Monica loves wearing tops and pants, but isn’t sure how to analyze the design lines and colors to make sure they look good on her. She has a lot of them in her closet but doesn’t wear them; and she has no idea why.
Monica was shopping at Macy’s the other day and saw this Calvin Klein blouse and fell in love with it.
In this post you along with Monica will learn how this blouse works for her and doesn’t work for her. Also you’ll see alternatives to the blouse and pants.
This mannequin is wearing a Calvin Klein printed tie-neck blouse with leggings. (Macys.com: Calvin Klein Printed Tie-Neck Top, Web ID: 11842648; Calvin Klein Compression Skinny Leggings, Web ID: 1620941)
This post is divided into the five different Body Elements plus Scale Strategy:
- Body Shape
- Face Shape
- Color Skin, Hair and Eyes
- Body Proportion
- Body Frame Size
- Scale Strategy
Analyze Design Lines -- Body Shape
Body Shape gives you clues to the silhouette of the clothes and placement of horizontal and vertical lines. To review the different Body Shapes and the clues they give, go to What Are Your Body Shape Clues.
In the last post you learned that Monica has an O Body Shape. Her waist is wider than both her shoulders and hips.
Silhouette
Having an O Body Shape, Monica should look for clothes with angular silhouettes. She’s in luck because most clothes in the ready-to-wear market have an angular silhouette. This is true for the above outfit that she’s inspired by.
The one problem she’ll encounter is fit around the shoulders and hips. For the blouse to fit around her waist the shoulders and hips might be too big. There are blouse styles that are flowy and work well with a larger waist. Here are a few examples:
Leggings are popular right now. These Calvin Klein leggings have an angular silhouette. One great thing about leggings is the elastic waist, which can fit many waistlines. One thing Monica should consider is the difference between her waist and legs. If there’s a big difference, her waist might appear to be even wider. She’ll need to try them on to determine that.
One alternative is slim leg pants. She’ll get the skinny look but not as severe. Another alternative is straight leg pants. Straight leg pants fall straight down about 2-3 inches above the knees to the hemline creating a little bit of width. All of these alternatives give the illusion of width at the legs, creating balance for her body shape.
These are a few alternatives:
Pant Fit
Because Monica has an O Body Shape she’ll have problems with fit around her hips and legs. To get pants to fit around her waist she has to go up a size resulting in the hip and leg areas being too big. This is why she gravitated to leggings. The Calvin Klein High Rise Straight Leg Compression Pants do have an elastic waistband so this pant might be perfect for her.
As a result, most likely, she’ll need to have the pants altered in these areas. Yes it costs extra. But Monica will find out that the extra cost is well worth it because of her added confidence and personal power.
Horizontal Lines
This blouse has horizontal lines at the:
- Neck — Collar
- Mid-hip and hip — Sleeve cuff
- Hip — Hem
These are perfect placements for an O Body Shape. They take the focus away from the waist area and balance out the whole silhouette.
Because Monica tends to wear her blouses untucked, the horizontal line created by the pant waistband is hidden. This is perfect for Monica. By wearing her blouses out, the hems move the horizontal lines to a better place.
Vertical Lines
There are two vertical lines:
- Center front opening
- Raglan sleeves
Both of these lines are in the shoulder area which causes the shoulders to appear less wide. With the waist being the widest area, this can cause the silhouette to appear out of proportion. These vertical lines might not be the best for Monica’s O Body Shape.
The pants don’t have any vertical lines that affect her body shape.
Analyze Design Lines -- Face Shape
Face Shape gives you clues as to the shape of:
- Inside design line details
- Prints
- Accessories
To review the different Face Shapes and the clues they give, go to How To Keep Your Feet From Resembling Olive Oyl’s Feet.
Monica has a round Face Shape. This means her best design line shape is curved, so collars, pockets, cuffs and prints should all be curved.
The ruffle collar has an angular feel and the flower print has a curved feel. Even though the collar is angular, it doesn’t mean this blouse should not be considered. It’s hard to get all the right design lines and colors for your body. Monica should look at all of them together to determine if the blouse is right for her.
Analyze Design Lines For Color Skin, Hair And Eyes
The color of your skin, hair and eyes give you clues to:
- Colors
- Color combinations
- The scale of prints and accessories
There are four posts explaining this Body Element and the clues it gives you. To review them go to:
Monica has black hair, medium tone skin and medium brown eyes. Her favorite colors are green, yellow and red/orange with more orange than red. Of these colors red/orange is her power color. Every time she wears it, she feels like she can conquer her world.
Monica’s Color Contrast Profile is medium.
Favorite Colors
Monica’s favorite colors of orange/red and green are in this print. In fact the largest flowers are various colors of orange/red which is great because it’s her power color.
She favors black as a neutral color. The black leggings are perfect for her.
Color Combinations
Monica’s Color Contrast Profile is medium. This means her coloring becomes brighter when there is a medium amount of contrast.
Having a Color Contrast Profile of medium, the colors in this print are perfect for her. The color combination is mostly triadic and the relative lightness and darkness is also medium. No wonder Monica was attracted to this blouse.
Scale
Monica’s Color Contrast Profile is medium, which translates into a medium scale clue. To discuss the scale of the blouse print, go to the Scale Strategy section below.
What To Wear -- Body Proportion
The clues Body Proportion give you are:
- Placement of horizontal and vertical lines
- The second clue to the scale of prints and accessories
To review Body Proportion and the clues it gives you, go to Body Proportions — Out Of Balance?
Monica’s Body Proportions are:
- Chin to bust — Same
- Bust to waist — Long
- Waist to crotch — Long
- Crotch to Knees — Short
- Knees to floor — Short
- Torso — Long
- Legs — Short
Horizontal Lines
The horizontal line created by the collar is perfect for Monica’s Body Proportions. She’s the same between her chin and bust.
The same goes for the horizontal lines created by the sleeve cuffs and hem of the blouse. They lay in the hip area and Monica is long between her waist and crotch. These lines help decrease the visual appearance of a long torso.
The pant hem creates a vertical line around Monica’s ankles. This works OK for her but if the hem was just above the floor that would be better. Wearing heels with the pants almost hitting the floor would be even better.
Because her legs are shorter than her torso, wearing a longer pant would create visual length. Monica should consider wearing a long straight leg pant to create visual length in her legs.
Vertical Lines
The two vertical lines, center front opening and raglan sleeves, work for Monica’s body proportions. She’s the same between her chin and bust.
The pant legs create vertical lines. If Monica wore longer pant legs as mentioned above, it would create even longer vertical lines.
Scale
The scale clues from Monica’s Body Proportions are:
- Chin to Bust — Same
- Bust to Waist — Increase
- Waist to Crotch — Increase
- Crotch to Knees — Decrease
- Knees to Floor — Decrease
- Torso — Increase
- Legs — Decrease
To discuss the scale of the blouse print, go to the Scale Strategy section below.
Analyze Design Lines -- Body Frame Size
Body Frame Size gives you the third clue for scale of prints and accessories. To review this Body Element and the clues it gives you, go to Body Frame Size — Bone Size Clue.
Monica’s Body Frame Size is large resulting with a scale clue of large.
To learn whether the scale of the blouse print is right for Monica, go to the section below.
Analyze Design Lines -- Scale Strategy
Scale Strategy is determined by bringing together the scale clues from:
- Color Skin, Hair and Eyes
- Body Proportion
- Body Frame Size
To review or determine your Scale Strategy, go to Scale Strategy — Bringing It Together.
Monica’s scale clues are:
- Color Skin, Hair and Eyes — Medium
- Body Proportion
- Chin to bust — Same
- Bust to waist — Increase
- Waist to crotch — Increase
- Crotch to knees — Decrease
- Knees to floor — Decrease
- Body Frame Size — Large
Monica’s overall Scale Strategy is medium/large:
- Medium — Color of Skin, Hair and Eyes
- Large — Body Frame Size
With respect to her body proportions, this overall Scale Strategy is adjusted:
- Chin to Bust — Same
- Bust to Waist — Increase
- Waist to Crotch — Increase
- Crotch to Knees — Decrease
- Knees to Floor — Decrease
- Torso — Increase
- Legs — Decrease
Her overall Scale Strategy for her torso would be large because she increases her medium/large Scale Strategy to large because she has a long torso.
The scale of the print is also large so this print works for Monica.
Analyze Design Lines -- Summary
Blouse
There are so many aspects of this blouse that work for Monica and just a few that don’t. These aspects are:
- Raglan sleeves — vertical lines that make the shoulders appear smaller and the waist appear wider
- Ruffle collar — the shape is angular instead of curved, matching her face
- Fit around the waist — because Monica is widest around her waist and the blouse appears to have the same width around the bust as the waist, it’s hard to tell if there is enough room at the waist
Monica should try on this blouse to make sure it fits around her waist and to make sure the design lines don’t detract too much from the overall look. She’ll consider how she feels when she puts it on. Does she feel light, heavy or indifferent? If she feels light, she should definitely purchase it. However, if she feels heavy or indifferent, I recommend that she put it back on the rack and let someone else buy it who feels light in it.
Leggings
The leggings are OK for Monica. The color is one of her favorite neutrals. Leggings are okay for her because they create vertical lines. However a slim or straight leg pair of pants would be even better for her because they would give her legs visual width creating balance with her wider waist.
The length is Ok. With her having shorter legs than her torso, a longer pant would be better. This being the case a straight leg pant would be even better.
All in all, this outfit is okay. If Monica loves this blouse, she should find different pants. Pairing long straight legged pants with the blouse would create an even better outfit. She’ll find that by choosing the right pants, she’ll add confidence and personal power.
Monica is on the lookout for everyday casual clothes. She needs to find a pair of jeans she loves to wear and a top to go with it. The next blog post is called, Analyze Design Lines — Jeans And A Top.
Wear Your Greatness!!
