A KNOCK OUT DRESS FOR EACH BODY SHAPE

We need to love the skin we’re in, and accept our curves or lack thereof! So it’s NOT about size, it’s about your body shape! Balance and proportion as we said in previous posts are the keys to flattering your figure, whether your dress size is a 0 or a 20. Let's find the best way to create harmony from your head to your toes is with visual symmetry.

Here are some tips for each body shape, and also suggestions of dresses that compliment that body shape! The first thing I considered when choosing the dresses to suggest, is the cutting, then the type of fabric and specially where the value of colors  (darker and lighter colors) were placed in the overall design of the dresses. Hope you can use this as a guide for your own shopping! Bare in mind that the models don't necessarily have the corresponding body shapes, though the dresses on each side of the body types listed are flattering for that particular body shape.

Hourglass Those women who have an hourglass body shape are naturally balanced, meaning the width of the shoulders and hips is the same and they have a definite waist. Try to avoid anything that hides your waist as it is the asset you want to show off.  By cinching yourself in with a belt, you can highlight those curves. Also wear tailored pieces.

Triangle You also a definite waist, so show it off! What you need to do is balance your top half which is smaller in size, with your bigger bottom half. Make use of trends like bold shoulders and statement necklaces (which are big right now!), and use details and colors on tops to draw up the eye and create more volume on your top half. Keep your bottom half simple, wear darker colors on straight cut pants or a-line skirts.


Inverted triangle You tend to have broad shoulders and narrow hips , so what it's needed to achieve visual balance is wear clothing that helps elongate your torso. By elongating your torso we create a vertical line that draws attention to your entire silhouette and not just your broad shoulders. You can do that  by wearing a long necklace, also wear long tops that end just where your hips start. Avoid wearing short tops, and high-waisted jeans, skirts and pants. You don't need shoulder pads, so avoid wearing them. Halter tops also increase the size of your shoulders visually so try to avoid them also. Show off your great legs, with shorts, and slim pants!

Rectangle  You want to create visual curves and define the waistline. Many women with a rectangular body shape complain of their boyish figure, but there are plenty of ways to play up your femininity and your assets. Wear wrap around tops and dresses, they flatter all figures and specially rectangular shapes, as they visually create a waist and flare at the hips. Bias cuts, can also create the illusion of bigger or curvier hips, thus creating a waist. Use jackets and blazers with darts at the waist, specially perfect for your body shape is the Peplum.

Round What happens with the round body shape, is that it usually conceals another body shape, due to extra weight carried at the middle. Most times a Round body shape is a rectangular or inverted triangle body shape. Let's deal with the shape the body is in now. So if you have a round body shape, my suggestion is to wear same color on top and bottom halves. Don't think you can wear light colors? Of course you do! Take a look at the off white dress on your left, it is perfect for a round body shape, it has an empire waist cut and pleads in a semi structured cut and fabric. 

Tips to Help Balance your Body Shape

How can we use our body shapes to learn how to dress?

by Guest Writer: Georgina Kenny 

My goal and my suggestion for all my clients is to emphasize their face when getting dressed, and this rule applies no matter what your body shape is. Your face is your most important body part, and if we want people to relate to you, to who you really are, you need to call attention to your face, and not just to other specific body areas.

You might have different goals, and only you can decide which parts of your body you want to highlight. In general besides dressing to call attention to the face, we also strive to emphasize those body parts or characteristics that are assets and try to de-emphasize those that you might not be so "proud" of.

We also have a shared-visual idea of what an "ideal" body should look like, and in our society, that body for women, is usually, full busted, small waisted, with square shoulders, and a perky bottom. It is what our culture has accepted as the "ideal" body.

But we not only look at current magazines or films for reference as to what a women's "ideal" body should look like. We go back in time to great works of art and we take a look at sculptures, paintings and films and photographs of women from other times.

Yes, body ideals are not "permanent", ideals are very long "trends", and as we can see ideals change with time.  The ideal woman used to be curvier in the 1950's, squarer in the 1980's, slimmer in the 90's and now we see more diversity and also a more "athletic" body as an ideal for both men and women. The famous six pack is selling more magazines now more than ever! By the way, I don't think women look good with an obvious six-pack, it's too masculine for my taste.

So if ideals are not written in stone, we can also help to change them. For example, I like to focus on values instead of on ideals. "Ideals" are mostly external, they are "dictated" by somebody else. Values can also change but they come from my own internal system. I am the one that sets them up, and they are usually rooted in my own sense of self. I value health, family, community, womanhood. And I strive to show that in the way I treat my body and the way I dress it. So because I value aesthetics, femininity and balance, I have learned a great deal about women's bodies, proportions and visual harmony.

But then again we should learn to come up with our own version of the "ideal" body shape, and the more similar it is to ours, the happier we will be! That is for sure!

These are a few tips and ideas for every body shape to achieve more balance visually:

• Hourglass: Emphasize the waistline, wear clothes that hug the body to show off its curves, but not too tightly.

• Triangle-Pear: Wear items such as jackets with details in the shoulders, such as shoulder pads or studs to help create balance with the bottom half, which is bigger.

• Inverted Triangle: highlight the bottom part of the body through the use of full skirts, pants with pockets to help match the broad top, and visually create balance.

• Rectangle: show off your great arms or legs, add belts  to help visually create a waist. Wear pleaded pants and skirts. Avoid wide-leg or very loose trousers, these will create a boxy image rather than a curves.

• Round or Apple: Wear the same color on top and bottom. Emphasize bust line with use of square necklines. An use the empire cut on dresses and shirts to show off the smaller part of your torso, which is right under your bust-line.

Remember these are just a few tips to visually help create balance in your figure overall. The current ideal body should not be what dictates your clothing options. Knowing yourself and dressing for your own body shape is the best tool to feeling confident in your own skin!

About the Author of this post: This post was written and illustrated by Georgina Kenny. B.A. in Advertising and Image Consultant certified by the Fashion Institute of New York City, SUNY, New York City. Georgina is a contributor at New York Fashion Week and she writes for different online media about her favorite subjects: Women's Fashion and Style, Women's Body Image, Women's Emotional Health and Self-Esteem. If you would like to contact Georgina write an email to lookbookyou@gmail.com and we will put you in touch.

How to know what your Body Type is?

TWO PROVEN TECHNIQUES TO FIND OUT WHAT YOUR BODY SHAPE IS

Part 2 of the Key #3 The 5 Keys to Dressing Well

Our objective is to learn how to emphasize the best parts of your body and de-emphasize the ones you don't like so much.

The trick to always looking your best is to call attention to your most pleasing parts, both of your physical appearance and of your personality.

Let's continue with Body Types. We classified five major body types. For your reference go back to The 5 Basic Body Types

We already know that there are different geometrical shapes that we use to classify human's body shapes. The best way to really know which body type you fit into, is to do a body tracing. You are going to need a lot of paper to do this! a black or blue marker, a tape measure and a good friend.

Triangle and Inverted Triangle

BODY TRACING

• Tape the paper to the wall or a plain door, at least a few inches taller than you. The paper should be long enough to touch the floor. 
• Wear a swimsuit or your underwear only and no shoes.
• Stand with your back against the wall or door with your legs hip distance apart, arms outstreched, fingers outstreched touching the wall or door.N
• Have your friend trace your entire body with the marker on the paper.
• Now have her place a horizontal line on the paper at each of the following places.

1. Top of head
2. Waist
3. Hips or thighs (if thighs are wider than hips)

Hourglass

• You can also do a sideways body tracing, standing sideways with your arm close to the side of your body, have your friend trace your profile view, have her hold the marker perpendicular to the paper. For all tracings its better to use a fine marker, as you want to trace as much of your natural indentations as possible.

It is very useful to do a profile tracing of your body, as we are three dimensional, and to look at the overall body type without considering our "fullness" would not be very accurate.

Now that you have your body traced both from the front and from the side. What shape can you see? Which geometrical shape does it resemble? Does it look similar to any of the 5 basic body types we talked about before?

MEASUREMENTS

Now we need to use a tape measure to measure the circumference of your:

• shoulders
• bust
• waist
• hips or (thighs if bigger than hips). 

Let's analyze the results:

HOURGLASS - TRIANGLE - INVERTED TRIANGLE

What is your waist measurement in relation to your shoulders, bust and hips? Is your waist at least 9 to 11 inches smaller (23-28 cm), than your bust or hip (thigh) measurements? Then it means that you do have a definite waist, which narrows your body type, as either a triangle/pear or an hourglass or inverted triangle.
Now let's look at your shoulder measurement in comparison to your hips or thighs, are they the same? only less than 1 inch (2.5 cm) difference in measurement then your body shape is an hourglass.
See we made two different comparisons:

1. Waist and Hips (or Thighs)
2. Shoulders and Hips (or Thighs)

No you don't have to have a full bust to be an hourglass! What determines an hourglass body type is  having a definite waist and the relation of shoulders size and placement to your hips. There are many women who have hourglass body shapes but don't have a big bust size, or maybe they do, but have achieved that artificially.

What happens if  you have a definite waist but your shoulder measurement is smaller in more than 1 inch (2.5 cm) from your hip or thighs measurements, then you have a triangular shape.

If your shoulder measurement is bigger than 1 inch (2.5 cm) from your hips (or thighs) measurement then you most probably have an Inverted Triangle body shape.

ROUND-RECTANGULAR

What if there is not much difference in your waist measurements in relation to your bust and hips(thighs), then it means you have most probably an Apple or a Rectangle body shape.

Rectangle

As you may known the main characteristic for the "ideal" women's body is the waist. Some body types are characterized by having almost no waist, although everybody has one, but it is either visually obvious or not.

So the challenge for those that have Round or Rectangular body shapes, is to visually create a waist, and that can be achieved by many different ways. One of the easiest, simplest and that is flattering to all body shapes, is to cinch the body  right under the bust-line, by the use of an empire style dress for example.

Remember that the idea is always to draw attention towards our face!

Take a look again at the drawings at The 5 basic body shapes to compare them to your body tracing, and use that in combination to your body measurements to find out which body shape your body is more similar to. It doesn't have to be so obvious and exaggerated (do not follow the drawings on this post!) you most probably fall somewhere in between two body shapes. Which one do you lean more towards?

You know your body better than anybody else, you have been inhabiting your body for years! You might not have known how to name the shape of your body, but you certainly have more knowledge about it than anybody else!

Round

There is no one body shape better than the other. There are many different ways to dress the body, and the Golden Mean Ratio can be applied no matter what your body shape is.

So let's use what we have learned about body shapes as a tool to achieve our style goals, whatever those might be! No matter what your body shape is we can achieve different style looks, if we know ourselves first there is no limit to what we can create!

What is your Body Type?

 Let's continue with the Key# 3 of The 5 Keys to Dressing Well

FLATTER YOUR BODY LINES, PROPORTIONS AND SCALE

The Main Body Types

1. Round or Apple 
2. Hourglass
3. Inverted Triangle
4. Triangle or Pear
5. Rectangle



BODY TYPES

1. Round or Apple: Has no defined waist.  Has rounded shoulders. Full around the tummy.
2. Hourglass: Has a definite waist.  Wears the same size top and bottom. Has a defined bust.
3. Inverted Triangle: Wears a larger size on top half and a smaller on bottom. Has wider shoulders than hips. Usually flat rear.
4. Triangle or Pear: Smaller on top, bigger size on bottom. Shoulders are narrower than hips. Has a clearly defined waist. 
5. Rectangle: Almost no curves. Body is straight. Wears the same size for top and bottom. Has a minimal bust. Flat hips and bottom. Almost no waist definition.

Which one is your body type? Do you already know? Can you just tell by looking at the drawing and then looking at yourself in a full length mirror?

You actually cannot alter your basic body shape, because it is based on your bone structure. You can influence on the amount of fat you have, although where you accumulate that fat is genetically determined. No matter how hard we work our muscles, we can only increase their tone and size, but we cannot alter our overall body shape. And we shouldn't obsess about that which we cannot control, remember Epictetus?

The basis to having personal style, is self-acceptance, and from self-acceptance the next step is self-confidence. We need to be self confident in order to show, portray and delight others with our personal style. The idea is for us to understand our basic body shape, and make the best of it! We should learn how to dress for our body shape, so that we can flatter those parts of our body that we are most proud of. In general what we try to achieve no matter what our body shape is, is balance.

Yes, again we find this wonderful word, BALANCE. So we strive to visually show a balanced body. What is a balanced body? It is a body that follows the vertical line of your spine, that is equally distributed on both sides of that "line" whose parts are in proportion, to itself. So it is about achieving visual balance and proportion. Not about trying to be somebody else, or a different shape from ours.

PROPORTIONS

So how do we find our proportions? We use what artists have always used to draw the human body. Our bodies are divided into five sections composed of eight parts. The eight parts are

• the head (one head size)
• neck to waist (two head-sizes)
• midsection or crotch (one head size)
• crotch to knees (two head-sizes)
• knees to soles of feet (two head-sizes)

we use our own head size as the measurement to guide us.

GOLDEN MEAN RATIO

When we want to dress ourselves with style, we use the Golden Mean ratio, which is 3:5:8. It means we visually divide our body in two parts, from the top of our head to our waist (3 head sizes) from our waist to our feet ( 5 head sizes) for a total of 8 head sizes overall. Our goal is to achieve balance and proportion through our clothing choices. And remember that the most important part of our body we should strive to call attention to, is our face!

Next post: Tools to find out what your body type is....if you don't already know! Stay tuned

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