What Does Your Enneagram Say About Your Personal Style?
Four Enneagram Four Fashion Personality
Synopsis: Edgy, eccentric, bold, eclectic, trend avoider
Enneagram type 4 individuals are highly empathic individuals known for their power of expressing universal human emotions. They are compelled to both create beauty and immerse themselves in it, and through that to explore an emotional depth within themselves that other enneagram types would likely shy away from. This ability to process painful experiences and channel them through artistic expression will not only make way for healthy fours to achieve notable psychological and spiritual growth, but this same self discovery also makes for a uniquely gifted eye for fashion.
Famous Fashion Icon Enneagram Fours
Enneagram four's collective creative contributions to the world are to be marveled at. Think Frida Kahlo, Kurt Cobain, and Rihanna, just to name a few famous enneagram type fours. Fours are profoundly creative people, and fashion is just another opportunity to transform the everyday into art. Frida, for instance, hand painted the plaster corsets that helped to support her spine. Kurt was so "anti fashion" that he became a fashion icon! And don't get me started about Rihanna, who aside from having her own fashion line is also one of the leaders of the fashion industry's body inclusivity movement!
Enneagram Four: The Fashion Trend Avoider
As a four, you couldn't avoid trends more if you tried, preferring to be ahead of, or even “behind” your time (cue vintage). Anything is better than blending into the mainstream, and so you’d much rather take fashion risks than be boring. In fact, it would not be at all shocking for an individual with a type four or even wing 4 to find themself working in the fashion industry (wink).
For type fours, your core identity is to be fully authentic, as well as thoroughly expressed. Truth is essential to life, and you feel that your truth is one that the world MUST recognize. Head turning style is simply another vessel to assure that this is so. Your self image is an outpouring of personal creativity, and thus you are an original, if there can be such a thing in a world full of billions of people, and you never allow the expectations of others to dull your brilliance.
Your personal style is a never ending evolution. You explore the depths of your inner self so thoroughly and fearlessly, that this outward change
How to Recognize an Enneagram Four on the Street
When you encounter a four in the wild, you'll surely know it. They stand out shamelessly from the crowd with their bold silhouettes, exciting color combinations, and enviable accessories. You might think that they belong on a stage or in a movie, but no, generous four has brought this fashion show free to the people.
One might attribute the never ending string of gorilla style fashion shows to four's reputation of being overly dramatic, and I can't say that I disagree... what is true fashion if not theatre, after all? However, it is also a very raw and vulnerable outreach for meaningful interactions and connections, a cry out for honesty in a world that they don't understand and that they feel misunderstood in. This personality type longs to connect deeply, and personal style is a hand outstretched.
Four's Dark Side
(And What It Means for Their Wardrobe)
As much as it pains me to say it, unhealthy fours tend to take their self expression to an unhealthy place.
For a healthy four, fashion is a public call for a likeminded community. It is a billboard surrounded by flashing lights! Unfortunately, when enneagram type 4 is unhealthy, their style hardens into a thick armor designed to keep people out. Maybe on the outside it doesn't look much different, their style is still just as much a show, but intention is powerful, and the energy emitting from a four lacking emotional balance will keep everyone away at all costs. It is a classic push pull pattern, a tendency that even healthy fours struggle to keep at bay. This is one of the many contradictions of type 4 four's nature, to have a deep sense that something is missing, that they are alone and misunderstood, but to push all meaningful interpersonal connection away. It isn't even intentional, but a side effect of not understanding their true selves on a deeper level.
Lost in self absorption, and with a self esteem so damaged that they lose sight of their own worth, enneagram type 4 stands vulnerable to slipping into their own darker nature. When they lack the ability to balance their own emotional intensity, they become very self destructive. In these instances, everything feels, they become a prisoner to their own feelings, their emotional reactions transforming into a canon, shooting off in every direction. As much as they crave truth, they simultaneously lack the ability to process negative feedback in a constructive way. They spiral, and quickly. While fours will always feel that something is missing (it's in their nature), an unhealthy four is unprotected from thick and suffocating envy seeping into every aspect of their life.
Envy is the Achilles heel of enneagram type 4. When healthy, they are self aware enough to recognize this pattern in themself, thus taking back control. An unhealthy four, however, is too self absorbed and caught up in their own emotions to think rationally. As a result, the emotional sensitivity that can be so beautiful about a four becomes a tornado of emotional reaction.
"Dressing outrageously is no longer a choice, it is a necessity to maintain what is left of their crumbling identity."
Seeking Meaning Through Clothes
While enneagram type 4 never really struggles with expressing an authentic self (how a four feels is written all over their face at all times), this unhealthy self becomes a projection of painful feelings. Unhealthy fours feel uncertain about who they are and what their purpose is.
Enneagram type 4 will seek meaning in outer appearance to balance sadness that they feel inside. This is in part human nature regardless of enneagram type, at least in the times we are living, where everything is a sales pitch with the tagline, "because you aren't enough without it." For fours though, this is a much more complex and existential experience. They don't belong... anywhere (at least, so they tell themselves). So, in retaliation against a world that doesn't accept them, they place their meaning in being different. Dressing outrageously is no longer a choice, it is a necessity to maintain what is left of their crumbling identity. Individuality becomes purpose, and while this is true for all fours on some level, to not recognize the fragility of this mentality can only lead to emotional collapse somewhere down the line.
Being an Emotionally Intense Creature Isn't All Bad
Reading about your dark side can feel like a persona attack, but knowledge of the self is power. Like any great strength, above average levels of feeling are a mighty responsibility to handle. Take all that you've read with a grain of salt, and don't lose sight of four's plethora of positive aspects. You are creative, expressive, empathetic, and a bonafide fashion innovator!
Enneagram Four Style Subtypes
The 4w3 Style Personality
Synopsis: Bold yet refined
For the artistically ambitious enneagram three wing, every moment is an opportunity for aesthetic optimization, and you don’t miss a beat. While the enneagram four in itself is categorized by its whimsy, the wing three, commonly deemed “The Achiever” has a phenomenally grounding effect in a healthy individual. This often manifests in a more refined aspect to your sense of style, a business edge perhaps, and so your style becomes an invaluable asset in reaching for your ambitions.
The 4w5 Style Personality
Synopsis: Edgy and risk taking
Compared to your 4w3 counterpart, you aren’t so obsessed with “career success” as a means to validating your individuality. This isn't to say that your dreams aren't wildly imaginative, of course they are, you're a four, but rather that you’d much rather “investigate” the vast enigma of your own creative capabilities than waste energy trying to compete with everybody else.
As a type four with a five wing, your style is a bit more rough around the edges in the chicest way possible. Think deconstructed blazers and DIY embellishments. Surely you're a fan of the late and great Vivienne Westwood! You, 4w5's, are the kings and queens of radiating “fuck your status quo, I look sensational”.
Enneagram Four Fashion Recommendations
Goyo Kaftan
Stand out even in the most stylish crowds with our signature print kaftan.
The floor length kaftan with our in house designed retro print is a sure fire head turner, and an exciting statement piece for every fashion forward occasion. Ultra soft Ecovero fabric is made even more comfortable with a loose silhouette and simple wide v-neck, you'll never want to take it off.
Madonnina Scarf
Elevate your wardrobe with this timeless and exceptionally versatile accessory.
Our best selling Madonnina Tencel scarf is the ideal cruelty free and environmentally conscious silk scarf square alternative. Subtly sheer Tencel is incredibly soft to the touch, and refreshingly breathable. Delicate to the eye while remaining strong and durable, it will be your most elegant go to accessory for countless years to come.
Each scarf has been lovingly hand roll hemmed in our Brisbane, AU studio.
Cherub Beaded and Embroidered Linen Set
The exclusive one-off cherub beaded and embroidered button up and high waisted shorts set is a monochromatic dream.
Painstakingly hand beaded and embroidered in house on Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certified linen with an ultra soft custom print LENZING™ Ecovero Lining, this vintage meets modern cowboy inspired set was made for the fashion individualist.
Crafted lovingly in our Brisbane, Australia Design Studio.
Oyster Mushroom Dress
An unusual piece for the fashion risk takers, the Oyster Mushroom Dress carries an air of otherworldliness that lends well to looks both elegant and street style. Loose fit and unbelievably soft, you will need not sacrifice comfort for style.
Micro batch plant dyed in house on Luxurious and famously sustainable LENZING™ ecovero.
Crafted in our fashion studio, currently located in Brisbane, Australia.
In Conclusion,
Not Fitting In Has It's Perks
To all of my fellow type fours that might be reading this, I hope that you feel seen. I hope that you feel accepted as you are, no matter where you are on your journey towards self actualization. While so many of life's complexities are so clear to you, "fitting in" is a concept too complex to grasp. That might often pose a challenge, but you and I both know that "not fitting in" is one of your greatest strengths, in fashion and in life. You have an entire arsenal of unique strengths at your disposal, and to express them as healthy and actualized type fours is to take the world by storm!
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