I have a confession. I don’t actually buy most of my clothes. If you’ve read the Elusive Fashion Habits series, then you’ll know that shopping can be hard for an INTJ. Truthfully, if it were left up to me, I probably wouldn’t have many clothes at all (unless I could still wear clothes from elementary school). My INFJ mom, who loves shopping, helps me out by acting as a personal shopper. It’s a by choice thing. She knows that I like clothes, but don’t like to shop. We always say that it’s a mutually beneficial relationship. I don’t have to go through my lengthy INTJ shopping process; she knows my style preferences and likes to buy clothes for me. At least, that’s what she tells me. She also knows how good I am at talking myself out of buying things. So for Christmas and birthdays, I get clothes. This doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy shopping sometimes. It’s just that shopping, for me, takes so long and can be an exhausting process. I don’t have a lot of time for it.
Why the confession? Just because I don’t buy most of my clothes doesn’t mean that I don’t have a well-defined fashion perspective. It’s shopping I don’t like, not fashion. Each of the outfits shared on the Always Uttori Fashion blog are either the result of a collaboration with my mom and I (Like me asking my mom why the heck she bought that), or they are outfits I bought myself, and that have a fashion story — like I wore it in Paris, or when I wore it, I felt especially strong. When trying to think about the fashion story for today’s outfit, I realized that the dress is something I purchased myself (except for the shoes). I got it during one of Zara’s very infrequent sales. Because I so dislike shopping I thought the fashion story for this outfit had to be: Why did an INTJ buy this?
I know you didn’t really ask, but here’s my answer.
One
The dress looks expensive, but it was cheap. I’m frugal. Thrifty. Value-conscious, whatever you want to call it. It’s a result of the practicality inherent in the INTJ cognition style. I don’t remember the exact price of the dress; but I know that it was under $30. Maybe it was $29.99, or something like that, but the price made me feel that buying the dress was a win.
Two
The dress is effortlessly chic because that’s what the trapeze silhouette is supposed to be (a term that originated in 1958 with Yves Saint Laurent, who extended Christian Dior’s A-line concept).
Three
I like this abstract design. I suppose it appeals to the INTJ’s introverted intuition—if I wanted to read way too much into the connection between purchase decisions and cognition style. Wait, didn’t I do that just now? Uhm… yeah, might as well run with it. The graphic on the dress is like the visual representation of intuition. The interplay of post modern classicism against the modern aesthetic of immateriality shaped by the fear of the dark is a load of way too much not funny humor. Am I right? Let’s move on.
Four
The neutral coloring. You know the stereotype that INTJs prefer dark colors? Actually, I think it isn’t really a stereotype. It’s just true, although INTJs can and do like other colors. You just can’t beat black and white sometimes.
There you have it. An INTJ actually bought this dress—on sale, of course. While it’s true that I don’t always buy my own clothes, I do dress myself. Those times where I actually buy it myself can leave me both conflicted about actually buying something, and proud of myself. This particular purchase just leaves me feeling proud because it hits all of my INTJ decision factor points: aesthetic, value-based mindset, ease of wear, practicality, and context; and, while I didn’t buy the shoes, I love them. Ultimately, it’s the cognition style that shapes my fashion style, and far more than my fashion, my cognition style is something of which I am extremely proud. Thanks for reading. Feel free to share your buy it decision factors in the comments. I’d really like to know because I’m working on a story about how INTJs make the decision to buy something, especially because I find it so difficult to do.
Dress: Zara
Shoes: Zara
Beautiful photo and I love the style, (the dress), (the shoes).
Thanks so much!