Do you remember when I wrote about the great color play in The Row Resort ‘24 and Bottega Veneta’s Pre-Fall ‘23 collection?
Well I feel like I’m looking at the post with a fresh eye after spending some serious time learning from Tibi’s founder, Amy Smilovic, and her social media posts on color theory.
If you aren’t familiar with Amy already she a great follow on IG or TikTok for A+ fashion KNOWLEDGE. She has a wicked sense of humor and she does this amazing thing where she will redraw someone’s foot in a better styled shoe (which sounds insane but I promise it’s very fun).
Anyways, Amy also wrote a book called The Creative Pragmatist (which I am coveting but still trying to justify the price tag) and in it she talks about color theory and, specifically, a 4-ring color wheel which I believe she created herself.
The ring looks like so;
So, according to Amy’s color wheel, the first ring is the center, BLACK, the second ring has your standard neutrals like navy, white, khaki. The third ring is what Amy really likes to talk about because these are the colors that you describe using an “-ish” statement; red-ish, purple-ish, green-ish. Lastly, the fourth ring is where we find color.
I’ll point you to a substack Amy herself wrote about combining the color rings which has way more information in it here, but I want to touch on why The Row and Bottega Veneta’s collections in recent seasons were so exciting with this new knowledge I’ve learned from Amy.
Because as we can see in these pictures, the color palettes lean heavily into ring 3 “ish” colors which allow the ring 4 colors to shine without overpowering. And Amy has said “when you mix colors closer together on the ring you get a vibe you would describe as “calm, chill, effortless.”” And who doesn’t want to look effortlessly chic?
Effortless is also one of my 3 words (a la Allison Bornstein) and something that is both a truism in my closet and an aspiration when I get dressed.
Again, according to Amy, “when you think you have nothing to wear it is totally not due to lack of outfits but because you have the same VIBE on repeat in your closet.”
Since I was just divulging my very ring 1/2 heavy closet, I feel like the styling rut I often find myself in may just be a self-made issue of consistently pairing ring 1/2 with each other.
Looking at my closet with a fresh perspective on color pairing is also revitalizing my clothes, which I need during my NO SPEND.
I am just finished week 3 of my NO SPEND in which I spent a lot of time thinking about my own personal style both where it is now and where I’d like to see myself in 2024.
I went to an estate sale in my neighborhood for the promise of “vintage and designer” furniture, but when I arrived it was actually vintage and designer CLOTHING. The woman who passed away was a model in Japan in the 1920s and she was my shoe size! So I did break my NO SPEND for these two pairs of Italian boots (worth it!)
One thing that I noticed this week was that I would fall in love with some TikTok influencer and start lusting after her closet. It really put me in the mindset of thinking about everything I’m NOT buying rather than getting creative with what I do have.
I’m certain she isn’t new to most people, but I discovered Manon Develder (@manondevelderx) and was very taken by her maximalist European style. It goes to mention she is a University student who can manage to afford Ganni and Bottega so she obviously has a very different lifestyle than me.
Still, very inspiring…
And I found it helpful to look at her photos from the lens of identifying what I think her style words are (I landed on causal, oversized and unexpected). And then I asked myself; are those aspirations for me? Do I admire her style for HER or am I attempting to appropriate it for ME?
I quickly realized that I was admiring her style and the way it unique suits her. As Amy Poehler says “good for her, not for me.” And it felt super empowering for me to encounter an influencer who didn’t make me feel badly about myself OR cause me to make a mental wishlist of all the things I should buy to mimic her. And the best part is that it was because of ME that I felt that way.
My long (mental) battle with influencers is that generally I end up feeling like I need to buy things in order to have their life which looks so glossy and lovely online. For me to be able to look at an influencer as a distant inspiration (like reading a magazine) as I did with Manon made me feel hopeful for my relationship with social media and influencers in the future.
Plus, the simple fact that I wasn’t going to buy anything that Manon was wearing for several months probably helped that mental math add up faster ;)
You are so good at the color math -- like I wrote about how it made my head explode and you just up and applied it to two other collections. On an unrelated and yet related note, see, each of us has "our things" -- glad that you are seeing you are you and can love what Manon wears without wanting what Manon wants. Also YES the boots, clearly.
So glad you caved and got those boots!! There should be a fabulous vintage loophole imho! Also obsessed with Amy!