Dressing Your Truth

It's not your fault.

You've heard this absolution again and again on various fronts, but Carol Tuttle makes it more than just a hook to draw you in. Over the years, she says, women have tried to adopt, and adapt to, various trends and styles. If they don't work, "they fault themselves," she notes.

In her new book, Dressing Your Truth, she clearly explains how and why fashion works against you:

The gulf is because [fashion] designers are artists. They create beautiful clothes. But they don't always design for the truth of who a woman really is."

Tuttle's background is in "energy psychology — helping women clear away limiting belief and emotional patterns." Tackling the inferiority complex women have developed over the years regarding fashion was a logical next step for her. Plus, she adds, 99 percent of women don't live in the fashion capitals, so reading fashion magazines is more entertainment than style advice. "They don't relate to it."

Her fresh approach eschews the color wheel, seasonal categories, or fruit comparisons ("you're an apple;" "you're a pear"...). Instead, she has developed a system that addresses the beauty of who you really are.

This is done by identifying four key types. I, of course, balked that all women could be divided into just four types. Secretly I realized I was probably a Type 1, but decided I straddled being a Type 1 and Type 2, with a dash of Type 3. Type 1s apparently always balk at being a Type 1, which is one of the indicators that they are in fact a Type 1. Arrrgghh!

Tuttle, a self-identified Type 3, adds, "The older a woman is, the more the culture makes her feel she should be a Type 2, which is identified as soft, feminine and beautiful." But Tuttle is careful to address concerns about being put in a box (Type 1s do not like being put in a box!). In Chapter 2, she writes:

…within each Type, there are countless varieties and variations [to] choose from … that will match your inner beauty and honor you."

She admits that the book will stir up some emotional baggage — places where women have been judging themselves that no longer serve them. But she describes it as a powerful process that releases you from preconceived notions about yourself.

"Especially for over-45s," Tuttle continues, "because you don't want to look like your grandma did [at this age] but you don't want to look like your 25-year-old daughter either." Which, she says, is counterproductive anyway. "Trying to look trendy often makes you look older."

The typing system, though is just the beginning. Her website then invites you to begin your transformation in concrete terms.

Perhaps that's next; I'm still grappling with being a Type 1.

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