This is such a valid question because honestly… essence is one of the hardest parts of personal style to explain.
Unlike body typing or colour analysis, essence is not always immediately visible. A lot of the time it is felt before it is seen, which is exactly why people spiral trying to figure it out.
“Is this about what I look like?”
“Or is it about who I am?”
“And what happens if those things don’t match?”
That confusion makes complete sense.
Essences are not as black and white as the spectrums we use for Kibbe body types or colour seasons. They are much more nuanced and personal. It is something innate in everyone, but not always something obvious or easily articulated.
Think about meeting someone for the first time. Sometimes you walk away from that interaction feeling something specific. Maybe they felt soft and calming. Maybe magnetic and mysterious. Maybe playful, grounded, refined, intimidating, artistic, warm.
Those impressions are clues.
Not the full picture, but clues into someone’s essence.
Now imagine their clothing reflected that exact feeling. It would just… make sense.
That is what essence really is.
It is taking who you are, whether that comes through physically, emotionally, creatively, or energetically, and expressing it outwardly through style.
People often refer to essences as “style personality,” and I think that’s partially true, but I also think the online space has oversimplified the conversation quite a bit.
Because yes, physical features can play a role. But they are not the entire story.
Someone with an athletic frame may deeply resonate with delicate, whimsical, cutesy styling. Someone ultra curvy may feel most at home in sharp tailoring and menswear inspired clothing. Someone with youthful facial features may absolutely hate dressing “girly.”
This is incredibly common.
The problem is that a lot of style systems separate everything into isolated categories instead of treating them like building blocks working together to express a whole person.
Kibbe, for example, tied essence heavily into body type. If you looked tall and slightly ethereal, there was often an assumed aesthetic direction attached to that. The idea became: this is what harmonizes with you, therefore this is what you should wear.
More modern essence systems often do something similar with facial features. If you “look youthful,” the recommendation becomes dressing youthful.
But what if you love a structured pantsuit?
Colour analysis can fall into this trap too. Someone gets typed as Bright Spring and suddenly feels pressured to wear bold, bright colours constantly because that is supposedly what matches them best.
But what if they genuinely love muted neutrals and timeless simplicity?
This is where I start to disagree with the way these systems are often taught online.
A lot of them unintentionally suggest that your role is to obey your features instead of understanding yourself more deeply.
They offer quick answers to questions that actually require introspection, experimentation, personality, lifestyle consideration, emotional resonance, and nuance.
And what ends up happening?
People bounce between quizzes, analyses, Pinterest boards, TikToks, Reddit threads, and conflicting opinions trying to force all the pieces together into something that finally feels right.
Usually it just leaves them frustrated.
Trust me, I have been there too.
The shift for me happened when I stopped treating essences like rigid categories and started viewing them as reflections of individuality.
Because the truth is, you are already expressing your essences naturally.
All those Pinterest boards you keep saving?
The movies you rewatch?
The books you gravitate toward?
The celebrities whose style feels captivating to you?
The season that feels most like home?
None of that is random.
Those are breadcrumbs leading back to yourself.
Essence work, at its core, is really about pattern recognition. It takes all of those seemingly disconnected preferences and reflects them back in a way that suddenly makes sense.
Not because someone invented your identity for you.
Because it was already there.
Your tastes are not accidental.
Your preferences are not silly.
The things you consistently gravitate toward are often deeply connected to how you want to move through the world and express yourself visually.
And once you understand that, style becomes much less about following rules and much more about creating harmony between your physical features, your personality, your lifestyle, and your inner world.
That is where style becomes timeless.
Not because it is trendless.
Not because it perfectly follows a system.
But because it feels undeniably like you.
Once you know how to dress your frame, work with your colouring, and visually express your personality all at the same time, your style stops feeling forced.
It becomes something much deeper than aesthetics.
It becomes self recognition.
If you want to dive deeper into your personal essences, you can book me here - or if you'd like to know more about my personal style services you can book my FREE Fit call to find out what package works best for where you are.