Monica was excited to determine what to wear this fall. She’s the most into fashion of her friends: Sam, Alice, Grace and Veronica. Color is what attracts her to clothes. Over the last year she’s learned to look at the design lines and make sure they match her body’s clues. As a result, she’s building a closet full of clothes she loves to wear and makes her feel like she can conquer her world.
Monica found that the fall fashion trends that work for her body are color, shoes and a handbag. She’s excited because she knows she can wear the shoes and handbag for years to come. She also found a top and pants that will be a great addition to her closet.
Keep reading to learn what fall trends she’s wearing this fall.
Monica’s Body Elements
As a review, these are Monica’s Body Element clues:
- Body Shape — O (Body Shape — The Girls)
- Angular clothes silhouette
- Avoid placing horizontal lines at the waist
- Avoid placing vertical lines at the shoulders
- Face Shape — Pear (Face Shape — The Girls)
- Curved design lines, prints and accessories
- Color Skin, Hair, Eyes — Medium Color Contrast (Color Skin, Hair & Eyes — The Girls)
- Favorite Colors — Green, Yellow and Red/Orange
- Color Combinations (other colors) — Analogous
- Color Combinations (relative lightness and darkness) — Medium contrast
- First Scale Clue — Medium
- Body Proportions — Long between bust/waist, Long between waist/crotch, Short between crotch/knees, Short between knees/floor (Body Proportions — The Girls)
- Horizontal lines — Don’t place them between her crotch/knees and knees/floor but she can place them between her bust and crotch. However, because she has an O Body Shape, so she needs to avoid them at her waist
- Vertical lines — Limit them between her bust/crotch but do place them between her crotch/floor
- Second Scale Clue — Increase overall scale between bust/crotch and decrease it between crotch/floor
- Body Frame Size — Medium (Body Frame Size — The Girls)
- Third scale clue — Large
- Scale Strategy — Medium/Large (Scale Strategy — The Girls)
- Increase to large between her bust/crotch
- Decrease to medium between her crotch/floor
What To Wear This Fall -- Top
The first thing that attracted Monica to this blouse is the color. She loves the contrast between the green and burgundy. Then she looked at its design lines and found they work perfectly for her body’s clues.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Monica learned the first design line she should look at is the silhouette. The silhouette is the outside line of an outfit. It’s the difference between the shoulder/waist, waist/hips and hips/shoulders. There are two categories: angular and curved. In the angular category, the shoulders, waist and hips appear to be the same width. On the other hand, in the curved category, the waist is significantly smaller than both the shoulders and hips. Her Body Shape gives her clues as to which category is best for her.
Monica has an O Body Shape where her waist is significantly wider than both her shoulders and hips. This Body Shape is in the angular category. This means she should look for outfits with an angular silhouette.
Monica looked at the difference between the shoulder, underarm, waist and hem on the side. She saw they all appeared to be the same, which means the silhouette of the top is angular. The first design line of this top is perfect for her.
Horizontal Lines
Another design line category Monica learned about is the horizontal line. They stop the eye, emphasize the area and make them appear wider and shorter. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of horizontal design lines.
For Body Shape, one doesn’t want them in their widest area because it will emphasize this area and make it appear even wider. On the other hand, one does want to place horizontal lines in their thinner areas because it will emphasize this area, make it appear wider which balances out the wider areas.
For Body Proportions, one doesn’t want horizontal lines in their short areas because it will make this area appear even shorter. However, they want these lines in their long areas because it will make these areas appear shorter and create overall balance.
For her Body Shape, Monica determined she doesn’t want horizontal lines at her waist area because it’s her widest area. On the other hand, she does want them in her shoulder and/or hip areas. By putting them in these areas, her shoulders and hips will appear wider, balancing out her wider waist.
For her Body Proportions, Monica wants them between her bust/waist and waist/hips because she’s long in these areas. On the other hand, she doesn’t want them between her knees/floor because she’s short in this area. Her overall proportions are that she has a long torso and short legs so horizontal lines in her torso are important to create overall balance.
This top has four horizontal lines: the neckline, across mid-chest, hem of the top and sleeves. All of which, Monica determined are perfect for ther because they make her shoulders and hips appear wider creating balance with her wider waist. These design lines also help her Body Proportions by making her long torso appear shorter creating better balance with her legs.
Shape Of Design Lines
Monica learned design line shape is another aspect of design lines. She can look for design line shapes in the clothes themselves, or accessories she wears and prints. They’re two categories of design line shape: angular and curved. Angular design lines have angles and curved design doesn’t. Her Face Shape gives her clues as to which category she should look for.
Monica has a pear Face Shape. This means she should look for curved design line shapes.
The main design line shape in this top is the print. It has a floral motif which is curved and perfect for Monica’s Face Shape.
Color
Even Though Monica has always been drawn to color, she didn’t know the color of her Skin, Hair and Eyes give her clues to color combinations and the relative lightness and darkness of those colors. She can determine the best color combination and relative lightness and darkness of them by the contrast between her Skin, Hair and Eyes or color contrast profile.
Monica’s color contrast profile is medium. This means that analogous (three colors next to each other on the color wheel) and triadic color combinations (every fourth color on the color wheel) are best for her. Also, she should look for a medium contrast in relative lightness and darkness between the colors.
The color combination in this print is complementary (colors on the opposite side of each other). This is a little too much contrast. However, Monica has a big personality. When she walks into the room she brightens it up. As a result, she can handle a higher contrast. On the other hand, monochromatic (same color family) color combinations don’t work for her at all.
The relative lightness and darkness for the print colors is medium, which is perfect for her.
What To Wear This Fall -- Pants
Monica looked for pants next. In the past, Alfani’s pants fit her well so she started in this department first. She found this ponte roma skinny pants and loved the fabric.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
When Monica looked at the difference between the waist and hips she noted it was mostly the same width which means the silhouette is angular which is perfect for her Body Shape.
Horizontal Lines
Monica looked at the label which said the pant is an ankle pant. Normally ankle pants don’t work for her because her legs between her knees/floor are short. A horizontal line in this area would make her legs look even shorter. However, she knew since her legs are short this pair of pants has a regular length perfect for her.
Monica also knows the pant waistband is a horizontal line; however, no one will see it because the blouse/top she’s wearing will always hide the waistband.
What To Wear This Fall -- Shoes
Monica loves shoes and knew this is the perfect place she could bring in fall fashion trends. She saw these shoes and knew they would be perfect. First, Mary Jane shoes are a hot fashion trend this fall. It’s something she can wear all year and years to come. Second, the design lines on these shoes work perfect for her.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Horizontal Lines
This shoe has one horizontal line and that is the strap. It’s in the middle of her foot which helps elongate her legs along with having a 3 ¾ inch heel. With her legs being significantly shorter than her torso, she knew she felt more balanced which she can make her legs appear longer.
Shape Of Design Lines
With Monica’s Face Shape being in the curved category, she looked for shoes with a round toe. She knew most Mary Janes have that curved toe. This is one of the reasons she looked for this style of shoe.
What To Wear This Fall -- Handbag
When looking at the fall fashion trends online, Monica saw that bucket bags were on the list. She has always liked this style of back. She found out that one of their reasons is that the horizontal design lines work well for her body.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Horizontal Lines
Monica looked for the horizontal lines on the back and noted the only ones are at the top of the bag and at the bottom. She tried on the purse to make sure the horizontal lines are placed perfect for her body and they were. The top landed just below her bust and the bottom landed mid-hip. These horizontal lines are perfect for her.
Monica looked next at the vertical lines: the strap and the applica on the handbag itself. The straps go from the top of her shoulder to just below her bust. This strap works perfectly for her.
The applica on the bag has vertical design lines which are in the area between just below her bust to mid-hip. These vertical lines work for her because they move the eye away from her waist.
Shape Of Design Lines
Monica noted that the handbag had both angular and curved design lines. She tried on the handbag with the rest of the outfit and found she felt light. As a result, she bought the bag.
Final Thoughts
Monica loves doing research on what to wear this fall. But this year she looked at the research with a whole new set of eyes. She looked at the design line and colors in the trends and then determined if they match her body’s clues. She found, this year, there was gold in the accessories.
In the next blog post, Alice will be sharing what she’ll be wearing this fall. She found a few items on the fall trend list that work for her body’s clues. She’s found her frustration level has decreased when clothes shopping now that she understands what design lines work for her body. To read about what she found to wear this fall go to: What To Wear This Fall — Alice.
Wear Your Greatness!!
