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Dressing for your Body Type: Top 3 Tips

Why learn about dressing for your body type? Because trends come and go, but your body shape mostly stays the same. True, you may gain or lose weight, but generally your proportions aren’t going to change much.

That doesn’t have to be a bad thing, though! Understanding your shape and loving it makes for a more empowering shopping experience. You know what looks good on you, you seek out those pieces, and you naturally develop your unique style with confidence. Those are the marks of a true fashionista.

In other words, you can develop your confident, stylish side by learning the rules of dressing for your body type. Below are three strategies to get you started.

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1. Know your shape

When you know your shape, you can flip through a magazine, walk through a store, or browse Amazon Fashion — and automatically know what styles will look good on you. And what a skill this is. Think of the time and money you could save by minimizing clothing returns. No more trips to the UPS Store or the mall to get a partial refund for a garment that didn’t work out.

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So here’s how to identify your shape. First, stand in front of a full length mirror for a few minutes. Don’t suck it in or wear your Spanx. Just relax. Take a look at where you carry weight and then consider the following:

  1. If you carry most of your weight in your hips and thighs, you’re a pear shape.
  2. If your chest and shoulders are wider than your hips, you’re an inverted triangle.
  3. If your hips, shoulders, and waist are about the same size, you’re a rectangle.
  4. If you are fuller up top and slimmer in your lower body, you’re an apple.
  5. Tiny waist and kickin’ curves? That’s an hourglass.
Person measures waistline to represent dressing for your body type.
Source: Envato.

Can’t figure it out? Try this: Measure your shoulders, bust, waist, and hips. Compare the numbers for an objective view of where you are largest and smallest. Diagram your measurements roughly on paper and draw a pear, triangle, rectangle, circle, and hourglass over that diagram in different colors. One shape will reveal itself as a match to your body.

You can also enlist a good friend to help. Since most of us have some kind of body hangup, you may need an objective opinion — even with the measurements and diagram.

2. Dress for visual balance

Once you know your shape, you can choose garments that balance your problem areas and highlight your best features. Here are the guidelines:

  • Pear: choose garments that draw the eye to your upper body
  • Inverted Triangle: balance your shoulders with clothes that accentuate your hips
  • Rectangle: aim to highlight the thinness of your waist, or to add volume to your bust and hips
  • Apple: pick clothes that emphasize your shoulders and legs
  • Hourglass: the most flattering garments will highlight your waist

Before you can implement these guidelines, it helps to know which garment features draw attention and which do not, yes? So…

  • Ruffles, embellishments, pleats, and similar features attract the eye and add volume. Limit these elements to the parts of your body you want to accentuate. You can also use the features to counterbalance body parts you feel are too large relative to the rest of you. So if you have wide hips and a small bust, double-down on ruffle tops.
  • V-necklines draw the eye and detract from broad shoulders.
  • Patterns and bright colors also attract attention. Wear these as you would ruffles and embellishments.
  • Dark, solid colors are slimming.
  • Belts accentuate the waist.

Now let’s provide some examples so you can put these dressing for your body type guidelines into practice:

  • If you’re heavier on top, avoid fluttery, baggy, or bulky tops. Opt for sleeker pieces. Also skip the square-cut, boxy blazers in favor of longer, slimmer cardigans.
  • If you’re a rectangle with a nonexistent waistline, don’t wear bodycon. A super-tight dress isn’t your best option. Try a wrap dress or fit and flare dress that gives the impression of a waist with a belt and fuller skirt.
  • If you’re pear-shaped, balance wider-leg pants or A-line skirts with a fitted top.
  • If you’re apple-shaped, don’t wear pieces with low belts. Stick with empire waists with draw the eye up or asymmetrical hem dresses, which draw the eye down.

Remember, too, that proportionality applies to how you put outfits together. Rocking the skinny jeans? Then go for a longer, more flowing top. Or if you’re wearing a full, retro circle skirt, choose a sleeker, tucked-in top.

3. Tailor

Off-the-rack clothing doesn’t fit each body perfectly. Tailoring is the solution.

Say you need a large pants size through the hips, but you have a small waist. Buy the pants that fit your hips and have your tailor take in the waistband. If you’re short-waisted, have your shirt hemlines shortened so they fall in the right place.

Note that tailoring can be an important factor in an item’s cost per wear — in more ways than one. Of course, tailoring increases the cost of an item. But it also increases the garment’s utility. When you wear that piece more, the cost per wear goes down.

In less mathematical terms, it’s better to have three pairs of pants that fit perfectly vs. a whole closet of ill-fitting trousers.

Dressing for your body type

Knowing how to dress for your body type makes shopping and dressing easier. It also saves you money, boosts your confidence, and helps you develop your own unique style. But most of all, you’ll love the way you look — and your friends and family will too.

Tracey

Wednesday 12th of October 2011

Understood. I was just excited to see the tips and wasn't sure that I fit into the categories listed. I just don't want to make any fashion faux pas! Good tips though!

Tracey

Tuesday 11th of October 2011

So there are only 3 body types? What about people who look round? What about an hourglass shape? Are those shapes suppose to fit into the 3 mentioned? If so, where do we fit?

TBF

Tuesday 11th of October 2011

Hey Tracey- This is about the THREE TIPS for dressing for your body shape, not the TOP 3 Body Shapes. :)

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