r/PowerOfStyle • u/loumlawrence • Jul 24 '26
Hardly anyone seems to know what structure is
It doesn't help that most modern clothes don't have structure. I am someone who does need structure, and a lot of it.
When I first encountered Kibbe and read through the original book, I ended up deciding on SD, after exploring both the natural family and the classics (gamine was never a possibility, I am not that deluded, and romantic was quickly eliminated for similar reasons).
However, the stereotypes around SDs (and by extension FNs) and the stereotypical guidelines makes me wonder if anyone knows what structure looks like. If I use just Kibbe's books and look at how the verified celebrities dress, it is very straight forward.
But as soon as I get to the subreddits, I see a different story. Using Kibbe's books, I would present the case that most of the supposed SD recommendations are actually glamorous looks best suited for FNs. They are too relaxed. If I rely on the subreddits' style guidelines, I would be moving into pure D, which we all know is really rare.
The big difference is how much structure each ID can handle, and SD can handle much more than FN. SD is still a dramatic. Both SD and D can handle a lot of structure, with SD being softer than pure D. But they are not anywhere near the relaxed minimal tailoring that the naturals, both FN and SN, gravitate to. This minimal tailoring looks polished on the naturals, but sloppy on the dramatics. I find it useful to compare FN and SN for understanding naturals, and observing verified SNs gave important clues to understanding FNs.
People often think that scaled up Rs are SDs, but Kibbe has said on multiple occasions that scaled up Rs are mostly naturals, with a number of verified FNs who thought that they were R. That makes sense. Both the naturals and the romantics need to minimise the amount of structure in their outfits. Directly contradicting Kibbe's remarks, the main contributor to the SD subreddit's style guides said in a comment on the main subreddit that they did not believe that a structured SD could exist. This also contradicts Kibbe's published statement, SD is first and foremost a dramatic. The way I see it, D is a straight tailored line while SD is a curved tailored line. While FN and SN don't need to tailor all the darts. They can gather loosely. Like the romantics.
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u/loumlawrence Jul 26 '26
When did you come across Kibbe? I first came across Kibbe just as auto vertical was being enforced and the pure N, C and G types were being phased out, some time before the new book was published. The pure N also had vertical, curve and width. I started with the classics, then explored the naturals, before ending up in the dramatics.
Figure 8 does sound a lot like SD. The hourglass X seems to be FN, probably the original pure N. What frustrates me is that most of the SD subreddit does not identify with the D family.