kibbe & the myth of dressing for your body type

Let's talk about the Kibbe method, dressing for your body type and why it might not be quite what it seems...

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Edited by Josiah Williams.

[laurendanielle.]

The kibbe conversation is always interesting to me—I like the kibbe system and I’ve been using it since about 2016ish. It’s been extremely freeing for me and has helped me build a wardrobe I’m really content with. Its just a form/tool. And this might be generational, but I have noticed that gen z has an extremely essentialist mindset about things that inhibits them from being able to just use a tool as a tool and not make yourself in the image of the tool. You mentioned having an item that falls out of the system, but is something you love and posed it as a problem, but there isn’t really a problem is there? If you like something, wear it. It’s not that deep. People use the kibbe method because they have dissatisfaction with their attire and want to create a framework to work from, but I do see how this latest expression of kibbe influencers had made this system their whole personality. But that’s not what kibbe is in itself.

One slight nitpick is you mentioned all of these systems are showing you how to be an hourglass and that’s actually not true of kibbe. What kibbe taught me was that I should let that go and just let clothing hang off my body more and not emphasize my waist, which worked with my personality and it liked how I looked more. I also hear you about body typing giving big eugenics vibes, but whiteness is literally baked into everything and even when it’s not it still worms it’s way in. If I had to wait for people to make things that weren’t racist, I’d be die with nothing to partake in. It doesn’t mean we don’t do our best, but I often think this essentialist lens gets us nowhere. At it’s best, kibbe is a tool that can be used to reduce clothing consumption and bring back joy in getting dressed, but at its worst it can be co-opted by whiteness and capitalism to reassert the values of whiteness and capitalism. How you use a tool matters.

[francescaeve]

i love the kibbe system. I was dressing about 70% to my kibbe type anyway, but its actually helped me to develop more of a personal style and skip the trends that don't work for me. Right now we're in a big oversized, slouchy, neutrals phase of fashion and most of these styles don't work on me. its been reassuring to have something like a kibbee type to help me navigate trends, feel stylish without buying into trends. i don't think kibbee is trying to get everyone to look the same or hourglass. its the only system that tells petite people not to bother trying to look tall.

[maiiamiii]

Honestly, I always disliked the apple, pear, hourglass categories ("do this to look more hourglass", ugh I hate it), but Kibbe's system has been quite helpful to me and I've used it for many years. In my opinion, not the system is the problem, but how religiously people use it (and how influencers promote it). I just loosely keep it in mind when I shop for, alter or make clothes and it's always fun to understand why certain clothes look better on me and others worse, it's just a tool.

[anadumbrava]

I hate when people refer to a certain body type as “athletic”. If you watch the Olympics you’ll notice how different body types look based on sport, and they’re all athletic. Runners vs. Gymnasts vs. Heavy lifters, are all athletic and on average have vastly different body types.

[imani]

I definitely have the type of brain that doesn’t feel limited by labels and categories… I thrive with systems like birth charts, MBTI and yes Kibbe. Because they don’t tell me how to feel about myself. I already feel it so strongly. They just offer me the language and structure to describe and work with thoughts I’ve always had about myself. I don’t internalize every aspect of Kibbe, but it truly was life changing to stop comparing myself to people with completely different skeletal structure! Mirrors are very useful. Systems like that also help me accept other people. There’s so many ways to be.

[LibertyIndiaRose]

Kibbe was all about embracing your natural unique shape and make clothes work for you not the other way round, who cares about trends, there's no ideal. It's a tool you can take or leave, and for me personally, it massively changed the way I saw my body for the better. I grew up buying clothes that fit me rather than having any style of my own. Had i known i was a soft dramatic, i wouldn't have kept trying to force myself to wear certain trends or squeeze myself into certain cuts. Now i shop way less, i don't concern myself with trends, i am way more conscious about what in my shopping basket is going to end up in the back of my wardrobe because it doesn't serve my body.

I've gotta say as someone who either has an hourglass figure or close to it, it's hard to shop for and i wouldn't say it was glamorised in the UK at least and not in real life!

[kristiancusimano]

Not in complete defense of Kibbe, but something I gained from the methodology of Kibbe is that we are not all the same - and it's ok to feel like you don't 'pull off' certain pieces. Through my early 20's I really wanted a sort of 'old money' look - timeless, neutral, classics (definitely found lucy's channel around this time, during the capsule wardrobe phase :p). In learning more about myself, both my personality and style I find myself leaning in to a more modern, masculine, and laid back style - basically by accepting that I can be beautiful while honoring my inner tomboy, without comparing myself to the more 'put together' women I admire.

[cztrgeh]

I want to know why men don’t have these body shape/body types guidelines

[jenniferchristian]

For me, as a teen when the thigh gap was really popular in 2015/2016 knowing my body type really helped me with my own body acceptance and neutrality. I knew that because I am a ‘pear’ shape, it meant that I would always have bigger thighs and they’d always be my largest part of my body regardless how much weight I lost or gained. And I only can speak for myself but that was liberating to know! I’m aware how fortunate that i am that i’ve never struggled with how I perceive my body nor as well as meeting or closely meeting to western beauty ideals to some degree despite being slightly bigger! I never consider this specifically as a privilege (as being able-bodied and white) and how this mechanism that helped me was ultimately designed for people like me.

[a.p.]

Yes! I watched ‘beepworld’ talk about something similar on her channel. Essentially she said we already know what suits us - it’s the things that make us feel happy, feel joy. It’s externalising approval but who are we trying to appease? I think it’s important we talk about this, especially now. In a world that is in frantic flux it’s so tempting to try and grab on to order - it’s so hard to be un-influenced and self-aware.

[Emmsley]

Thank you for mentioning that disabilities aren't taken into account with these body type things. I'm a curvy/plus size person and even plus size clothes dont fit me the same as they do on abled people because I'm in a wheelchair and things sit differently on me. I learned to just wear what was comfortable and easy to get on and off with my abilities.

[hettahansen]

Thank you so much for sharing these thoughts Lucy! I’ve been enjoying watching Kibbe content while holding it lightly. Meaning, I use Kibbe to create a look rather than try to achieve a body “type” or balance in my frame. I also appreciate how it allows me to understand objectively why some things (like trench coats for example) look strange on me - it’s the coat, not my body!

[juliahaighwood]

I feel you with criticising Kibbe. I went through it as well and felt so reduced, negatively effected and not even empowered to help myself find anything. Thankfully there are systems that focus and your gain, not the inventors/ sellers. Maybe check out the style key system by Rita. It’s a system that aims for your enjoyment, happiness and empowerment, men and women, and not for having a man tell you what’s pretty on you.

[filibusterfirework]

I still remember being a kid and filling out those “what body type are you” forms in seventeen magazine and hoping I would get hourglass. Such a wonderful breakdown video Lucy ❤️

[lisa_wistfulone]

I found your perspective in this video very helpful, but the comments were fascinating.

For a number of reasons, over the last few years, I’d lost my sense of self-expression through clothing. And, literally, some of my sense of Self. Exploring online ideas like Kibbe, Kitchener, and color analysis were helpful tools and toys as I thrift-shopped my way back to a fun and genuine closet.
But the methods have rigidly defined rules, and as I was finding myself again, I had to be aware of not allowing them to define ME. I was grateful to find your video among the intensely earnest advocates of these methods.

The comments here are an interesting mix of those who have no use for body typing, those that use it casually as a tool, and quite many of those who appear rather miffed at anything they feel that you erred on. I was struck by how little exchange of ideas there is in this comment section— each person individually commenting, but nearly no one commenting to respond to someone else. Less than I typically see. Why?

I suspect that you struck a nerve. Whether we like to admit it or not, it’s human nature to want to belong, to be part of a larger group. It feels secure. We use it to help define who we are, for better or worse. We can over-embrace group values at the cost of our own sense of individual identity. You’ve challenged that fashion and body type group values, when embraced, can influence us more than we might like to imagine. You drew a line in the sand. And commenters, perhaps, arranged themselves along that line.

Thank you for talking about this!

[lzlzlz]

If you also consider your own style and preferences while using the Kibbe method it can be somewhat helpful. I have tall, relatively skinny and angular body type. I like how it's telling me to not lean towords very romantic floral and frilly clothes, as I have never liked them anyway. Those clothes look amaaazing on curvy bodies, or with more soft features. But that's about it what I took from it.

[laurengin]

sartorial capitalism is an apt turn of phrase. Id add that typing rests not only on a longing to make our sense of self stable, typing makes our ability to compete and succeed jn a highly unstable labor market. It's fun to participate in typing but functionally typing serves to sell our labor power.

[ss_apobangpo]

when i was struggling really badly with body and eating issues, thats when i found out there was such a thing as body types. knowing my body type gave me kind of relief(?) idk how to describe it. it did help understand that theres more types than just hourglass.
that said, it is absolutely disgusting how women are told how to dress based on their shapes. like you said, bodies change!!!! everyone forgets this.
100% agreed. it does make you more aware of things you never noticed before which imo and experience is so negative.

[wandguardnoodle]

When talking about all these systems, people often forget that you can go against them on purpose to create a different kind of effect, in most cases an edgy/alternative look. Like, the color black is said to actually be unflattering to a lot of people and that is why it looks edgy on a lot of people. Also, like, there's no a Kibbe policeman standing behind you at all times, making sure you're using the system as Kibbe intended - we can pick and choose bits that are helpful and discard the rest. For example, Kibbe system does the opposite of trying to make one look like an hour-glass, which is why I like it a lot. I spent a lot of years trying to create waist emphasis and wondering why that didn't feel right. Then I looked into Kibbe and characterized myself as a flamboyant natural. Waist emphasis is actually not recommended for this body type which has width and long vertical line. What is recommended is accommodating the width I have in my shoulders with looser fit and this was an amazing revelation because it explains why tailored jackets and button-ups just look off on me; and it allowed me to stop trying to fit myself into them. It's not that deep but it's been very helpful.

[annabellex]

Lucy I am LOVING this content, I love that you're filming a range of all the things you're great at and interested in, I love every single video you're making these days! I hope the youtube algorithm never pressures you to find a restrictive box to fit in, the more you do what you love the more I love your content! ❤❤ I for one am not going anywhere as a viewer 😘