How to Do the Kibbe Personal Line Sketch for Flamboyant Naturals

This guide pulls from David Kibbe's book The Power of Style, which explains the updated approach to finding your Image Identity with the Personal Line at its center.

The Image Identity Formula

Image Identity has replaced the older Kibbe Type and is built from two essential pieces: your Yin/Yang Balance and your Personal Line. While Yin/Yang Balance describes your physical body on a scale from sharp yang to soft yin, your Personal Line acts as a plan for your clothes. It is the blueprint that a silhouette needs to follow to look right on you. When you combine these two, you arrive at your Image Identity, with ten possible answers.

What Is Personal Line

Your Personal Line is the long outline formed by how your body's proportions fit together. Rather than reading it directly off your body, you must learn how to mark it out by looking at your shape as a whole.

Every Personal Line consists of a Dominant and an Additional trait. There are two possible Dominants—Vertical and Curve—and six possible Additionals: Curve, Width, Narrow, Balance, Double Curve, and Petite. Note that Vertical only ever appears as a Dominant. Once you combine your Dominant and Additional, you have your Personal Line, and your clothing silhouette is then shaped to follow it.

The Five Archetypes on the Yin/Yang Scale

The yin/yang scale is defined by five archetypes that act as reference points along the scale.

• Dramatic is the extreme yang archetype, characterized as narrow and elongated.

• Romantic is the extreme yin archetype, defined as lush and curvaceous.

• Classic is the balanced archetype, sitting perfectly between the two extremes.

• Natural is also yang, but with a blunt rather than sharp quality.

• Gamine is a combination of opposites, featuring a small yin size with a yang frame.

Your specific position on the scale is named through these five reference points.

The Fabric-Draping Method

You define your Personal Line through an imaginary drape. Picture a length of silk chiffon, weighted at the bottom, hanging from your shoulders. As the fabric falls, you are watching to see if it travels straight down or if it is pushed outward by your bust and hips.

A straight fall from the shoulder all the way down indicates a Vertical Dominant. If the fabric is pushed out at the bust, drawn in at the middle, and pushed out again at the hips, your Dominant is Curve. This fabric is not an outline of your body, nor is it pulled tight against you; instead, it skims your frame as it falls from the shoulder to reveal your Dominant trait.

How to Do the Sketch

To define your Personal Line, you sketch it directly onto a photo of yourself. You’ll need a full-length, front-facing photo taken in form-fitting clothes while standing in a relaxed pose. For accuracy, place the camera about ten feet away at chest height and avoid using a mirror.

On the photo, trace the path the imaginary fabric takes as it falls, starting at the edge of the shoulder. A straight drop indicates a Vertical Dominant, while a line pushed outward by the bust and hips shows a Curve Dominant.

It is important to trust the sketch rather than returning to your body to second-guess the results. Height rules also apply: if you are 5'6" or over, your Dominant is automatically Vertical. Below that height, both Vertical and Curve are possible. Once the Dominant is set, you sketch the Additional trait on top to complete the Personal Line. This combined sketch is the reference for your Complementary Silhouette.

The Flamboyant Natural Image Identity

Flamboyant Natural is a Yang-dominant identity that is both bold and blunt. Its Personal Line is defined as Vertical plus Width. While most Flamboyant Naturals are 5'6" or over, any height is technically possible. The resulting silhouette is relaxed, straight, and long, featuring a sense of breadth through the upper back and shoulder area. The eye travels in one bold sweep downward, and any flow or drape moves down rather than out.

When using the drape method, the imaginary fabric falls straight from the shoulder, but the upper portion of the outline shows breadth through the shoulders and torso. This reflects the Dominant trait of Vertical—the long downward line—and the secondary trait of Width, which adds proportionate breadth to the upper back. It is the proportion that is wide, not necessarily the body itself.

Reading Vertical Dominance in the Sketch

Now this is my personal theory, but I think once you determine Vertical Dominance, the next step is to study the line coming off the shoulder dot. This specific section of the sketch helps identify which Vertical Image Identity you are:

• Dramatic: The line narrows inward at the shoulder and then runs straight down.

• Soft Dramatic: The line moves down and curves around the bustline.

• Flamboyant Natural: The line moves outward at the shoulder, wide enough to contain any bust curve inside it before running down.

• Dramatic Classic: The line does not change past the shoulder, showing no narrowing, widening, or curve.

• Flamboyant Gamine: The line is shortened at the shoulder before it falls down, reflecting a more compact frame.

The Flamboyant Natural Sketch

The Flamboyant Natural sketch is defined by the shoulder line and the waist. The shoulder line moves outward from the shoulder dot, setting a wide outer line that comfortably contains any curves at the bust or hip. Because the width at the top is the dominant move, everything below it fits easily inside that line.vThis creates a waist that can reads as wide.

Since the shoulder line is broad and any curve at all would naturally sit inside it, nothing pulls the line inward at the middle, resulting in a straight and open silhouette.

The Seamstress Lens

You can also see the Flamboyant Natural line through the eyes of a seamstress. To create this shape, she would pull both shoulder dots outward to widen the upper back, then do the same under the bust to provide horizontal space. From there, she would let the fabric go, allowing it to fall freely to the floor in a long, unbroken line.

For more on this perspective, see A Seamstress Walks Into a Bar.

Other Ways to Discover Your Kibbe Type

While the fabric drape and sketch method is the current approach, there are other ways to find your type. The original method was the quiz, which used questions about bone structure, flesh, and facial features. This was followed by asking online communities for feedback. I then built the photo analysis tool, which uses computer vision to read body proportions from a photo. I then updated it's approach and accuracy by adding 3D body mapping, sketch output, and virtual try-ons to show how different clothes look on your frame. Try it out!