Identifying the grounding color ring of a city is predicated on the notions of: temperature, tone and terrain. The color math by city is one of the most frequented read articles (read here) I’ve written. Why? Because when we travel, it sucks if you show up in the wrong vibe rather than (just) the wrong outfit. The color math applies formulas to logic acquired by experience. In school, when I was taught the formula for something, it was hard for me to digest and apply. When I had formula + rationale, I did much better. But when I could add on a layer of deep familiarity, the kind you feel in your gut, my knowledge level and ability to perform soared.

I think the below will help you feel viscerally what I know by experience coupled with some solid, albeit unconventional, analytics. I’ve taken some key activities we all do, no matter where we reside, and framed them by varied color rings. It’s easy to understand, you’ll feel the vibe. Promise.

And please - I encourage - give me feedback in comments, add places I don’t know, things I didn’t think about. Just don’t tell me I’m wrong, cause this is from my lens. Curious about your pov!

Let’s go:

Dominant excercise:

• Ring 1: fast walk, but make it in a heel.

• Ring 2: a treadmill, controlled and scheduled.

• Ring 3: Hiking or things that require deep breaths in an area where the act of breathing in your environment is not a health risk.

• Ring 4: High intensity aerobics and weight lifting that accompanies grunts and maybe a fist pump.

Weekday breakfast:

• Ring 1: anything that can be held in one hand and eaten during the afore mentioned fast walking

• Ring 2: anything in a bowl: cereal, yogurt with toppings, maybe a soft boiled egg with toast. Parameters are set, utensils required.

• Ring 3: anything in a blender, inclusive of a powdered substance like collagen or creatine.

• Ring 4: anything platable - fresh fruits, eggs, it’s the most important meal of the day afterall.

The Soundtrack:

• Ring 1: Things that thump or carry strong messages- The Strokes, the Cruel Intentions Soundtrack, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem. Or music intentionally ironic to lend perspective like Kate Bush’s “This mother’s work.” In absence of music, you’ve pressed play on the many apps you’ve bought to help you learn Japanese or sharpen your conversational French.

• Ring 2: The “Uncommon Knowledge Podcast”, things found on Siriux XM like The Bloomberg Channel, Nostalgic music (note: this is different for all of us, my Gen 90s nostalgia is different than a Millenial’s early aughts)

• Ring 3: Any songs that have a guitars base- but strummed - not a power picking of chords. Or a tune that allows for singing along - sometimes loudly (and who cares, you’re alone in your car, no ones watching or worse, filming).

• Ring 4: music by groups that have more than 3 men in them, often wearing short sleeve buttondowns and pants with cargo pockets they actually use and that end just below the knees. Or anything involving a steel drum or an instrument exuberantly upbeat like a xylophone, a ukulele, or a glockenspiel.

The greeting:

• Ring 1: (if at all) it’s a cock of the head. Nod down or nod up, depending on the level of familiarity.

• Ring 2: a firm handshake, direct eye contact.

• Ring 3: a soft hug or prayer hands with a quick head bow.

• Ring 4: a slap on the back, maybe even a headlock noogie.

The sendoff:

• Ring 1: Ciao (regardless of native tongue), or just three grey dots that linger for a moment then just simply dissapear.

• Ring 2: “I’ll call you next week” - and they actually mean it.

• Ring 3: “Namaste”

• Ring 4: “I’ll see you at the club.”

Load me up with your comments.

Ciao,

Amy

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They often took a similar skirt body and showed how it would be accessorized, lengthened or camouflaged as you progress through the years. I don’t blame everyone for having such a mindfuck when it comes to this subject. I blame them. But, alas, blame gets us nowhere - so here we focus on resetting our mind and moving on. Through a series of visuals I’ll show you how as images speak louder than words.

My urgency in writing about this, now, is that I’ve just returned from a trip to San Francisco working with one of my favorite people in the world, Sherri McMullen. We had around 60+ appointments, and if I had to guess the ages ranged from 30-60. And many of them, regardless of where they fell on this age scale, asked me for advice on how think about age appropriateness when getting dressed. And while on the surface, you may believe the idea means something different to everyone depending on their age, there was a clear thru-line when I drilled deeper to the real concern. At first in my probing, I thought I’d found it when “trends” kept being brought up in respect to age. “I don’t want to look like I’m trying to hard, to thirsty, a trend victim.” But if we flip that on its head, we get closer to the real issue, and I’ll summarize it here:

“as I get older, it’s important that I communicate that I know who I am. My personal style is a reflection of that. If one day I am a “mob wife,” an “Italian Maximalist” or a “Coastal Grandmother” then I will project, if to no one but myself, that I don’t know who I am. “

And this clicked and it also crystallized for me why I’ve been not just “meh” but actually annoyed at the Sex and the City’s / “And Just Like That” costuming. And that’s the key word, it became costuming, troping, rather than helping convey the story line, motivations, and a setting of context. A quick visual here, compare and contrast:

The early Carrie, she was given tremendous latitude to experiment. Her outfits conveyed she was deeply curious, opinionated, game for anything. And not ashamed to be figuring it all out, it’s part of life’s process. Each outfit communicated all of these things at once. But the “Now” Carrie became a bad copy of the former Carrie. A literal trope of what it looks like to have way to much funding to recreate exact replicas that never hit the mark. And they miss it because life moves on, the aim is not to recreate exactly what was but it’s in the thrill of figuring out how all that lived life plays in to who we are today. Our better understanding of how we show up as ourselves no matter the environment. Alas, that doesn’t mean a complete disregard to our surroundings. Carrie showing up to a farm to be with Aidan’s kids dressed in 5 inch platforms and satin no longer is about whimsy, it just seems weird she hasn’t figured out how to do “her” in varied situations that call for some - a bit- of understanding/recognition of the terrain/temp/vibe.

While I don’t pretend to have it all figured out, I do stand on far more solid ground than ever. Critical thinking, information, reflection - that will do that for you. Here’s a visual cue to the tropes, the films, the icons that I was too young to have on a Pinterest board but existed in torn out magazine pages or just simply in my memories when I was busy diving in to varied style personas:

It was a mashup, the Preppy Handbook, any John Hughes film, Flashdance, Ally McBeal short mini suits, Kate/Gwyneth/Carolyn, the Donna Karan pantsuit, Plum Sykes from Vogue, Carolyn Murphy and yes, even Carrie by way of the real SJP.

I tried hard for my own interpretations of this growing up. Any that were in my Flashdance /Footloose phase seem buried, and I’m not angry about that.

And so now here I find myself, my older self. And whether you can grab this from photos of me over the years, or in my imaginary younger year’s Pinterest board, the thru-line is there - I can see it in pictures of me now. Chill, Modern, Classic with a twist of humor (in the way of irony, ick, or quite literally).

And this is when you cut down to what it means to dressing your age: it’s about knowing and dressing your style. In other words, yourself. This next visual will help drill this point further. Here’s a recount of a conversation from McMullens:

Person: “You’re wearing the tie-dye jean. But you paired it with a navy sweater, so that it looks more age appropriate, right?”

Me: “no. I paired it with the navy sweater because it now looks like me. Darianne paired it with the striped shirt, I would do that too.”

Person: “But you wouldn’t wear it with a floppy hat and low cut shirt or lots of jewelry, that wouldn’t be age appropriate, right?”

Me: “no. It just wouldn’t be me. Stevie Nicks, she would do that. She’s quite a bit older than me. If you saw her in that, she’d just look like Stevie. At any age”.

Which brings us back full circle now to the original visual. I originally set out to try and “recreate” those visuals from those narrow minded articles about dressing your age. But as I was doing it I realized, I would wear all these things today - but the BIG difference is the where and how it would be styled. I wouldn’t wear the short skirt in my office, it would convey too much of an un-seriousness for me. At least if I was having a meeting that day. And my 20 year old self would have loved the full skirt. I even had an idea to just make the 70+ person ridiculously covered up - but I realized that’s a vibe too - for the right moment.

Now, you see the visuals through a different lens, right?

And we come back to the notion, it’s about dressing like yourself, the one that is tweaked for different environments, activities, or considerations like terrain or culture. Standing out whilst fitting in. Creative, yet pragmatic.

See?

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Tibi Spring 26

The year was 1998, I was interviewed by a NY fashion magazine, and they asked “you’re so bold to show color, how do you convince women to experiment?”

I was thrown by the question. I had recently moved from NYC to Hon…

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1. Like much in life, we are two things at once and it’s all in the balance.

2. And knowing this, you can see how important your…

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Let me start here.

Present day: we started working on our Fall 26 collection last September (25). And a partner from Germany was at our studio and she mentioned that “one can never be a pr…

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Follow me down this rabbit hole please……

“The third-rate mind is only happy when it’s thinking with the majority. A second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. A first-rate …

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So no judgement here with what I’m going to share. This simply “is what it is”, to me. If you feel the same, you feel the same. If you don’t, you don’t. And if you were on the fence, you now have more perspective - or intelligence - depending on how y…

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So how to have range in our closet, express ourselves through myriad colors, and still retain our through line? In other words, how do we make sure we look like “ourselves.” The answer’s not complicated, but it does mean letting go of some singular ways of thinking about what color represents. Through the ages, magazines and books on style, have labeled style through either/ors. If you wear colors in ring Ring 1/2, you are an urban minimalist, Ring 3? That’s for the zen masters, yoga matt in tow. And Ring 4, you are fun and girly or the exuberant socialite.

The source of frustration in your closet, or when shopping, has not been driven by lack of choice. Rather, it’s been a bit of a mind fuck undoing what you’ve learned, understanding who you are, and how to articulate that visually through your personal style. You know that being “boxed” into certain tropes is incredibly frustrating, it handicaps creativity and your ability to express yourself without being labeled as chaotic and all over the place (even if it’s just you doing the labeling).

The friction I had experienced in knowing that I crave the stability of classic neutral colors (1/2’s), and the softness of those hard to define ones (3’s) and the excitement of the (4’s) was frustrating. I rejected the notion that I had to pick a lane and stay in it, but at the same time, I often found myself veering in to head on traffic with some of my choices. Not because they were “wrong” visually. By any objective standard, the “outfits” I put together were good. But they didn’t feel right because I simply did not feel like me when wearing them. It wasn’t until a few years ago I started thinking critically about style and that freed me to question question the accepted truisms, debate the logic and evaluate what made sense for me in the context of being a Creative Pragmatist. I suppose it’s why when I created the color wheel (P. 136 in The Creative Pragmatist Book was literally a wheel. Meant to be spun around, moving from ring to ring, with no clear path of right or wrong but simply to help give an understanding of what the different combinations will yield.

Understanding the role color can play to help you lean in to the way you feel can help you think more critically about what you are feeling and how you want to communicate that through your style. When you understand your intent, and are able to convey it visually, it gives you a sense of calm, the calm that comes when you are quite sure of yourself.

Rather than fall for the tropes, the hardcore minimalist, the zenmaster, the extremist, just try mixing up the rings a bit more - adding an “y, light, or an ish” to anything that becomes too one dimensional.

I’m going to give examples of how mixing different rings on the wheel yields different results. I’ll start simple here, showing how one jacket in a ring 3 color can take on different vibes depending on the combination of rings.

I’ll break down the range of emotions I’ve drawn above:

A: Confident and creative. Maybe this is a more casual day in the office. The heel and the jacket has you squarely put together, mixing the ring 3 colored tee feels thoughtful but not over wrought, and the pink sweater makes you feel a bit happy. The ring 4 sweater balanced with the ring 3 and 2 colors, gives that pink sweater a bit of sophistication.

B: Comfortable but refined. You’re boarding the plane. The white tee keeps everything sharp, casual but put together. The high contrast between the blazer, the tee and the knit has you feeling focused - when you’ve got a long flight ahead, you want to somehow feel fresh and crisp but not strictly confined or overly fashioned out.

C: Weekend effortless but with style. Just hanging, running errands, put together but the literal definition of chillful haphazardnous that all of these ring 2’s piled on convey. That sort of “I just got dressed with the lights off and this all came together” ease.

The illusive Ring 3 is often the glue that pulls together a closet by creating a through line between the rings on the wheel. The daft mixture of Ring 3 allows someone who is arguably chill, modern and classic to retain their sense of personal style whilst mixing in bright colors, strong bold tights, and just creative experimentation.

A: The muted but defined color of the draped shirt softens the bright mint sweater and is simply the non-obvious choice that gives an outfit depth.

B: The hard to define sweater color tempers a blazing set of beads, lending sophistication and the good but not jarring contrast to the rich dark neutrals.

C: The bold red sock is balanced out when mixed with the cementy-grey-tannish-brown. Of course we would love the red sock with a navy skirt and sweater too- but you can envision that that would create an entirely different vibe. Not a wrong or right vibe, just a different one.

Here’s a cheat to know if a color is a Ring 3-er. They’re hard to say in one word. We debate them with friends - is it really brown? More red maybe? Possibly a bit purply??? Ring 2 colors can usually be pinpointed straight away: navy. White. Khaki. Grey. Same with the brights or pastels of Ring 4. Fuschia. Lime. Mint. Turquoise. The Ring 3-er’s trip up the tongue a bit.

I know from speaking with so many of you know that many issues with building your personal style emanate from the colors in the closet. Most people have a closet weighted down by either Ring 1/2’s or Ring 4’s. In an effort to expand, balance the scale, they bring in the color ring at the opposite of the spectrum. The thinking being they’ll “brighten” up all the darks and neturals in the closet by adding Ring 4’s and vice versa.

But when you add in the Ring 3 colors, it becomes the glue that brings all the colors together opening up a new range of vibes.

A: The soft purply grey wool jersey lightens up and adds dimension to a a full ring 2 Navy suit.

B: An effortless jersey polo dress gets toughened up and made emphatically urban by mixing in the strength of Ring 2 neutrals and quirky Ring 4 brights.

C: All the bright clothing you’ve invested in have new life and wearability beyond when you’re feeling for something simply happy and creative. Ring 3 settles those colors down extending the wearing options immensely.

Keep the colorwheel near the closet, it will help keep you on point. Practice makes perfect. Which is actually something I don’t believe in. I’ll reword this to say: practice gives you confidence to plow forth and make mistakes and not care because it’s how you experiment and learn and often find they weren’t mistakes afterall. See?

I talk so much here about personal style - connecting your visuals with who you are on the inside. When the connection isn’t there, you can feel unstable - that’s my experience, anyways. But the process of unpacking it all, d…

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If I was going to a meeting I’d pin up the longest ribbon so it doesn’t confuse my head where I’m going. I’d go for ring 1+2’s from the Tibi colorwheel. I’d throw on brogues to double down on the meeting vibe, I’d tie a sweater at my waist to give ease,…

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First, let me start by saying that “big” is relative. But then again, everything in life is. And big is not always better. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to dine on roast chicken in France, you now this to be tru…

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I want to share a story with you. It is starting to feel very familiar to me, but it doesn’t get old because each time it makes me think. And it makes me so very grateful for the direction life has taken me here, as the Founder and Creative Director of Tibi.

On my last night in Paris, my son and I were sitting at a small table for two at our favorite restaurant L’as Du Fallafel. We were in the back, the original side of the restaurant, centered in the middle. A woman sat alone at the table directly to my left, dressed in a burgundy-ish fleece pullover, wearing jeans I think, and a very functional shoe for walking. She made eye contact, we did as well, but we were exhausted after ten days of traveling between London and Paris Fashion Week. I just wanted to eat my falafel.

“Do you come here often?” She asked. “Yes.” I replied, reverting my eyes back to the sticky menu.

“This is my first time, do you live in Paris? “No” I replied, as I looked to the waiter and told him I would have the special falafel sandwich in an accent courtesy of Duolingo and which no one in Paris recognizes as anything resembling French.

She persisted the conversation, and I and my son are better for it. She told us she was visiting from Colorado and had moved to the U.S. only 10 years ago from Iraq. Her father fought in the Iraqi army, and this was the first time she had been to Paris. She had always heard about the Marais and she wanted to explore the area, her religious roots, and experience true Paris. She explained that she is a doctor and that many people in Colorado ask her the same questions that I immediately did, about her experiences in Iraq and how she grapples with her feelings towards her new country. She told me wherever she goes, the reality is she meets people, often really good people and that is where she focuses and takes console.

She asked “what do you do for a living?”

I told her I have a clothing brand, called Tibi, that I started over 27 years ago and that we show the collection to our global stores each season in Paris.

She asked me “what is the philosophy behind my designs?”

Hmm… that’s not the usual question I get from an individual - the press yes, people not so much. I answered:

“I think it’s incredibly important that your visual style match who you are on the inside. And that when those two are opposed to each other, it creates angst and conflict. It is often the source of tension and when people realize where it’s coming from, and they learn they can rectify that, it is consoling, and I hope my clothing and what we do every day helps people.”

And she started crying.

This woman who was a complete stranger moments ago was crying because of what I said and so we hugged. She said this hit so hard, that she had not been able to express who she was in Colorado, and that being here in Paris reminded her that this was a part of her, and that she needed to not be dressed like someone else. She said she had gone to an H&M earlier that day in an attempt to find herself but left overwhelmed and disheartened. She said that growing up, her mother and sister loved fashion so much, they were so chic but that she had somehow been conditioned to think it so superficial. She needed to hear that it was ok, that looking like yourself is intrinsically connected to feeling like yourself and being able to express who you are to others just simply, well, it makes sense that that’s important.

She offered to share her mint lemonade with me, we talked more and we left. I hope she DM’s me and I hope I have not revealed too much here about her identity and breached an unspoken trust.

I think about this exchange and how important this and similar moments have become. As an introvert, the industry I signed up for always left me feeling a bit sick even though it may appear to some I’m enjoying skating the surface in a superficial conversation about whether Slimane will go to Chanel (I don’t care) or whether Bohemian will be a raging trend (I super don’t care). My reality is, I prefer these real and personal conversations every time, and prior to 2020, they were far and few between. Of course I would meet people with whom exuded a realness and I could talk for hours. And likely many of those who I found unbearable in my industry are perhaps assuming the same as me, and we skate on the surface thinking that neither has interest in diving below.

No matter, I know that when my son witnesses these conversations as he has so often now- with random individuals or customers - that he is filled with a sense of purpose that I could never realize in my first two decades of business.

I love what I do now, and I see it amongst our team as well. Now is different. I’m so glad to have one toe in my industry, and the rest of my body fully planted in this other, far meaningful, world.

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8am - arrive to office. Sarah and Traci are officers now - directing the team making the models boards, bagging up the looks, briefing the dressers. I stay out of t…

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10:30 makeup test with Bobbi Brown. Sarah briefs the team “natural, lean in on one feature to play up, make it real.” And Cassandra the head artist says “ok, the usual.”

1pm: lunch is potato chips spicy Kobe be…

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