Right Clothes for Your Body Type

               

Getting dressed is a whole lot easier when you know what pieces work best for your shape. Most women fall into one of the following categories;

The Oval

You are voluptuous and ample! You have an adorable face with cheeks that are full and squeezable. The length of your neck appears short but you have beautiful ample breasts. Your shoulders could be prominent or average-sized, and they have a tendency to be slightly sloped. Your arms could look proportionate when compared to your upper torso. So, it balances out nicely. Some dressing challenges you may face are your front midsection "tummy" and your undefined waistline. However, your greatest asset is the bottom portion of your body. You have hips that look narrower relative to your entire body, thighs that are balanced, and legs that are amazingly shapely

Styles to avoid:

Turtlenecks or styles that cover-up neckline
Designs with horizontal stripes, heavy pleating, ruffles, or extra details at the midsection
Classic empire waist, combi-dress, warp-around dresses with full skirts
Super-clingy and very fitted styles. Full-length sleeves
Pants with front pleats. Wide leg and baggy styles. High-waist bottoms

 

The Triangle

What's the secret behind your amazing goddess-inspired frame? Strutting your well-defined waistline!
Your face, shoulders, arms, bust, and ribcage are relatively smaller in proportion when compared to your shapely bottom half. Often, your derriere is full and round but there are some instances when it can be flat. Your greatest asset is your waistline and it is accented from your pronounced hips and thighs. Your lower legs could be a concern because they can appear to be proportionately heavier compared to your upper half.

Styles to avoid:

Turtlenecks or styles that hide the neck
Blouson styled tops. Dropped waist dresses. Tulip shaped skirts
Super narrow pencil skirts (though classic pencil could be flattering on some triangles)
Extra skinny, baggy or carrot leg pants

The Hourglass

Your voluminous curves are so striking that others wished they could have your shape! Like your triangle counterpart, your waistline is your greatest asset. It is clearly defined, which helps tremendously because clothes naturally look good on you. Some problems that you may come across are fullness on your upper arms and tummy area. But because you have a harmonious silhouette, your shoulders and bust come in line nicely with the shape of your hips and buttocks. With your femininely defined waist, shapely thighs, and proportionately slender legs, you'll definitely stir up the right attention.

 

Styles to avoid:

Unfitted or oversized tops w/o belt, dropped waist dresses
Short length tops, stiff, bulky, fabrics
Capris or cropped pants, very tapered or straight leg pants, baggy styles, and knife pleated skirts

The Rectangle

You have something all other body shapes don't have, an envious overall proportion! You have great hips, balanced thighs, shapely legs, amazing arms, and a body frame that's perfectly in line with all the body parts. A challenge you may encounter is creating curves with your feminine shape. Your neck is short with fullness at the nape, your bust size is moderate in comparison to your whole body and, because your rib cage is more pronounced, forming a defined waistline may prove to be more difficult feat for you. Also, your derriere is pretty average (and that's alright!) so your body proportions are paralleled nicely with your moderate thighs and slender legs.


Styles to avoid:

Turtlenecks or styles that cover-up neckline

Structured fabrics, baggy jeans, cropped pants
Super-clingy, loose or very fitted styles. Full-length sleeves
Short cropped jackets that end at your waist
Pants with front pleats. Straight leg pants and baggy styles. High-waist bottom

The Inverted Triangle

You are truly a beautiful and a one-of-a-kind shape! Your body figure starts broader on top and narrows as it gets down to your feet. This is great to know because you can clearly see what styles work best for you. Starting from top to bottom, you consider yourself to be top-heavy with broad shoulders, wide upper back, and full breasts. These features can be quite an asset and most clothing looks great on you. To achieve a perfectly balanced silhouette your proportionally narrow hips can be the focal point of attraction.

Styles to avoid:

Light or bright colored tops paired with dark bottoms
Very wide and off-shoulder necklines that widen the frame
Structured, stiff fabrics
Big collars. Shoulder pads. Puff sleeves

The Diamond Shape

You have a fabulous frame! Your face, neck, and bust are proportionate to each other and your balanced thighs, shapely legs, and amazing arms accent your voluptuous assets. The greatest concern you have is your midsection and the challenges you face are extra weight around the mid-section area, which sometimes include the "love handles". Often, this means you don't have a defined waistline. Another challenge is finding a balance between your broad hips and generous thighs while enhancing the flatness of your bottom and elongating your slender lower legs.

 

Styles to avoid:

Turtlenecks or styles that cover-up neckline
Designs with horizontal stripes, heavy pleating, ruffles, or extra details at the midsection
Super-clingy and very fitted styles. Full-length sleeves
Pants with front pleats. Wide leg and baggy styles


The Figure 8 Shape

Outshining your hourglass shaped sister? Your body silhouette is amazingly curvaceous and not only do you share similar qualities as the hourglass, you also have the diamond, triangle, rectangle, oval, and inverted triangle infused into your unique shape. Your shoulders line up nicely with your overall silhouette and your voluptuous cleavage is one of your great assets. The definition in your waist is visible; however, you may have issues with your "love handles" and front bulge of your tummy area. Like the oval shape, the fullness is evenly distributed throughout your body. Also, the upper parts of your arms tend to be fuller while the lower parts of your arms are slender

Styles to avoid:

Boxy or straight shaped jackets and tops
Styles with horizontal stripes, heavy pleating, ruffles, or extra details at the midsectio
High neckline
Short length tops

Ask yourself, how many people do you know with the same body shape as you? Garments are mostly for a mass market, essentially made to fit millions of women. In reality this just doesn’t cut it.

If like so many women, you sometimes have trouble finding clothes that fit perfectly off the hangar, don’t despair! Here are a couple tips you should bear in mind when dressing for your body shape…and you should have the number of a good tailor on speed dial.

1) No matter what your body shape use cuts, colours & patterns that accentuate the positive aspects of your figure and draw the eye away from any problem areas.

2) If you’ve a long torso and short legs, you should put together outfits with the focus on your legs. By wearing clothes that make your legs look longer, you’ll look longer overall and therefore leaner. High-waisted skirts & trousers are great for this. Also by matching the colour of your belt, trousers/skirt, tights and shoes you create the illusion of a longer line.

3) Most women would kill for long legs so I say if you’ve got them flaunt them! Wear slim fitting pants or skirts that show off your legs.

4) If you’re wider at the waist than you’d rather be, start by drawing attention elsewhere such as your neckline, face or legs. V-necks or empire lines are ideal for this as they draw the eye upward. Avoid trousers that cover your entire tummy as they’ll only make it look larger than it is.

5) Lastly, If you’re problem area is your bum and bottom half then you’ll want to make it appear smaller. Choose tops that hit at the top of the hip and choose silhouettes such as A-line skirts that flow away from the body. Avoid skirts with a lot of embellishments or a large pattern as they will only draw attention to your problem area.

These are just a couple of tips to help get you started on dressing for your body shape. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any more individual queries.