We come in all fabulous shapes and sizes. Thank goodness, wouldn’t it be boring otherwise. Some days I’m happy with my body and others not so much, which can be said for lots of the clients I work with. Sometimes they’re good to go in whatever they wear, other days getting dressed can leave them not feeling their best. Which is commonly the reason why they book an appointment with me. They want to understand why they’re feeling this way, get past any issues, and feel more confident.
I believe that if you have clothing that doesn’t make you feel great and isn’t being worn its for one of three reasons – it isn’t the best colour or pattern for you, it doesn’t fit or flatter your body shape, or it doesn’t suit your lifestyle. Today, I want to tackle the fit.
Styling Can Be A Balancing Act
If you don’t know (and where have you been) there are five basic body shapes – round, inverted triangle, rectangle, triangle and hourglass. You’ll be one of these, or a mix – our bodies change and can fluctuate in shape during our lifetime. If you’re a triangle or inverted triangle, you’ll be wearing different sized clothing top and bottom. For example someone who is a triangle (pear) shape is wider on the lower half of their body and is narrower in the shoulder. Someone who is an inverted triangle is the opposite and will have wider shoulders than hips. Both body types will need to wear differing top and bottom to accommodate this and sometimes it can leave the wearer feeling a little out of balance
Triangle Body Shape
Here, if you want to re-dress the balance, I’m going to share some ideas of tops to wear, with examples of what’s currently available in stores. Let’s kick off with ideas for pear body shapes. The idea is to add more width to the upper half without losing waist definition, or, alternatively, drawing the eye up and away from an area you might not be comfortable with lots of attention.
So, for example, we’ve got an off the shoulder top from River Island to add more width and a cold shoulder jumper which highlights and brings more attention to the shoulders. There are tops here with more embroidery and pattern around the shoulders to draw the eye up and wide, puff sleeves to emphasise shoulders, and, of course, stripes that pear shapes can wear with ease. Just make sure you tuck in the tops to keep your waist on show.
Inverted Triangle Body Shape
If you think about the opposite requirement for inverted triangle body shapes (strawberry), then the detailing is on the bottom half and there’s a desire to tone down the more stronger shoulder line and wider top half.
Simple shirts are a great start and when it comes to adding details look for designs that draw attention away, to the wrist, for example, like this River Island shirt. Button down shirts automatically offer a v neck which is nice for elongating the neck and breaking up the shoulder line, while scoop neck tops are good for the same reason. I really like this satin top from River Island with detailing around the neck as it draws the eye in and away from a wider shoulder. The top from H&M does a similar job, drawing the eye lower down the chest.
Just the tip of the tricks that I could teach you. To find out more about balancing your body’s silhouette consider booking my Personal Style Development and Colour Consultation appointment and become more armoured so that you feel great too.
Gail x
