Monica has learned that dressing for your body type can not only help with increasing confidence but also give a clue to the world who you are. She’s always loved fashion but understanding how to dress for her Body Shape and Body Proportions has been elusive until now. Now that she understands which design line combination works best for her body type, her confidence in herself and abilities has skyrocketed.
Monica is excited to go wine tasting with her friends Sam, Alice, Grace and Veronica along with their husbands. She wanted to get an outfit she could wear that day and transition into cooler weather.
Keep reading to learn how Monica is dressing for her unique body type.
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
Dressing For Your Body Type -- Top
One of Monica’s favorite colors is green and this is what drew her to this top. When she looked closer she liked the design details. It’s not your average top you find in stores. She thought she could create an outfit around this top.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
The first design line Monica looked at was the silhouette. It’s the difference between the shoulders/waist, waist/hips and hips/shoulders. Silhouettes come in two categories: angular and curved. With an angular silhouette the shoulders, waist and hips appear to be the same width. While the curved silhouette has the waist significantly smaller than the shoulders and hips. Her Body Shape gives her the clue as to which category works best for her.
Monica has an O or Apple Body Shape. Her waist is significantly wider than both her shoulders and hips. She learned that this Body Shape falls into the angular category therefore she should wear clothes with an angular silhouette.
Monica looked at the side seam of this top to determine its silhouette. She determined that it’s angular because the seam was straight which meant it had an angular silhouette perfect for her Body Shape clue.
Horizontal Lines
Monica next looked for horizontal lines on the top. She learned that horizontal lines stop your eyes, emphasize the 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.
For her O Body Shape, Monica wants to avoid them in her waist area because it will bring emphasis to this area and make it appear wider. However, she wants them between her shoulders and just below her bust, along with her hip area. Placed there, horizontal lines will emphasize these areas and make them appear wider creating better balance with her waist.
For her Body Proportions, Monica is long between her bust/waist and waist/crotch areas. She is also short between her knees/floor. Her torso is significantly longer than her legs. She wants horizontal lines between her bust and crotch to make this area appear shorter and avoid them between her knees and floor.
Monica has a conundrum, she wants to avoid horizontal lines at her waist but for her body proportions in this area she wants them in this area. She decided she would concentrate on putting them in her shoulder/chest and hip areas.
Monica determined that the top had two horizontal lines: stitches just below the shoulders and the hem. The stitches are sewn over vertical tucks to hold them in place. This vertical line helps make her shoulders appear wider and her torso appear shorter. The hem falls at her hip area which makes her hips appear wider and torso appear shorter. As a result, her O Body Shape and Body Proportions are balanced.
Vertical Lines
Monica then looked at the vertical design lines. She learned that 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 proper placement of these design lines.
For her Body Shape, Monica wants vertical design lines through her waist area so the eye moves through this area and makes it appear thinner. She doesn’t want them just in her shoulder/chest area because vertical lines will make this area appear even thinner making her waist appear wider.
For her Body Shape, Monica wants to avoid vertical design lines in between her waist/crotch area because this area is long. On the other hand she wants them between her knees/floor area. Ideally because her torso is significantly longer than her legs, she wants to avoid vertical lines in her torso, but place them in her leg area.
Monica found three vertical lines in this top: the V-neckline, vertical tucks and ruffles sewn to the armholes. These three vertical lines all make the area between her chin and bust appear longer. However, she knew placing a necklace creates a horizontal line and the horizontal stitches at the shoulder will help counterbalance these vertical lines.
When Monica tried on the top she found the ruffles sewn to the armhole in fact made her shoulders appear wider which helped balance out her O Body Shape. She was pleasantly surprised by this.
Design Lines Shape
Monica learned that her Face Shape gives her clues as to the shape of design lines. Design lines can come in two shapes: angular and curved. Angular design line shapes have angles while curved ones are shapely. She has a pear Face Shape which falls in the curved category. This means curved design lines look best on her.
Monica can look for design line shapes in actual designs sewn into the garment like: necklines, collars, pocket, cuffs, and ruffles to name a few. She can also find them in prints and accessories.
Monica found three design line shapes in this top: neckline, ruffles and print. This top has a V-neckline which is an angular shape. Ruffles naturally have a curved shape. Finally the print is a floral which creates curved shapes.
Monica believes the overall feel of the top is curved because of the print and ruffle. She also plans to wear a necklace which has an overall curved feel.
Scale
Monica learned that the scale of a print is an important component of determining if design lines work for her body’s clues. Her scale strategy is medium/large which is determined by the color of her Skin, Hair and Eyes and Body Frame Size. Normally this size of print catches her eye.
The print on this top is small/medium. Normally Monica would never gravitate to this scale of print; however, she gravitated to it because of the overall color she saw, green. When she put it on with the rest of the outfit she liked how she felt. She thought it was interesting that once she understood the clues her body gives her, she learned where she can cheat a little, but always being away how she feels.
Dressing For Your Body Type -- Cardigan
Monica looked for a cardigan to go with this outfit so she can wear it into the fall season, along with cooler mornings and evenings. She had a hard time finding one that worked with all of her body’s clues. It would become a staple in her closet this season.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
The first design line she looked at was the silhouette. Monica found that most cardigans had an angular silhouette. She determined that this one fell into that category which works perfectly for her Body Shape clue.
Horizontal Lines
Monica looks for horizontal lines on the cardigan. She wanted to make sure it worked for both her body shape and body proportions. There are two horizontal lines: sleeve hems and body hem. Both hit her around her hips which works perfect for her body’s clues.
Vertical Lines
This cardigan has a shawl collar which creates two vertical lines: center front and one created by the collar. Both of these work well for Monica’s Body Shape because they draw the eye through her waist area and make it appear thinner. It’s not ideal for her Body Proportions because vertical lines will make her torso appear longer. However, she will counterbalance the lines with other vertical lines in the torso area and vertical lines in the pants.
Design Line Shape
Monica wanted to make sure the design line shape(s) incorporated into this cardigan were curved to work for her Face Shape clue. She wanted to counterbalance the angular shapes in other parts of the outfit. The center front opening and hem transition created a curved shape that is perfect for her body’s clues.
Dressing For Your Body Type -- Pants
Once Moncia found the top and sweater, she looked for a pair of pants which could take her into the fall. She found several pants made out of a ponte fabric. The design she loved about them is the flare leg. This design helped balance out her waist.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Monica looked at the waist and hip width and found it appeared to have an angular silhouette which is perfect for her Body Shape clue. When she tried them on she confirmed the silhouette was right for her.
Horizontal Lines
Monica next looked for horizontal lines. She found two which are on every pant: the waistband and hem. This pair of pants is considered high-waisted which means the waistband is meant to lay at the waist. She really didn’t care where the waistband lays on her body since it will never be seen because tops will always cover it.
The hem hit about an inch off the floor which is a perfect length of Monica. She knew she could wear a variety of her shoes.
What Monica really loved about the hem is the fact that it flared. Because the hem is a horizontal line, it makes the area appear wider, balancing out her waist. She plans to buy more flared legs and bootcut pants for this fact.
Vertical Lines
When looking at this pair of pants, Monica saw a seam sewn down the center front and center back of each pant leg creating a permanent crease. As a result, a permanent vertical line which will make her legs appear longer. She loves this fact and the overall fit so much that she plans to get other colors.
Dressing For Your Body Type -- Shoes
Monica is known for her shoes. You might say she’s a collector. This season she sees a lot of loafers with lug soles. It’s a modern twist on a classic. She picked these because all the design lines reflect her body’s clues.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Shape Of Design Lines
Because she has a curved Face Shape, Monica looked for shoes with curved design lines. These shoes had three different design line shapes: the toe, buckle and tongue. All three have a curved shape that is perfect for her Face Shape clue.
Scale
Monica considers herself lucky in that she can wear lug sole shoes. These soles increase shoe scale to medium or medium/large. Her overall scale strategy is medium/large. However, because she is short between her knees/floor the scale decreases to medium.
Monica believes the scale of these shoes falls in the range of medium/large. This doesn’t deter her because she has a big personality and is one of the reasons she is drawn to color, and big prints. When she puts the whole outfit together she loves how she feels.
Dressing For Your Body Type -- Necklace
Monica went to the fashion jewelry department to look for a necklace to go with the outfit. She looked at every brand to find the right necklace. She normally goes for medium/large scale but thought that it was too bold for the print of the top. When she found this one, she knew it was it. The colors of the beads blended well with the print and the design lines worked well for her body’s clues.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Horizontal Lines
Monica looked for necklaces with multiple strands to help create horizontal lines in her chest area. She knew she had to counterbalance the vertical lines on the top. The top two strands did just that.
Shape Of Design Lines
Monica next looked at the overall shape of the necklace. The beads and pendant shapes are curved perfect for her Face Shape clue.
Dressing For Your Body Type -- Earrings
Monica looked for earrings that had a scale of medium/large and created a texture. She found them when looking for the necklace. They blended well with the necklace and its pendant.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Shape Of Design Lines
Monica looked for earrings with an overall curved feel to match her Face Shape clue. These hoop earrings gave her that feel.
Final Thoughts
Monica has always loved fashion and shopping for clothes and accessories. But now that she understands how to dress for her body type and especially her Body Shape and Body Proportions, she’s loving it even more. She’s learning to put her unique spin on fashion trends which give the world a clue who she is. Most importantly the increase in her confidence in herself and abilities is taking her places she never dreamt of going. She sees this same thing happening to her friends.
Next week Alice will share what she’s wearing at wine tasting on Labor Day. The post is: Dressing For Your Body Type — Alice.
Wear Your Greatness!!
