On Tuesday I had the nicest compliment: a co-worker, a well-dressed young guy from India whose graceful manners make him a constant pleasure to work with, said, "I like your colors today. You have a very good dress sense."

(I was wearing a red skirt suit, a red-and-purple striped top, and purple tights. I mean, there were only two colors, but there was a lot of each of them. The compliment was, therefore, sort of surprising and deeply gratifying. Because I meant that outfit, but I'll admit it was eye-bending.)

Over the past several months my closet has become like a box of Crayolas.


Purple and yellow (aka fuck you, subtlety)

I've taken a "strict compliance" approach to Dressing Your Truth (because "strict" is generally a good descriptor for Type 4),


Sulfur and houndstooth--one of my few available prints and patterns to break up the huge color-blocks

and once I accepted the limitations on color¹, texture², design line³, and fabrication⁴, it's been amazing how brilliantly everything works together.


Apparently I like orange now

So yeah, nice outfits and all, but it's more than that, and there's a whole community of DYT-ers (mostly on Facebook) constantly trying to figure out and express what that "more" is.


Trenchant

For me, it's...

• bending "rules" of workplace, social milieu, city--even gender a little bit--to express something true about myself
• taking bits of style inspiration from across the Type 4 spectrum, from Adam Lambert to Anne Hathaway
• saying fuck you to age-based (and weight-based!) restrictions on clothes, hair and makeup
• feeling like it's okay to show myself to the world
• not being shocked to see a photograph of myself
• telegraphing clearly to the world what it can expect of me⁵

Accessories

Also? Packing for my next trip, whenever that might be, is going to be a breeze.


Waterproof

---

<sup>1. Black and white plus pure hues↩

2. Smooth--even shiny--firm and crisp.↩

3. Bold, straight, simple, clean, fitted↩

4. Structured, shaped, tailored ↩

5. Still, reflective, discriminating, demanding, logical, bold, and don't hug me, okay? So, basically, a Vulcan in really saturated colors.↩</sup>

Crossposted from Dreamwidth, where there are comments.