.
I just received my Kibbe book and am working my way through it.
For the record, I actually really like the photo linked to of Iris Apfel. Haha! Even though she doesn’t seem to fit this, something about it works for me! I guess I like it when people break the rules bigtime.
I know a couple of Flamboyant Naturals, I’ll be sending them your article. Thank you very much! I really enjoy the way you dissect things, I learn a lot from you!
When you say, for Soft Classic, “The outfits you see when they do the 360 on What Not To Wear”, do you mean the “after” uniform the put almost everyone in?
Soft gamine- Betty Boop, Tinker Bell
Gamine–Any sprite, elf, fairy like would see in production of A Midsummers Night Dream
I absolutely love your quick little interpretations of the Kibbe style. Thank you! Again, your writing style is so refreshing to read!
Christine, Could you find some additional archetypes for Dramatic. Vampire Queen and Cat Women could be carried off my Grace Jones. But, definitely can’t be carried off by SSu Dramatic me. A Lavender Cat Woman? A Muted Vampire? Help!
Oh Christine, I feel like such a moron! I read this post on my phone, and somehow scanned FN as FG. Please disregard my too hasty comment.
I’m obsessed with all things Gamine right now, so perhaps it was a little Freudian slip. Can you say overzealous? I’ll re-read!
Yes, Maria, the After and also the part where the person stands in a 3 way mirrored room (the 360) and then they show them a better alternative on a mannequin. It’s always an improvement but they begin with people who are expending energy to dim their own light. Hopefully, once they get a sense of their natural beauty, they make more strides towards finding their own lines and colours.
I’ve thought about this. Still blank. Amazonia is FN. Superhero types of any sort seem D but their outfits are too odd to get a feel for the look. I’m not sure I can come up with this kind of picture. What about choosing a person to dress that is over-the-top D? Tilda Swinton? Like with seeing if you’re a certain Season with lipstick, I was just trying to find the extreme, that version that nobody else could personify. I’ll keep thinking on it.
There are no such things as morons here, Courtney. I am amazed you can read on your phone! My life is one big slip of some sort so I fully understand. Read on.
Aeon Flux I think would be over the top D Christine.
Still thinking about the difference between natural and soft natural…. (and probably fumbling in the dark, but it’s a nice journey!)
Kibbe talks more about the dropped waist shapes for naturals than for soft naturals, but when I look at a body shape like Virginia Woolf, or the gorgeous Vanessa Redgrave playing the elderly Briony Tallis at the end of the film Atonement, it’s the fantastic 1920s to 1930s styles, the long dress lines on those amazing shoulders that can have no waist definition at all, the long draped coats, the fantastically elegant long lines, the heavier and drapier fabrics. I don’t have the word to describe the style, but there are some wonderful pictures on line. The flapper styles seem more feminine, lighter and more fluid fabric, the dropped waists, godet skirts, the romantic touches that adds definition and a kind of cuteness that someone like Virginia Woolf would dominate completely.
I think of soft classic (which I probably am) as having a bit of “old world charm.”
Still can’t find pictures or accurate examples but the Bloomsbury Bluestocking set in the 1930s wore some of the style. Country clothes, tweeds, country house shooting party type style.
This one makes me think it just MIGHT be possible to do soft summer in dramatic classic! I don’t tend to picture these colors in styles that have some drama. These pictures show the beautiful possibilities. Thanks!
gamine: Peter pan. Audrey Hepburn. Liz Taylor in National Velvet. Any Barbara Cartland novel cover. Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island. think tomboys, little girls playing dress-up, rescued orphans and beggar maids turned princess. Shakespearean girls playing breeches parts. the romantic gamine is the ingenue.
Ellie, for soft natural you’re thinking Edwardian.
2 FN celebrity examples are Taylor Swift and Blake Lively. Blake dresses accordingly to the classic Kibbe style, google any pic of her and almost everything about her style is a flamboyant natural style. Taylor on the other hand, has the body of a FN, but dresses more classic/dramatic/romantic at time. I think shes still discovering her personal style.