Monica learned to dress for her body type and has changed not only her wardrobe but also her confidence in herself and her abilities. She views life differently. Whenever she walks into a room she has always been the life of the party. Before she held a part of herself back because she was ashamed of her body. Even though she was relatively thin, her body didn’t look like the models in magazines or mannequins in the store.
Monica learned that her body was created perfect and she’s beautiful just the way she is. The key is to dress for her body type. Not only Body Shape but also: Face Shape; Color Skin, Hair and Eyes; Body Proportions and Body Frame Size.
This June, Monica was asked to present at a social media conference. Her presentation is on how to help women who want to take their knowledge to create impact and spread the knowledge through social media. She wants a new outfit to wear for the presentation.
Monica understands the importance of branding yourself through clothes. She knew how to dress to show her gifts and dress for her audience. The problem was she didn’t have the knowledge to dress for her body type. Now she does. She’s taking this new found knowledge and combining it with what she already knows, and is looking for an outfit that tells the world who she is when she walks on the stage and begins to speak.
Monica found the perfect outfit.
Monica’s Body Elements
As a review, these are Monica’s Body Element clues:
- Body Shape — O (Body Shape — The Girls)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, 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
Dress For Body Type -- Dress
Monica started her search for an outfit for the up and coming presentation by going to the dresses department. She loves wearing them. An added benefit is they hide the fact her torso is significantly longer than her legs. She starts with Calvin Klein, a favorite designer.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Monica learned an important aspect of any outfit is its’ silhouette. She learned that silhouettes come in two categories: angular and curved and her Body Shape gives her the clue to which category. She has an O Body which means her waist is significantly larger than both her shoulders and waist. This Body Shape falls into the angular category which means she should wear clothes with an angular silhouette.
Monica determined that this dress has an angular silhouette which is perfect for her.
Horizontal Lines
Monica learned that the placement of horizontal lines is important to create balance. They stop the eye, emphasize that area and make it appear wider and shorter. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of these design lines.
Because Monica has an ‘O’ Body Shape, she doesn’t want horizontal lines at her waist because she doesn’t want to bring attention to this area or make it appear even wider. However, she learned by placing them at her shoulders or hips, attention will go to these areas and they appear wider, creating better balance.
For Monica’s Body Proportions, she is long between her bust/waist and waist/crotch; and is short between her crotch/knees and knees/floor. As a result, her torso is significantly longer than her legs. She wants horizontal lines between her bust and crotch and avoids them between her crotch and ankles. This is difficult because of her Body Shape. This is a major reason why she loves to wear dresses: you can’t tell where her torso ends and legs begin.
This dress really doesn’t have a lot of horizontal lines: just at the top and bottom of the ties and the hem. The tie’s top and bottom bring focus to the mid chest and upper thigh. While the hem lays just above her knees. This is the length that looks best on her.
Vertical Lines
Along with horizontal lines, Monica learned that the placement of vertical lines is also important to create balance. They move the eye up and down and make the area appear thinner and longer. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of these design lines.
For her ‘O’ Body Shape she wants them to be through her waist area because they move the eye away from this area and make the area appear thinner. For her Body Proportions she wants vertical lines in her leg area to make them appear longer and avoid them between her bust and crotch area because vertical lines will make this area appear even longer. This is a major reason why she has had such a hard time figuring out what design lines work for her.
The V-neck and tie create a long vertical line from the shoulders down to mid thigh. This is perfect for Monica’s Body Shape because the neckline and tie move the eye from her face down to just above the hem. Because one doesn’t know where her torso ends and legs begin by wearing a dress, this vertical line works for her.
Dress For Body Type -- Sandals
Monica loves shoes and especially ones that make a statement and these shoes make a statement. She’s known for her shoes. You can say it’s a part of her personal brand. It shows she lives outside the box and can be outrageous. This is perfect for being a social media strategy. She loves how they look with the Calvin Klien dress.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Horizontal Lines
Monica saw that these sandals do have a strap around the ankle which creates a horizontal line. This strap isn’t great for her short legs because they can make her legs appear even shorter. She learned that because she’ll be wearing a dress and can’t tell where her torso ends and legs begin, her legs don’t appear that much shorter. She also put on the dress and sandals together and asked herself if she felt like she could conquer her world. Her answer was yes.
Shape Of Design Lines
Another aspect of design lines Monica learned is that she needs to look at the shape of them. They come in two categories: angular and curved. One looks for design shapes in clothes details, prints and accessories. For shoes, the major design line shape is the shape of the toe.
Monica’s Face Shape gives her the clue as to her category. She has a pear Face Shape which falls into the curved category. Now she knows this information she looks for shoes with a curved toe shape and prints with curved shapes.
These sandals have a curved toe and the pattern is curved. Both are perfect for Monica.
Color
Monica learned that the color of her Skin, Hair and Eyes give her clues as to which colors work for her, color combinations and the relative lightness and darkness of those colors. Her favorite colors are green, yellow and red/orange. None of these colors are in the sandal’s print, however she does like to wear orange. She sometimes wears prints with violet/purple in it.
The combination of orange and purple are two parts of a triadic color combination. The third would be green. The difference between the color of her skin and hair is medium which means she has a medium color contrast profile. Monica could use an analogous or triadic color combination. Most of the time she sticks with analogous color combinations which are colors next to each other. She loves the colors in the print and how it plays off the dress color. So this color combination works for her.
With Monica’s color contrast profile being medium, she could look for the relative lightness and darkness of the colors in a print to be medium. The relative lightness and darkness of the colors in the print is medium, perfect for her.
Scale
Monica learned that the scale of accessories and prints is another important aspect of design lines. Too small and they can get lost and too big they overpower. The combination of her color of Skin, Hair and Eyes, Body Proportions and Body Frame Size give her the clue to her scale strategy. Her overall scale strategy is medium/large. This means she wants her accessories and prints that are medium/large.
The scale of the sandals and the print on them is medium/large, perfect for Monica.
Dress For Body Type -- Earrings
Next Monica looked for earrings to bring together the dress and sandals. She found these and they work perfect.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Vertical Lines
These earrings create a vertical line between Monica’s chin and shoulders. Her Body Proportions between her chin/bust is the same as her ideal body proportions in this area. This allows her to easily wear dangly earrings.
Shape Of Design Lines
The overall shape of these earrings is curved which is perfect for Monica’s curved Face Shape.
Scale
The overall scale of these earrings is medium/large matching her scale strategy.
Dress For Body Type -- Bracelet
Monica always liked wearing bracelets. It wasn’t until she understood her body’s clues as to why she liked wearing them. She found out that they create a horizontal line at her hips which brings attention to this area and away from her waist.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Shape Of Design Lines
Monica looked for bracelets with round stones because they complemented her curved Face Shape.
Final Thoughts
Monica is excited about her opportunity to talk about her favorite subject, helping women who want to take their knowledge to create impact and spread the knowledge through social media. Over the last several years she has grown more confident in herself and abilities. She’s accepted that she’s beautiful just the way she is. Most importantly, her body is beautiful and it’s just a matter of understanding what design lines and colors bring out her natural beauty.
Next week Alice will be sharing the outfit she will be wearing to her family reunion. It’s being held in a place where it’s warm during the day and cooler at night. She wanted to make sure she felt like she could conquer her world. She has grown over the last several years and wanted her family to see this new found confidence. To find out what outfit helps her feel like she can conquer her world, go to: Dress For Body Type — Alice.
Wear Your Greatness!!
