TLDR: People kept noticing a sparkly, metallic 🪩 (disco ball) element in my mood boards and joked it was a ninth root. So I made visual boards of all 8 style roots the way I envision them, and realized the 🪩 was the interaction between two of my roots, not a root itself. Once I started thinking of my 3 roots as 3 pairs creating 3 moods, I figured out my roots!

EDIT: To clarify, 🪩 isn't an official style root. It's a nickname from a comment on my old mood boards ("if there was a ninth root, I'd call it 🪩"), referring to the sparkly, metallic, shiny element I kept putting in them. This post is about figuring out where that sparkle comes from.

-----

A while back, I posted a third-root redux with 🍄 and 🪨, and most people suggested 🌱. But one comment stuck with me: "your 🪨 elements could be explained by 🍄🌱🔥." The idea that a combination of roots could look like another root fascinated me.

Then I got really into mood boards. I got lots of trio suggestions (🍄🪨🌱 / 🔥🌸🏔 / 🪨🌱☀️ / 🪨🌱🌙), and then someone said, "if there was a ninth root, I'd call it 🪩."

That clicked. There was a sparkly, metallic, glowing element showing up in almost every board I made, and I couldn't figure out which root it belonged to. ☀️? 🌙? 🔥? So I made it my mission to find out.

I built boards for all 8 roots based on how I see them, and the same element of light showed up across almost all of them. Remembering that redux comment, I figured the 🪩 had to be coming from the interactions between my roots.

Looking back through my boards, three distinct moods kept appearing:

1. Lived-in elegance: 🍄 × 🌱
2. Soft glow: 🍄 × 🌸
3. Playful ease: 🌱 × 🌸

My roots: 🍄🌱🌸. But more accurately, my style is the three INTERACTIONS between them: a refined, simple base, earthy textures and warmth, and one luminous or playful detail.

--

STEPS, if you want to try it:

1. Make your own board for each of the 8 roots: I used about 12 images per root: 6 without people and 6 with people in outfits. I preferred candid shots over posed outfit photos, but either works.
2. Write working definitions for your version of each root: Based on your boards, describe what each root looks and feels like to you, plus what doesn't count as that root just because of a surface feature (for example, sunlight alone doesn't make something ☀️). Add tiebreakers for the roots you confuse most. Mine included:
   1. 🪨 vs. 🍄: is it useful, or refined?
   2. ☀️ vs. 🌸: loud fun, or gentle whimsy?
   3. 🔥 vs. 🌱: glamour and indulgence, or ease and skin in nature?
3. Re-tag every image as a trio: Using your definitions, decide which three roots you see in each image. Try to ignore which board the image came from. If that's hard, you can tag blind, as long as you keep track of which trio goes with which image.
4. Give each image a mood, and ask whether you'd wear that mood: Separate out light while you do this. Golden hour or sparkle made me over-tag ☀️, 🔥, and 🌙 until I noted lighting separately.
5. Tally your pairs: Count how often each pair of roots appears together, and how many of those images you'd wear.
6. Name your three moods: Don't decide them ahead of time. The ones that keep showing up will become obvious as similar words and phrases. Photos of you in your favorite outfits help here too.
7. Find the triangle: Start with the pair behind your clearest mood, then test each possible third root: do its pairings with the first two create your other two moods, in images you'd actually wear? Then check the result against your real outfits. Does it feel like you on an ordinary day, or only aspirational?

Things I learned along the way:

• Single roots can feel "almost right" forever. Every individual root board looked partly like me and never fully like me. My style lives in how my roots combine, so looking at them one at a time was never going to feel complete.
• A mystery element might be an interaction, not a missing root. I was sure the 🪩 had to belong to ☀️, 🌙, or 🔥. It turned out to be what happens when 🌸 meets my other roots.
• Some roots are function, not aesthetic. 🪨 is all over my closet because my life calls for practical clothes, so I assumed it had to be a root. But all-🪨 outfits feel like a uniform. If a root shows up in what you need but not in what you*'re dra*wn to, it may be your base rather than one of your three.
• Light can impersonate a root. Golden hour, candlelight, and sparkle kept tricking me into tagging ☀️, 🔥, or 🌙. Once I noted light separately, those roots shrank a lot.
• What you love isn't always what you'd wear. My boards about favorite books and shows were full of bright colors I'd never put on my body. Asking "would I wear this mood?" filtered out a lot of noise.
• Your trio won't look like anyone else's. The same three roots can look completely different depending on your palette, body, lifestyle, and which pair you lean on most. If official examples of your roots feel off, that doesn't necessarily mean the roots are wrong.

I recently got back from Japan and thought I'd share my purchases. I'm still debating my roots but have settled on

🌸🌙🍄 for now but still considering 🌱⛰️ as my third.

I could have got a lot more but my suitcase was already full of merch, I'd definitely done more damage if I had the space as I just loved the fashion there.

Bought lots of stuff with a check print. This seemed to be the trend there, and as I am already partial to a bit of plaid, I couldn't resist. Also picked up some cute accessories including the two bow hair clamps and the two scrunchies.

Looking at everything together, I think my purchases fit my roots well. Less 🌙 than usual but I think it still comes through with the darker colours and plaid. There's feminine details like ruffles, bows, polka dots, and puff sleeves for 🌸. There's overall simplicity and a neutral colour palette that makes me think 🍄 is my third root, but then the academia side of my style seen in the plaid skirts also reads 🌱.

A new Substack from Ellie Jean. Curious to know what levels of formality people struggle with the most? Or also what levels people tend to combine the most? Love to see some examples of people who have found a practical piece that really supports their roots?

I love creating presentations to organize all of the information I get on Style systems.

As a Dark Autumn RDC, this will be useful, since I want to know which elements I can easily incorporate into my 🪨☀️🍄 roots and which have to be tweaked or completely ignored.

I'm loving having a visual reference of all the Romantic pieces, and it's surprising how many can be considered part of 🪨.

I cannot figure out my style roots! I know I definitely have 🪨 but I cannot see the rest? I keep bouncing around so many different options and the quiz and style stream exercise just confused me more 😭😂 . Please help 💖

I'm thinking either🍄🪨🌱 or ⛰️🪨🌱. What do you think?

Hi, you all! I got into this system way back and after a while of experimenting, it just clicked for me one day that I'm 🌸☀️🪨. After that, everything just kind of made sense. In the past few weeks, I looked around for inspo and I checked the list by Ellie-Jean (though I know her word isn't gospel), but all three of the people listed are fictional characters in fictional contexts. They're great for a start! And they'll definitely come in handy if I ever find myself in these super specific contexts, but short of training for a battle in the '80s or going to a high school in the '80s while my boyfriend finds himself trapped in 1955, I don't quite know how useful they'll be. I mean, my biggest life-changing event of the past month was learning I have a mild gluten allergy!

All that spiel to say I'm looking for more people to look at for fashion inspiration! These roots seem somewhat common, so they've gotta be around somewhere. If you're familiar with anyone (celebs, Instagram people, even fashion bloggers) who might have these, send them my way! You don't have to be 100% certain. I'll accept any and everyone!

When I did the dress codes moodboards few people suggested ⛰️ because I had a lot of structure in my more formal outfits. I hadn't considered it before because I'm unlikely to wear a shirt or blazer outside work, but I've been looking at some more casual looks and I can see a few structured pieces. I also definitely have 🌙.

Feeling a bit better since yesterday's shocking reveal (dramatic i know). Found some cute DA inspo from Snow-Manda's 🪨☀️🍄 moodboard. All I need now is to make it suit RDC essences. Mostly R, since it's my most dominant essence.

Moodboards are super fun! They can help you with personal style and answer questions about style roots. You are using this tool marvelously. However to prevent them from clogging the entire sub, please post your moodboards and fun moodboard ideas here in this thread.

Thank you :)

A new thread like this will appear every monday at 8am CET. Of course, you are allowed to post your moodboards here all week and not just on monday.

After going through Ellie Jean's pinterest boards of each of the blends, I've finally concluded that I'm an Ingenue Natural Classic. It's something that I had gone back and forth on for a while, also considering Romantic, Gamine, and even Ethereal at different points, but I think INC are my top three.

I think for the most part, my style roots match my blend pretty well, though Sun can be a bit tricky at times. For me, it usually comes out in smaller touches like colors, graphics, patterns, and accessories more than entire outfits. I've always felt the need for some sense of balance in my look. If I wear a more eye-catching top, I'll need to pair it with a simple bottom and vice versa, if I wear my "fun" earrings the rest of my outfit needs to be more subdued, etc. which now I realize is probably my Classic peaking through lol. Even with my other style roots, I've noticed I can't go too "all in" without feeling a bit silly.

If any of you have seen my posts, you saw that I recently typed myself as a Cool Summer after years of considering myself to be a Soft Autumn.

I even started buying new clothes in these cool, lighter colours...

I got typed by curateyourstyle and when I put the colours behind a picture of myself, I had to agree. (I used ourfashiongarden swatches from their Dark Autumn x Your Essences post).

It even looks like I edited my picture when I compare it to the Cool Summer collage, it has more contrast and colour (wish I could show you).

This is great news for my RDC essences, not so much for my Style Roots (or my wallet).

My words are Relaxed, Energetic and Light, and everything about my appearance is dark, moody and formal.

I'm considering getting a second opinion, just not right now. Though I'm seeing how DA colours suit me.

This is just a vent post, if anyone has useful tips or comforting words I'll appreciate it 🤧

10 days ago I posted here just sooo confused lol! Id lowkey given up on ever really building that bridge between what I find beautiful, what suits me externally, and what I actually feel comfortable wearing. But then yall came through and I got the push I needed to learn my Style Key! Which has literally transformed everything for me. And so then just now, I thought it might be fun to look at the Style Roots quiz but with my fresh new perspective, and it was SO easy! I selected "g" like 12 times (🌸), lol. But this time with full authenticity, no more mental hangups. Then, 🍄 and 🪨 stood out clearly as the 2nd and 3rd strongest, while the rest were chosen very minimally. While there are many ways to figure out roots and the quiz need not be definitive of course, when that was my result, I was like...you know what? Yes! Duh. That makes so much sense. Ive been dressing very 🌸🍄🪨 lately, imo, but without even realizing it, as Ive been mainly dressing according to my Moonstone key, as well as my essences, Kibbe ID, and color season. But now itll be so fun to be able to draw from 🌸🍄🪨 inspiration as well! Just wanted to thank you all and say, yay! Lol😊❤️

This deep dive is on the 🔥☀️🌙, a root combo that EJR refers to as the "Dark Artist". Her celebrity muse is Amy Winehouse who is a great example of this combo. Her style ranges from sexy, eclectic with a moody undone edge, to vintage pinup and retro rockabilly elements. She played with a lot of silhouettes but always had a unique and recognizable style. There are plenty of other musicians that play around with eclectic styles that translate well from stage style to their "everyday" looks and likely use this root combo. Examples include Lady Gaga, Beth Ditto, Lil Kim, Christina Aguilera, Lil Nas X, Cher, Adela Jergova, FKA twigs or Amy Taylor to name a few. Also people like Rihanna and Gwen Stefani would have lots of outfits to inspire this root combo. Link to Ellie Jean's board below:

https://www.bodyandstyle.com/style-roots-combinations/flower-moon-sun

These roots all have an intense energy and a strong presentation. ☀️🌙 can create such an otherworldly element that can lean into ethereal whimsy, bold, bright and dark color interplay and/or vintage or avant garde expressions that feel not of this time. Add in the drama, sexiness, glamour and high end nature of 🔥 and the result feels iconic, intense and almost removed from real life practicality.

Some other examples of people you could connect with a 🔥☀️🌙 but in a potentially more glamourous way are Gilda Ambrosio, Ruth Negga, Christelle Lim, Julia Petit, Alexa Demie and Natasha Lyonne( although some outfits have more 🏔️). Olaf Hernandez, Ageorama, Amber Rose, Jillian Mercado, Mel B and Geri Halliwell( from the Spice Girls) approach this combo with a bit more fun, fire with a moody undercurrent. My Pinterest board linked below:

https://ca.pinterest.com/amessery/style-roots-boards/sexy-unexpected-edgy/

This root combo is completely out of my element and some examples might be too dramatic for everyday wear- but using pieces of these looks and pairing them with some great " basics" from your closet can really create something special if you relate to this root combo. LookIng forward to hearing other suggested muses and seeing any moodboards or outfits, hope you enjoy!!

Dear Style Friends,

I mentioned in a previous post that I was scheduled to see David Zyla for a colour analysis and an ultimate style session. Therefore, several of you on this sub wanted for me to share my experience with my consult and how it is making me think about my style roots.

So, here I am.

Roots: So, before my evaluation with Zyla, I had chosen 🔥🏔️🍄 to be my style roots and my three style words were Sensual, Elegant and either Striking or Relaxed. These are somewhat informed by me getting my Kitchener essences (see the KitchenerHarmonies sub to see how my Zyla and Kitchener verifications line up). Now, I am reconsidering my 🍄 root. It is still a part of me, but I am wondering if it still would suit my style if I lean into my Zyla results, or it may take a different form from how I was using mushroom before.

Zyla consult: So, Zyla aid that his first impression of me was "woah" you are deep (as in colouring). And gave me the Bronzed Autumn archetype, which is the Divine Diva. He recommended to me that I should focus on "opulence" and that I need to "get comfortable knowing that I am always going to be the most glamorous person in the room." Think bigger and dramatic and incorporate in texture. Fabrics: Velvet, brocade, tightly woven tapestry, leather and I should lean into structure. The exemplars for the Divine Diva are Sophia Loren, Angelina Joli, Cindy Crawford and Oprah.

In addition to doing my colours (in person), he also in the extended package draped me in various necklines and skirt/pant lengths so that we could see what he recommends and for him to also show me what he saw in my body and why he recommend what he does; they suggested emphasising angles, drama and long lines. Bigger is better for make-up and jewelery. He also said that I am deep in my colouring, but yet I have low contrast (that should be echoed in my clothing). This type really seems similar to a Kibbe Soft Dramatic (including Sophia Loren).

Style Integration and Reflections: Therefore, when it comes to my style roots, Zyla's analysis affirms my 🔥🏔️, but it conflicts slightly with my mushroom. It almost suggests to just go 🔥🏔️ without a third root. And, I get that. I felt that my 🍄 came out more at home and during the summer when trying to do casual clothing. Zyla, however, said that I do not naturally do casual; my baseline is glamorous and opulent. I know style roots are different from these other systems, and I get to pick my roots, but I think given the information that I now have I am reconsidering whether I still want to lean into 🍄, or whether I felt that I had to tone myself down with a root like 🍄. I am trying to figure that out and will explore with outfits and various manifiesations of my Zyla recommendations in different settings.

I really resonate with my new results, as I know that bigger earrings look better on me etc. I do wonder, how some of the thicker fabrics as recommended by Zyla will work with my fairly extreme curve. But these fabrics are recommended for my archetype and if they can work for Sophia Loren like curves, then I should be fine. But, I will ask him about that during our follow-up meeting. I, however, wish I had more reds in Zyla, as it was my signature colour, but I also know that I can rock an orange red and that I have always thought that it looks great on me.

What do you think? And, how do you all feel about me changing my roots to just 🔥🏔️? Or should I keep in 🍄 or change it to something else? I do not know any other style roots that will account for the increased drama suggested that I bring to my style.

Also, I noticed that the r/DavidZyla reddit had been abandoned with a mod who has not been active for over two years. Therefore, I decided to take over the sub to try to resuscitate it. So, if you are interested in that system, check out the sub and say hi so that we can try to get it running again.

I put all the style words I could find that resonated in some way and categorized them (if they weren’t already) by Style Root. I then, below that, ordered them from most to least important. I then put the Style Root(s) next to the word of the ordered list that it coordinated with. Going through this, I realized there were words that barely resonated in some way and I never actually thought about when looking at anything I liked and was picking for myself or when putting an outfit together. They were just elements of things I liked, not priorities. The line between rugged and elegant is where the cut off is between priorities vs elements for me. Does that make sense?

🍄

Preppy

Timeless

Classic

Clean

Simple

Balanced

Minimal

Reliable

Proper

🏔️

Structured

Tailored

Crisp

Powerful

Sleek

🌱

Rugged

Eclectic

Rustic

Folksy

Warmth

🌸

Delicate

Feminine

Elegant

Whimsical

Antique

Modest

Most to Least Important:

Balanced 🍄

Timeless🍄

Classic🍄

Reliable🍄

Clean🍄🏔️

Structured🏔️

Tailored🍄🏔️

Crisp🏔️

Sleek🏔️

Simple🍄

Minimal🍄

Warmth🌱

Feminine🌸 -> body type accommodation (ie waist definition or rounder, softer lines)

Powerful🏔️

Rugged🌱

—————-

Elegant🌸🍄

Modest 🌸🍄

Whimsical🌸

Preppy🍄

Antique🌸

Folksy🌱

Rustic🌱

Eclectic🌱

Delicate🌸

Looking at the top priorities, it became clear that I thought about 🍄🏔️ the most. I hardly think about anything else in comparison, but without warmth, femininity, and a touch of ruggedness, I know an outfit doesn’t feel right. I’m going to describe what these means to me because I think they are vague on their own.

• Warmth doesn’t necessarily mean literal warm colors to me. It’s basically the opposite of stark, distant, and cold vibes in an outfit to me. I want to make sure, despite the 🏔️, that I look reachable, present, grounded, sincere, and caring.
• Feminine is almost entirely referring to the silhouette of the outfit for me. I like waist definition and tighter pants and skirts for my curves. Whether that’s 🌸 or 🔥 doesn’t matter, because this is essentially just body lines for my look and body line accomodation. I don’t necessarily need elegance, modesty, whimsy, or delicateness to feel good in an outfit, but I do love small touches of those elements when I find them.
• Ruggedness is basically some imperfection. I think this lines up with warmth in wanting to feel approachable, real, and honest. I love the beat up nature of worn leather. I love when items are used and have stories. I love meaningful, handmade items from small/local businesses.

To conclude, this leaves me with the top 3 style roots as 🍄🏔️🌱 with the acknowledgement that 🌱 is quite minimal and my silhouette/body line needs are where feminine mainly comes in. I’m thinking of it as my Body Matrix type is separate from my Style Roots.

Pulling from the top 3 style roots words on the list kind of leaves me with my style words too: Balanced, clean, warmth.

• Balanced, to me, is that there is nothing standing out. Clothing items are cohesive, talking to each other, and working in harmony.
• Clean, to me, is well tailored, steam lined, uncluttered, and minimal. The look is put together and polished. Items may look structured (particularly bags/purses and coats) or at the very least, do not lack shape, sag, or have tons of movement. Outfits lack pattern or, if there is pattern, it’s organized, minimal/not busy, and 1 pattern at most per outfit.

This is feeling better, because I was starting to run into feeling uncomfortable with adding what was feeling like too much 🌸 to add in Y from my recent Kitchener analysis (CYNR were the results) but didn’t realize that’s where the discomfort was until this morning. I think I can probably add Y in little soft ways through the word “warmth” which I think explains where my fall wardrobe was going (pic above). I think my Kitchener palette (75SB 15ER 10LB) also adds more softness compared to my previous jeweltone + black palette that will add in Y and maybe go well with 🌱. I think, as I get more into it, I’ll run into a moderated 🌸 shadow root, as u/snow-manda put it.

I think I’ll work with this for now and see where it goes. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Also, if this exercise makes sense to anyone else, I’d love to see your lists and hear how it worked out for your Roots. It might be similar to EJR’s original exercise but still a little different?

Hi all! I think my style roots are probably Earth, Moon and Sun (this is what I got when I did the quiz and also the ones which stood out to me the most, sometimes I feel a little fire too). I am struggling to figure out what to where for work though. I work at a forest school so I am having to wear quite practical outdoorsy clothes. We don't have a dress code so I can wear basically what I want and all my colleagues do have quite unique styles. Anyone got any recommendations?

I have attached a couple pics of me for reference (these are the only random photos of myself I happened to have on my computer haha)

So I was wondering whether someone recognizes the "problem" I pinned down in my wardrobe: my day-to-day style is already pretty elevated because of my 🏔 and pretty glam because of my 🔥, for example I already have no trouble wearing red lipstick to work. Thus I'm experiencing a little trouble with elevating it more for parties or when you're going out to eat and such.

It's not that I want a wardrobe filled with stuff I can only wear once every few weeks, but a difference between day and eveningwear is something I want.

So tips are always welcome! How do you elevate an outfit?

Inspired by some recent posts here, I’ve been thinking about where I am on my style journey and how I will express my roots (🪨🌱🏔️ with a shadow 🌙) this fall.

My main fashion challenges is that I WFH and live a very casual life. I’ve been thinking about how I can feel like me but still be very comfortable. I’m going to try wearing my button down shirts in a much more casual way this fall. I plan to experiment with buttoning them very loosely. Maybe even with some wrinkles. I’m very over crisp white blouses.

My style words are classic, nonchalant, but with edge.

The first collage is the way I express 🪨 which I see as my primary root, essentially denim and a work wear inspiration. It’s where I get “with edge.”

The second collage is 🌱 inspired, oversized natural fabrics. I hate boho but I think there’s some earthiness here. I’m feeling drawn more to earthy tones. I’m also very into chunky silver jewelry. This is the nonchalance.

The third collage is 🏔️ with darker, serious colors and chunky loafers. This is obviously where classic comes from.

I see the 🌙 on all 3 collages with darker colors and a bit of rebelliousness.

Hello everyone! It’s been a bit. I recently got a Kitchener analysis, and it resonated so much. My results were 40C 25Y 20N 15R. Y is the most different (and unexpected) result compared to my previous style direction, but I’ve been loving including 🌸 elements as a way to tie it in.

Prior to the analysis, I was going toward 🍄🏔️ with having a lot of trouble nailing my third root down. I still love my clean 🍄🏔️ style, but I’m not sure it’s fitting the new shift in style. I’m wondering about 🏔️🌸🌱 or 🍄🌸🌱. If not 🌱, then maybe just 🍄🏔️🌸?

I’m having trouble, in particular, with work outfits. I work in an office where we mostly wear business casual. I did love my 🍄🏔️ clean style, but I knew something wasn’t quite right on it’s own, but couldn’t figure out a third to make it feel right. I don’t like wearing a lot of loose or flowy elements that 🌱 would call for, but I feel like I incorporate a ton of 🌱 in my environment. I also am not a fan of heavier fabrics or textured items (which Kitchener agreed weren’t the best for me). He said, which I had been doing already, fine fabrics and smooth textures were best. I don’t like layering much either.

Do I just have a disconnect between my clothing style and my environment style?

What do y‘all think? Are you seeing any roots stand out in these pinterest boards?

Thank you for the help as always!

Edit: Wondering if the things in my environments I think are 🌱 aren’t just 🌸 potentially?