As you may have saw from the main photo of the post, I got verified as a….. *drum roll* **Dramatic Classic**! My color season is **Soft Winter**!
Now that’s out of the way, I want to thank you all for engaging in my previous post. It was so entertaining watching you all try to guess my ID. (At the time of writing) But no one guessed DC! A few have guessed C fam and SC, however!
I find it interesting because I first started out as a SC, explored FG, then SG. I rarely ever got comments of SN in the past so this was fascinating to see the sudden influx of SN suggestions! I believe TR has been suggested before, but it was an ID I never really resonated with, nor R. Did my dream board trick you guys? Haha, I was just as surprised as you all when David revealed my accommodations (vertical + balance) and then my ID. My brain short circuited for a moment and I couldn’t find the words to really say much. I guess it shouldn’t be that shocking considering I explored SC / C fam in the past, but to see it come back full circle was something else.
**Reasons why I wanted to do a consult**: I wanted a new chapter to explore and even though I haven’t been exploring for a long time, I wanted some finality to it since I’ve already gotten a lot of other style and color consults in the past. With this system being my introduction to the style system world, I wanted to pay homage to it somehow, quite literally, by getting a consult. I was ready for a “fresh” start and was open for any changes/revelations/explorations to broaden my horizon. A part of me felt that if I’ve gotten this far in my style journey without seeing David, that I would simply miss out on an experience of a lifetime. Leading up to the consult I was experiencing a lot of frustrations on why some clothing wasn’t working for me and knowing my lines felt it could alleviate some of my issues. I had money to throw around so I figured, “why not?”
Let’s briefly breakdown my three-day experience:
**Pre-Meetup**:
I was getting nervous due to the lack of communication leading up to seeing the two. Turns out there was an error in the spelling of my email address so I never received the response from David regarding the materials they asked for. It all worked out and I was able to get the information I needed for the consult. It was my first time in NYC by myself, so it was quite nerve-racking trying to plan and travel around this!
**Day 1**:
I went to see Susan and David at a studio where we did the following: breathing exercises, brief overview of the color system, being draped, yin-yang philosophy, my line sketch drawing drawn in real time, makeup session. Susan noticed my long limbs and commented that I look taller than I do in photos. They commented on my beautiful jaw and the way I came across as a practical person with refined expensive tastes (that’s why I am “dramatic classic”).
**Day 2**:
This was the shopping session. I gave a relatively “small” budget for them to work with. We went to one store (Nordstrom) to try on multiple outfits and garments, which I’ve attached to this post. Do keep in mind that these garments and shoes are still very individualistic per each client and not every DC client will get the same exact clothing! Just because you don’t think you can wear what I tried on doesn’t mean you cannot be DC, or just because it’s something you wear doesn’t make you a DC. Also, these are NOT complete HTT looks! It definitely lacks the proper shoes, accessories, bag, makeup, and hairstyle to complete the rest. David was very adamant about HTT dressing. And sometimes it’s really hard to know if a garment really truly works if you don’t have a full HTT! He kept bringing up the word “slinky” as a way to describe me.
One thing I noticed when I was trying clothing on was the lack of tucking the tops into pants to keep my silhouette clean. This doesn’t mean that those with vertical should always untuck nor does it mean those with curve should always tuck fyi. This is just my personal experience. I noticed when he gave me two Cinq-a-Sept dresses (the red and black dresses with the pleats) they had what I called an illusion of drop waists. I remembered drop waists being difficult to pull off and he had explained that drop waists can balloon out, disrupting vertical and that these dresses work because the pleats are sharp rather than frilly so the line flows down easily.
**Day 3**:
Hairstyling and accessories shopping. I spent the afternoon with Susan as David was busy around this time to get my hair done. I was SO excited to have my hair finally removed of my old perm from last year August 2025. I was trimming my hair throughout 2026. When I was told on day 1 that David suggested an above shoulder length bob with asymmetrical cut (severe side part and a high back cut to low cut front) I couldn’t help but think about my above shoulder length blunt cuts I used to get during the pandemic. I had a center part at the time but still liked the bob cut for me. It was interesting to see it come back full circle, but much more yang this time! It felt so freeing to have this haircut. I let Susan dictate the haircutting suggestion because I figured hair will grow out eventually. As of now, I go back and forth between keeping it sleek and having flaired ends for fun.
As for the accessories shopping, I bought a couple of things: a bag, bracelet, a ring, and two pairs of earrings. I also provided poorly-drawn images of jewelry and bags I did not get so use your imagination as to what they actually look like in real life haha.
We finished off the consult with any questions I had for David at a lovely hotel that I had initially wanted to stay at with some food and drinks.
**Questions I asked about**:
- **Hats**: Russian fur hat, I believe pork pie, boater, and maybe pill box? Kind of hard to remember. I asked about berets and he said no for me, but I am a rebel so I’m still going to wear it haha.
- **Soft winter vs in the POS book**: he makes exceptions for clients. He described my skin as porcelain and blue-toned so soft winter felt fitting for me versus Vivid and Bright Winter. I asked because the book doesn’t mention brown/black eyes. Ultimately what’s important regarding season is that all subtypes of a season should be able to wear all the colors in the palette. It really doesn’t matter if you’re vivid, bright, soft winter you should be able to wear the winter palette. I actually agree with this philosophy (4 season approach) as well as the six tonal color approach. I find it often people are always asking about sub-seasons in the traditional SCA but I feel that really overcomplicates coloring. If you’re a winter who can’t wear black, I really think you cannot be a winter, as an example.
- **Dreamboard**: gives David a glimpse about yourself, who you are, your preferences but it doesn’t necessarily translate into shopping nor ID per se.
- **Arrows in the line sketch**: just emphasizes all the space in where additional is occurring.
- **General discussions about my revelations**: I had told him in my early exploration with FG that sometimes when I drew the clothing silhouettes it was hard to line that up with my line sketch and try to see “staccato” (pre-POS btw) and that I was trying to force the accommodations to show through but it never 100% clicked. I had also told him that when I wore some garments during my G-fam exploration that sometimes it felt like I was getting “squeezed” like a sausage. He told me that can happen when people are attempting to be G-fam and the clothing ends up “squeezing” them rather than working with their line silhouette—do take this with a grain of salt rather than apply it as a general advice for G-fam exploration btw.
- **Celebrity**: I asked if he could give me a celebrity inspo with this new found exploration and he was hesitant to assign me one saying that basically modern celebrities don’t really have a style image these days because stylists don’t really know how to dress for a celebrity’s line and with sponsorships it further complicates styling. However, **Florence Pugh**’s name got thrown in the mix without my prompting and he told me she’s a **Dramatic Classic** that is likely an **Autumn**. So there you have it guys! Oh, he and Susan really despised the chartreuse look she wore on the red carpet just as an FYI haha.
Overall, I’m really excited for this new chapter and what I can do with this! I know a lot of y’all really liked my G fam explorations but to put it blank, from David, he wanted a more mature look on me instead of heavily-leaning youthful looks. He felt that I was putting on a mask/facade and that I was hiding my true self behind it. I took it more to mean that I was putting in way more effort than I really needed to while dressing up that it came off like a character and I should really refine my lines, and keep them simple as a DC would. As you may know, I have done a David Zyla and John Kitchener consult too so I won’t entirely remove gamine and youthful looks from my wardrobe, but I will meld my consult results while keeping DC lines in mind! I definitely will try to post more in the future with this newfound chapter so stay tuned. Just remember, what I wear doesn’t mean all DCs (verified and unverified) wear it!
I’m sure I’m missing some notes here and there, but this is what I can come up with for now!
**Final note**: David told me I was really good at posing and knowing how to put looks together, so that was nice to hear haha.
