Over the last several years Grace learned what to wear for my body type is important because clothes change how you feel. Wearing the right clothes for her body type has helped her start building confidence after life knocked her down. She now looks forward to spending time with her friends and family.
Her husband’s family is having a backyard party and she wanted a new outfit for it. She wears mostly skirts & tops or dresses. One reason is because sometimes it’s hard to find pants that fit her body. More importantly she feels more confident when wearing skirts or dresses rather than pants.
Grace didn’t have time to go to the mall and decided to look online. She had always hated shopping online because she couldn’t figure out if the outfit would work for her. Now she understands how to analyze the product description and pictures, along with understanding her body type, shopping online has become much easier.
Grace is excited about what she found and more importantly spending time with her family.
Grace’s Body Elements
As a review, these are Grace’s Body Element clues:
- Body Shape — A (Body Shape — The Girls)
- Curved clothes silhouette
- Horizontal lines — Place them at her shoulders and waist, and avoid placing them at her hips
- Vertical lines — Place them between her waist and hips, and avoid placing them at her shoulders
- Face Shape — Rectangle (Face Shape — The Girls)
- Angular design lines, prints and accessories
- Color Skin, Hair, Eyes — Medium Color Contrast (Color Skin, Hair & Eyes — The Girls)
- Favorite Colors — Orange, Green
- Color Combinations (other colors) — Triadic and Analogous
- Color Combinations (relative lightness and darkness) — Medium contrast
- First Scale Clue — Medium
- Body Proportions — Short between bust/waist, long between waist/crotch, short between knees/floor (Body Proportions — The Girls)
- Horizontal lines — Place them between her waist/crotch but not at her hips, and don’t place them between her bust/waist and knees/floor
- Vertical lines — Place them between her bust/waist and knees/floor; limit them between her waist/crotch; however when she places them from her bust to below her crotch, the eye passes over this entire area and will make it appear thinner for her Body Shape
- Second Scale Clue — Decrease overall scale between bust/waist and knees/floor; increase it between waist/crotch
- Body Frame Size — Small (Body Frame Size — The Girls)
- Third scale clue — Small
- Scale Strategy — Small/Medium (Scale Strategy — The Girls)
- Decrease scale to small between her bust/waist and knees/floor
- Increase to medium between her waist/crotch
What To Wear For My Body Type -- Skirt
Grace started her search for a new outfit with skirts. She likes wearing skirts much better than wearing pants. The main reason is because she has a harder time finding pants that fit her Body Shape. That being said, she likes the way she feels when wearing a skirt.
Grace looks for A-line or gathered skirts because she likes her clothes to be flowy instead of form fitting. She wasn’t surprised she liked this skirt because it’s a Cece brand. This brand is one of her favorites because the clothes are feminine and flowy. When she took a closer look and found most of the design lines worked perfectly for her body’s clues.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
The first design line Grace looks for is the silhouette of the skirt. Silhouette is the outside line of an outfit. It’s the difference between the shoulders/waist, waist/hips and hips/shoulders. It comes in categories: angular and curved. An angular silhouette the shoulders, waist and hips appear to be the same width. While a curved silhouette the waist is significantly smaller than both the shoulders and hips. Her Body Shape gives her clues as to which category works best for her.
Grace has an A (Pear) Body Shape where her waist is significantly smaller than her shoulders and her shoulders are significantly smaller than her hips. This means she should look for a curvy silhouette.
Grace liked the look of this skirt because it looked flowy. She looked at the pictures close-up and found that it’s gathered at the waist. This means there will be ample room in the hip area. It might not be designed for a curvy silhouette but it works for her.
Horizontal Lines
Grace learned that one of the important design lines for her body type are horizontal lines. They stop the eye, emphasize the area and make it appear wider and shorter. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give clues as to where to strategically place them.
For her A Body Shape, Grace doesn’t want horizontal lines in her hip area because they will bring emphasis to this area and make it look even wider. On the other hand, she wants horizontal lines in her shoulders and waist area because they will bring emphasis to these areas, make them appear wider and at the same time balance out her hip area.
Grace’s Body Proportions are short between her bust/waist and knees/floor. She is long between her waist/crotch. For her Body Proportions she doesn’t want horizontal lines between her bust/waist and knees/floor because they will make these areas appear even shorter.
However, by placing horizontal lines between her waist/crotch they will make this area appear shorter creating better balance.
Grace looked for horizontal design lines on the skirt. She did this by looking where her eyes stopped. Her eyes stopped at the waist and top and bottom of the ruffle at the hem. She planned to wear the skirt with tops tucked in because of the tie at the waist. This works well for her Body Shape.
Because she bought several other skirts from this brand, she knows when she wears a size medium the waist is slightly big for her so it falls at her belly button which is about 2 inches below her natural waist. As a result, the horizontal lines created by the waistband helps make the area between her bust/waist appear longer. The hem is long so it doesn’t shorten her legs.
Vertical Lines
Vertical lines are the other critical design line for Grace. They move the eye up and down, and make the area appear longer and thinner. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of these design lines. For her Body Shape, she wants them to go through her hip area because they will make the eyes move away from this area and make it appear thinner. However, she doesn’t want them just in her shoulders and waist areas because they will make these areas appear even thinner making her hips appear even wider.
For her Body Proportions, Grace wants them between her bust/waist and knees/floor areas because vertical design lines will make these areas appear long. But she doesn’t want them just between her waist/hip area because vertical lines will make this area appear even longer.
This skirt has two vertical design lines created by the ruffle starting at the left waist going down to the hem and a cross-under ruffle at knees to the floor. These vertical design lines move the eye away from her hip area.
Shape Of Design Lines
Grace learned that the design line shape is an important aspect to determine. There are two categories of design line shape: angular and curved. Her Face Shape gives her clues as to which shape looks best on her. She has a rectangle Face Shape which lands in the angular category.
Grace looked at design lines sewn into the skirt and its print. She found two major design line shapes: the front crossover and the print. She looked at a close-up of the skirt and determined that the print’s design is floral. This print has a lot of curved design lines. The front crossover is also curved.
This is where she has a conundrum because she’s drawn to curved lines because they have a feminine feel which is a part of her personal style. She learned that if she pairs these curved lines with angular accessories she can balance everything out. She knew, yes it would be better to have all angular lines; however it might not match her style.
At the end of the day it’s about how she feels in them and feeling more confident and able to conquer her world.
What To Wear For My Body Type -- Top
Grace next looked for a top to go with the skirt. She started her search by looking at Cece tops, but didn’t find any she liked. Then she went to 1 State. She found that many of the tops fit her body well and they have a feminine flare.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
In the product description area Grace found that the knit top is made out of a rayon and spandex. She knew this meant the top would easily form to her curvy silhouette.
Horizontal Lines
Next Grace looked for horizontal lines and she found two: hem of the flutter sleeves and hem of the top. Because the flutter sleeves are fairly wide, this created wide horizontal lines at her bust line. This horizontal line placement is perfect for her because it brings attention to this area and makes it appear wider creating balance with her hips
Knowing most picture models are around 5’10” Grace knew the hem of the top wouldn’t hit her mid-hip the way it fit the model. That being said she knew she could place the hem in that same area by creating a ruching effect which in itself will create more horizontal lines. This is perfect for both her Body Shape and Body Proportions. For her Body Shape attention will go to the hem and make it appear wider creating better balance with her hips. For her Body Proportions the hem and ruching will make the area between her waist/crotch appear shorter.
Vertical Lines
Grace now looks for vertical lines and finds them in the neckline. It’s a V-neck line. A V-neck line wouldn’t work for her by itself because it could make the shoulders appear thinner which makes her hips appear wider. However with the horizontal lines created by the flutter sleeves, the V-neck line could work. She needed to try it on to make sure.
When she tried on both the skirt and top, Grace determined the V-neckline didn’t make her shoulders appear thinner. She loved the magic of strategically placing both horizontal and vertical lines in both the top and bottom halves of her body.
Shape Of Design Lines
The only design line shape Grace found in the top was the shape of the neckline. It being a V-neckline it had a rectangular shape which is perfect for her angular Face Shape.
What To Wear For My Body Type -- Sandals
The next item Grace looked for are white sandals. Because it was getting close to the end of the summer season, she wasn’t sure if she would find any that could work for her. She saw lots of sandals with ankle straps. Several years ago she learned about the properties of horizontal lines and ankle straps don’t work for her shorter leg proportions. She was persistent and found these and was excited they had them in her size.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Shape Of Design Lines
Grace looked for sandals with a square toe to match her angular Face Shape. She loves square toed shoes. Not just because they match her Face Shape clues but also because they’re comfortable to wear. This season square toe sandals were on trend.
What To Wear For My Body Type -- Necklace
Grace looked for angular shaped necklaces even though she is drawn toward curve shaped ones. She thought curved shaped jewelry had a more feminine feel and that’s the basis of her style. But because she chose a skirt with floral print, she knew her accessories needed to be angular to match her Face Shape clues.
That being said, Grace loves this necklace because of the angular feel but it also has the feminine aesthetic she loves.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Horizontal Lines
The rectangular pendant helps the necklace create a horizontal line just below her shoulder lines. As a result, it helps bring attention to this area perfect for Grace’s Body Shape.
Shape Of Design Lines
The shape of this necklace is angular perfect for Grace’s angular Face Shape.
Scale
Grace thought the scale of the necklace was around small/medium. When she tried it on it was. She knows she’ll be wearing the necklace a lot.
What To Wear For My Body Type -- Earrings
Grace was ecstatic when she found these earrings because they matched the necklace.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Shape Of Design Lines
Like the necklace the overall design line shape is angular just like the necklace. Perfect for Grace’s Face Shape clues.
Final Thoughts
Learning what to wear for my body type has been a game changer for Grace. Her confidence in herself and abilities has increased to a point where she’s ready to take steps forward in her life. She’s excited to spend more time with her friends and family.
Next week you learn what clothes Veronica bought online using her new found skill of analyzing the product description and pictures. In the past she bought a lot of clothes online but had to return most of them. Once she understands the design lines and colors on the outfit, she then compares them to her body type. To find out how she dresses for her body type go to: What To Wear For My Body Type — Veronica.
Wear Your Greatness!!
