Breaking Down My Style Roots

In my previous post, I talked about a relatively new system created by YouTuber Ellie-Jean, a style consultant. She initially started making content about Kibbe Body Types, but she found the directions very restrictive regarding personal style, so she created her own system to understand personal style.

The Basics

Ellie-Jean created 8 style roots. These roots are 'sources of inspiration' for yourself and different aesthetics. Basically, any outfit should be able to be described by 3 or fewer style roots. By picking 3 style roots for yourself and making sure that all items in your wardrobe fit at least one of these style roots, you will be able to create a cohesive wardrobe that feels like you without making a carbon copy of a certain aesthetic. This method allows you to incorporate different aesthetics by focusing on the key components of those aesthetics rather than mimicry. I'll list the 8 style roots below and the key adjectives Ellie-Jean uses to describe these roots. However, if you are interested, I suggest watching this video, where she summarizes the 8 style roots.

Mushroom: minimal, neutral, simple
Mountain: formal, professional, powerful
Flower: delicate, intricate, soft
Fire: sensual, glamorous, luxurious
Sun: playful, sun, experimental
Moon: dark, moody, celestial
Stone: casual, sporty, urban
Earth: natural, rugged, grounded

Let's Take the Quiz!

Ellie-Jean has a video somewhere in her Style Roots playlist, but she also has a blog post with the quiz. It's pretty simple, and if you don't exactly know what she means, go find that video (it's probably one of the earliest ones in the playlist). *Note: screenshots were taken from the Style Roots Quiz blog post I mentioned like two sentences ago

My answers:

Sensual - I don't know if I really want to be the most of either of these, but I would say that generally, I would want people to think I was attractive or at least think I'm attractive when I try to be (you know external validation and all that).
On top of things - I think I'd like people to think I am laid back and carefree, but if we are talking about what would feel authentic, then it'd be on top of things (or at least the one who seems like it because they are running around making sure everything goes well). Though generally, I think that I'd like to be somewhere in the middle, i.e. put together but not stressed out.
Dark - This is a no-brainer.
Strong - I don't always think I am strong, but that is the impression I want to give off. Also, I don't know if I've ever really thought of myself as delicate.
Timeless - This was a hard one because I don't really know if either feels authentic. However, if I was the most experimentally dressed person in the room, I know I would feel self-conscious. If I was the most timeless, I'd probably blend in more while still looking put together so the social anxiety part of my brain likes that better.

My results:

Moon - I picked dark, strong, and sensual. Also, I wouldn't mind some 'carefree' in my wardrobe.
Mountain - I picked strong, on top of things, and timeless. I did not pick modest, but I do prefer to dress modestly in certain situations (at work or around family).
Stone - I picked timeless and strong. I did not pick modest or carefree, but see above.

Moon, mountain, and stone would be my results based on this quiz, but I don't know if that feels right. Ellie-Jean has a pinterest board for each combination, and when looking at this combination, something feels off. Don't get me wrong, I loooove every single one of these outfits. However, I don't have the body type needed to pull off most of these combos. I understand that your style doesn't need to fit your body type, but most of thee outfits use oversized jackets or sweaters. On my body, oversized jackets make me look frumpy, so I wouldn't be able to get the 'laid-back, confident, cool girl vibe' that I'm getting from these outfits. When looking back at my results a lot of the roots that came up had carefree included, which I am not opposed to. When I add in the carefree then fire also comes up. I think the fire adds a pop of personality that was missing from the mountain/stone combo, but now there's another problem. Which one do I eliminate, mountain or stone?

What Calls to Me Most?

Ellie-Jean also mentions that there are several methods to find your style roots, and since the quickest/easiest method didn't work let's move on to the next option: choose your own style roots. She suggests going through the pinterest boards and just picking a combo you like, but this seems time-consuming. So, I am just going to with my gut based on the adjectives she uses to summarize each root.

My opinions:

Mushroom: minimal, neutral, simple - Sounds nice, sounds classic. Sounds a little boring.
Mountain: formal, professional, powerful - Sounds perfect for work, but do I want to look professional all the time?
Flower: delicate, intricate, soft - Not me.
Fire: sensual, glamorous, luxurious - Oooh spicy. I'd love this to be me, though I don't think I'll need to be red-carpet-ready very often. Though I do like dressing up for those type of events, it's fun!
Sun: playful, sun, experimental - It could be. (Actually, it can't. The adjectives are intriguing the pinterest board is not me at all).
Moon: dark, moody, celestial - Yep, that'd be me. Though celestial isn't all that important to me; I prefer the Chinese zodiac (Where are my dragons?).
Stone: casual, sporty, urban - Not me, but I'm intrigued. I'm starting to like joggers more, hmmm.
Earth: natural, rugged, grounded - Honestly, I don't know what this even means so it's probably a no.

My overall thoughts are: moon is a definite, I like fire as my feminine touch, then I am split again on mountain and stone. Basically, my thoughts are: mountain is perfect for my work wear (it is exactly what I want to exemplify) and stone is great for my casual clothes (I like being comfy, sue me). So let's look at those two pinterest boards.

Stone x Fire x Moon - So basically, all I am seeing is Dan Humphrey's (from Gossip Girl) kid sister during her emo phase. Though, I am not saying I don't like it. If feel like her style is a very extreme case, and a lot of that has to do with her colour analysis. With her platinum blonde hair and fair skin, black seems very edgy. It doesn't have that effect on me. I am not saying this eliminates this style roots combination for me, I think it makes it easier to accept. I've never had a goth or emo phase (because I will never stop listening to emo music haha), but I do wear mostly black, and it's never looked particularly goth or emo on me. I think it's just because I have basically black hair, so it's not that weird. This seems to match my style already (I am slowly building my band tee collection), but as I suspected, I don't see many work-appropriate attire.

Mountain x Fire x Moon - These women are stunning, and I love the pops of red and burgundy. This board also has one of the most gorgeous dresses I've ever seen. It's witchy and celestial and extravagant and so beautifully detailed. I think I am just in awe of this board because it is so stunning, but that makes this style seem a little unapproachable. There are some more subtle options which I think are great and completely wearable. They are very business-like, so I don't know how much I would enjoy wearing them outside of work as well. There is a scheme forming, but I'd like to try the last method of finding your style roots.

I will say that while I like both of these styles, I don't know how practical they are for my lifestyle. So on the the next exercise.

The Style Streams Exercise

Ellie-Jean also has a post on what she call's the style streams exercise. This is the 'most effective way to solidify your style roots.' In this post she outlines how to do the style streams exercise which is sort of like a brainstorm type of exercise. Essentially you come up with 20-30 words that would describe your perfect wardrobe and how it makes you feel. Then you identify patterns or streams which lead to specific style roots. Her three prompts are: your dream self or best self, your favorite pieces in your current wardrobe, and the outfits on your existing pinterest board.

Below are the 28 words that I came up with to start:

Then I looked for patterns in the words and came up with six groupings:

I then tried to find the underlying commonalities for each grouping:

A want to be seen as competent
A want to be seen as strong
A want to be seen as attractive
A want for an easy cohesive wardrobe
A want to be comfortable
A hint to my love of alternative rock

These groupings didn't entirely make sense to me or didn't feel quite authentic so I moved them around a bit to come up with new reasons/themes:

A want to be seen as competent
A want to be seen as attractive
A need for a versatile wardrobe
A need for a comfortable wardrobe
A nod to my color preferences
A nod to my love of alt rock

Naturally, the individual items moved around as well:

Then moving on to the last step, I identified the words in each style root that came close to what I had written:

Based on these results, I match the most with Moon and Mountain. This is not very surprising considering the previous results, but I was surprised to have almost as much in common with Earth as I did with Fire. Mushroom and Stone tie for the third place so I am still not entirely sure.

Update (2/4/2025): NEW Style Roots Quiz

Ellie-Jean has added a new style roots quiz to the resources on her website. The old quiz is now called the Style Roots Mini Quiz, since it takes much less time to complete. The new one follows a familiar format to other quizzes where a specific multiple choice option correlates to a style root, and the majority of your answers indicate a similar inclination. With this in mind, when I discuss my results I will tell you the majority of my choices but not what letter correlates to what root so I don't impact your results. Unlike the previous quiz, I may impact your answers and it is quite lengthy so I am just going to summarize my answers rather than go through every question.

I found it quite interesting that I had as many points for Fire as I did for Sun which generally I don't gravitate towards at all and didn't even have one word for in the Style Streams exercise. I also had quite a lot for Flower compared to the zero words I had before.

Final Results

Based on all three methods, my style roots are Moon, Mountain, and Stone. There are also hints of Fire and Mushroom, but those are nto my main roots. I do find it interesting that Mushroom found it's way in there since by initial glance it did not seem to apply, but it is related to the style typically created by capsule wardrobe models.

Update (2/4/2025): The new quiz suggests that my style roots are Moon, Stone, and Mushroom. I actually think that these three may make a lot of sense. Several of my words related to Mountain can be attributed to Moon or Mushroom. The items related to being put together, professional, or collected is also part of the Mushroom root which focuses on neutral and classic pieces. The items related to strength and confidence can eb attribtued to the Moon root. The words that spoke most to me in Fire can also be a part of the Moon root. So, for now I am going to go forward with Moon, Stone, and Mushroom.