In recent years, it has become fashionable to choose a style of clothing in terms of your archetype, and not depending on the rules of the dress code or relying on your color type and body type.

What is an archetype? Why can you choose a style of clothing for your archetype? And how to find your archetype and style examples for it?




Archetype is a concept that stylists have borrowed from psychology. However, it is possible that everything was the other way around - psychologists who began to work with the style of their clients, having additionally mastered the profession of a stylist, transferred this term to the sphere of creating an external image.

In psychology, the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung wrote about archetypes. And it was at the beginning of the twentieth century. Strictly speaking, it was from the first half of the twentieth century and thanks to Jung that the term archetype began to denote the structural elements of the collective unconscious. That is, some initial forms that exist only in our subconsciousness, which precede the phenomena of the material world.








Jung's followers went further and expressed the idea that archetypes can be found in the most ancient structures of our brain (such ideas were expressed by neuropsychologist James Henry), in the cerebral hemispheres (Ernest Rossi) and even in DNA. However, these ideas have not received any scientific justification.








Jung contrasted archetypes with images. Images (for example, hero, villain, sorcerer, etc.) are not inherited, they are created by culture. But archetypes are inherited, but can be described by those images that correspond to them. For example, there is the Hero archetype, the Creator archetype. According to the ideas of Jung and his followers, not all images correspond to archetypes, images that correspond to archetypes must always be associated with emotions. Images that are associated with archetypes (archetypal images) can appear to us in dreams or during meditation.


The answer to this question may sound like this - we do not know. We also don't know if they even exist. But in culture there are images - in fairy tales, myths, legends, later in literature, in films. These are the images of heroes, creators, destroyers, jesters, and so on. So psychologists who adhere to Jung's ideas write that one can cognize archetypes, and accordingly they can be classified through images.








Jung himself singled out the archetypes of Mother (Great Mother), Heavenly Father, Renaissance, Trickster (trickster, deceiver), Spirit. There were no clear classifications in his works. However, Jung considered the archetypes themselves as opposites, that is, he wrote that there are always two opposite archetypes. For example, he singled out such archetypes as Anima - the female part of a man's psyche, and the opposite archetype Animus - the male part of a woman's psyche.



Today psychologists who work with archetypes identify 12 archetypes based on the Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator (PMAI) questionnaire. This questionnaire was developed by the American psychologist Carol Pearson.







The questionnaire is based on the works of ethnographers who, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, actively studied the myths of different peoples of the world and came to the conclusion that all myths are based on common ideas - the elements from which these myths are constructed.

Moreover, in every myth there is a hero (a traveling hero) who goes through certain stages of his development - an innocent, a warrior, a guardian, a lover, and so on. In each individual myth, both all and some of these stages of the formation (journey) of the hero can be present.

List of archetypes: Innocent, Nice Guy, Warrior, Guardian, Seeker, Lover, Rebel, Creator, Ruler, Magician, Sage, Jester.

This classification is not final, other names of archetypes can be added to it, for example, the Warrior archetype can be called the Hero archetype, and instead of the Guardian, the Caring archetype can be found, and so on.

Also, in addition to the general names of archetypes, as in the classification above, the names of gods, for example, Greek, can be used as a designation of one or another archetype. For example, female archetypes can often be classified through such ancient greek goddesseslike Athena, Artemis, Hera and so on. In addition to gods, archetypes can also be described through the names of the heroes of legends, fairy tales, and myths. For example, the Ruler archetype may be referred to as the King Arthur archetype.




In order to choose the style of your clothes in accordance with your archetype, the first thing to do is to define your archetype at the moment. Over time, by the way, we may well from a Warrior, for example, turn into a Sage.







So, in order to determine the archetype, firstly, you can simply recall the myths and legends of the ancient peoples or the Marvel comics and write the names of the characters that you resemble in character. And then correlate the character you have chosen with the list of 12 archetypes (it is given above) and determine who the character you have chosen is - Warrior, Jester, Sage, and so on.

The second way to identify your archetype is to take a test. Archetype tests can be offered by both psychologists and stylists who work with archetypes.

Next, what style of clothing is best suited to the lifestyle and character of your archetype. For example, a Warrior will wear comfortable, but at the same time protective clothing, a Rebel will never be suitable for an exclusively classic style, because clothing, like his character, should be bright and not subject to rules.

Another option - you find celebrities with a bright individual style who share a common archetype with you, and after studying their wardrobe, you borrow ideas for your images.



In the 21st century, we can afford much greater freedom in choosing clothes than, for example, during the New Time or the Middle Ages, when your class determined what clothes you would wear, but, nevertheless, the dress code rules still apply. in many areas of our life. And therefore, if we are talking about choosing a style of clothing for our archetype, it should be borne in mind that this option of drawing up our wardrobe is not always suitable for us.








So, if you, for example, work in a bank or ministry, then no one has canceled the strict business style of clothing, selected in accordance with all the rules of the dress code. The same goes for high-level receptions, business lunches, and so on.

Another point to consider when choosing clothes for your archetype is your color type and body type. These parameters should not be neglected.

The choice of clothing style for a long time was based on two rules: the first rule - where and with whom you will be in these clothes (dress code), the second rule - the main thing is that the suit fits (fits your figure and suits you).




The second rule is the rule of those who sew clothes - first artisans (tailors, seamstresses), then fashion designers, clothing designers, and then stylists.So, being carried away by the ideas of psychology and, in particular, archetypes, you should never forget that your clothes are not your thoughts or emotions, the clothes are quite material and in order for the suit to sit, you do not need a psychoanalysis session, it is enough to take a thread and a needle and fit it to the figure.

P.S. The illustrations for this article are characters from the English TV series Doctor Who. The series "Doctor Who" is a fantastic series that has been released on screens from 1963 to the present day. The series has its own special charm, which, like the popularity of the series, can also be explained by the fact that it is an archetypal series. The series "Doctor Who" is a modern interpretation of fairy tales, myths, legends in a new way. And all of its main characters are also always pronounced archetypes.





However, any work of art of any genre can theoretically be viewed and analyzed from the point of view of archetypes. But practically, depending on the conditions for creating a particular work of art, you will find that economic, political, historical events, events of everyday life, scientific discoveries could have a greater influence on it, but you will have to look for archetypes during the day with fire.

As for the series "Doctor Who", it is just the same very close in its "language" to fairy tales and myths, by the way, like the above mentioned comics and Marvel films, and, accordingly, archetypes in this series easily reveal themselves.