The framework of compactified heterotic string theory offers consistent ultraviolet (UV) completions of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. In this approach, the existence of flavor symmetries beyond the SM is imperative and the flavor symmetries can be derived from the top down. Such a derivation uncovers a unified origin of traditional discrete flavor symmetries, discrete modular flavor symmetries, discrete R symmetries of supersymmetry, as well as charge-parity (CP) symmetry -- altogether dubbed the eclectic flavor symmetry. I will illustrate how the eclectic flavor symmetry is unambiguously computed from the top-down construction, discuss the different arising sources of spontaneous flavor symmetry breaking, and expose possible lessons for bottom-up flavor model building. Finally, I will focus on one explicit example model that provides a successful fit to all available experimental data while giving rise to concrete predictions for so-far undetermined parameters.