As long as I’m on a myers briggs roll, with my recent post about dressing as introvert or extravert, the next logical step is a stab at describing dressing as a Sensor or an iNtuitive. Again, this is brainstorming.
The diagnostic question for S or N: Are you interested in what is or what could be?
Revised list 12/18/2009 (still brainstorming)
The Sensor may:
- choose individual items
- place priority on accessories (details)
- wear black for a practical reason (slimming, goes with everything, etc)
- choose geometric or organic shapes
- feel restricted by a very rigid fabric
The Intuitive may:
- organize the wardrobe along some sort of theoretical system
- view the ensemble as a composition
- use black and/or white to create contrast and amplify another color, or really love black
- love abstract or stylized prints
- feel naked in a very drapy fabric
Now, for the stats: 65% of the population is assumed to be sensors, with 35% more intuitive. If my hypotheses here prove true, this (and the coming discussion about thinking vs feeling) explain why I feel so much pressure to wear stuff I don’t like. I am decidedly in the minority. But, I think, not among the readers of this blog. 🙂
Input needed! Do you know, confidently, whether you are more of a sensor or an intuitive? Would you express that preference in any of the ways I’ve listed?
Brainstorm with me: What would you add to, or subtract from, the lists?
hmmm.
I like new and different version of the familiar! I don’t want to wear things that are radical.
I definitely like accessories more than the garment but I tend to think of the garment itself as the accessory – the flashpoint – if it’s a noticeable print
hmm again – I love black because it’s truly been a favorite color all my life. And doesn’t hurt that it’s easy.
I love geometrics and shapes that echo my cheekbones, I guess. An irregular arc. But I currently dislike natural looking flowers. OTOH, leaves are a favorite. Have that arc. But I still like stylized leaves and flowers. I like gamine prints that are peppy. Like polka dots.
On the fence about drapey. Texture is very important to me, though. I shop first by color – and my reaction to wanting a new color in my wardrobe is a kind of physical hunger – and then by the feel. If I love the color and the fabric doesn’t feel right I won’t buy it.
I like luster but sparkle is nice if it’s pinpoint and random.
I prefer asymmetry.
I have the most trouble in understanding the types I am not! Am clueless about what it feels like to be introverted or intuitive.
Boy, I don’t fit either of those. I’m more like half one and half the other. For example, I am more interested in the garments than the accessories, but I love black as a “main dish” not just an accessorizing color. I like matte and low lustre fabrics, but I also prefer abstract and stylized prints, when I wear a print. And I usually dress symmetrically, however, I love an occasional asymmetrical look.
Hm. Other than S = prefers the familiar, I’m not sure I follow any of that. I don’t particularly see myself in any of the characteristics on either list, other than a *slight* affinity for both black and abstract prints. For the record, I’m a moderate-high N. (My N and J are pronounced but not quite as extreme as my I and T.)
Hmmm. Well, alrighty then. *chuckle* I can’t get it right every time. Still, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your feedback. I kinda need to be able to discuss things to sort them out and can you imagine if I tried to talk to people in person about this stuff?
Laughing at self – I notice my own bias in this: I can’t actually imagine that anyone would *like* black just because they like it. And there is so much pressure to wear black that I don’t know if most people can even identify why they like it. But I know there really are people who are just at home in black because of their personality/idiom.
cindykay – if you ignore my lists, could you identify yourself in the diagnostic question; or do you know your mbti? Because I have a guess from what you said concerning whether you would be an S or an N.
I think I need to edit the lists a bit. 🙂
Yeah, it might be editing time. 🙂
I’m a super-high N, and the only fit is that I DON’T care much about handbags, though that’s mostly because I’m too lazy to change them to match outfits, as I can easily obsess about scarves, jewelry, and shoes. I wear black and a limited color range; I prefer the familiar, as the familiar fits and creates a known look. (And I like black because I like it!)
The key issue ought to be that N’s organize wardrobes along some sort of theoretical system, while S’s choose individual items, but I have no idea how that operationalizes into any other tastes. All of the N’s I know personally are aggressively color-coordinated, if that helps.
“The key issue ought to be that N’s organize wardrobes along some sort of theoretical system”
That makes perfect sense.
I wonder if all the Ns you know are Js, though, or are INs who organize their wardrobe through the use of black. OTOH, I wonder if the Ss I know whose wardrobes are aggressively color-coordinated would still be that way if they didn’t know me. 🙂
Okay, now all of a sudden my personality jumps out from your list! List #2 is definitely me! (You should see the PAGES of charts I made trying to design my wardrobe capsules….)
I don’t know if I exactly “feel naked” in drapy fabric, I just know that I do like substantial (“rigid”) clothing, like jeans and good shoes.
I don’t know how to answer your diagnostic question, however I took an online Meyers Briggs test a few years ago and I came up INFJ. Does that mesh with your guess?
Indeed, cindykay, you have made my day; I guessed you were an IN something. Thanks to Wende, and everyone else who left a comment. While I’m not all the way there yet, I think I’m onto something. 🙂
I still think, though, that shiny metal *might* belong with the Ns and natural, earthy stuff might be more popular with the Ss.
Another way to phrase the diagnostic question is “are you a thinker-upper or a getter-doner?” lol
I am enjoying thinking this over so much! Black is indeed very beautiful to me, a deep black or ivory black or suede or patent. But not satin even though I tend to like lustre. The black lightens too much.
I’m a getter-doner. I like dulled metals, though and hate earth mother stuff. I like some polish.
I end up buying things like sweater dresses and then not happy with ’em. Cozy but next door to wearing a bathrobe to me.
Where I live black is a good color for blending in but it’s an urban ghetto black and in order to see women wearing more ordinary black clothes I have to go into Philadelphia and into a better neighborhood there. So I’m not at all influenced by real folks I see to wear black.
As a college freshman in the 60’s I went to U.Va for a weekend and got off the train wearing a black wool skirt and black sweater. My date, whom I’d known previously as a younger girl and who was himself from New York, asked me, and not uncritically, “What are you an art major!”
I also am contantly looking for a system that will make everything easier. But I think that’s because I’m a getter-doner! OTOH, I’m always buying things outside whatever I decided. I’m very affected by costuming and am drawn to clothes that fit some archetypal role or other that has nothing to do with me other than indulging in fantasy. Should I be thinking of myself as an N, ya think?
oh I missed this:
“view the ensemble as a composition”
That’s my number 1 operating rule. And I’m a big print mixer, though I try to exercise restraint and refrain from it because it’s far too comment-invoking. I like my clothing to be appreciated but not gawked at nor the subject of conversation.
I think Wende’s right – a “how” distinction seems to fit better than a “what” distinction for this one. The revised list rings much more true.
“but it’s an urban ghetto black”
the hero: “is that like black stretch pants?”
me: “no. that would be suburban ghetto black.”
lol
Although mbti etc is set up as either/or, I don’t see any reason why a person couldn’t be high in both, *especially* a person over a certain age. Personally, I plan to just choose what works for me, but it’s very hard for me to just go to the store and “buy what I like”. I feel like I need to understand the theory and what I’m trying to express.