Veronica has been looking forward to learning how to analyze her favorite outfit. In fact, she has three favorite outfits. She’s known that clothes change how she feels for a long time. Whenever she wears her favorite yellow, she feels more cheerful. When wearing her favorite violet, she feels like she can connect to people better. Finally, wearing her favorite red brings out the leader in her. Her goal is to expand her closet so she can have outfits with more of these colors. Her problem has been in determining her best design lines to bring her body into proportion: her legs are way longer than her torso.
Let’s see Veronica learn about which design lines enhance her natural beauty and help her tap into her confidence and personal power even further
Veronica’s Body Elements
Veronica learned the clues that her Body Elements give her when determining which design lines and colors enhance her natural beauty and help her tap into her confidence and personal power. By understanding these clues her perspective on clothes has totally changed. Her Body Element clues are:
- Body Shape — X (Body Shape — The Girls)
- Curved clothes silhouette
- Can place horizontal and vertical lines almost anywhere when considering Body Shape
- Face Shape — Heart (Face Shape — The Girls)
- Curved design lines, prints and accessories
- Color Skin, Hair, Eyes — Low Color Contrast (Color Skin, Hair & Eyes — The Girls)
- Favorite Colors — Yellow, Violet, Red
- Color Combinations (other colors) — Analogous
- Color Combinations (relative lightness and darkness) — Low contrast
- First Scale Clue — Small
- Body Proportions — Short between bust/waist and waist/crotch, long between crotch/knees and knees/floor (Body Proportions — The Girls)
- Horizontal lines — Place them between her crotch/knees and knees/floor; don’t place them between her bust/waist and waist/crotch
- Vertical lines — Place them between her bust/waist and waist/crotch; don’t place them between her crotch/knees and knees/floor
- Second Scale Clue — Decrease overall scale between bust/waist and waist/crotch; increase it between crotch/knees and knees/floor
- Body Frame Size — Medium (Body Frame Size — The Girls)
- Third scale clue — Medium
- Scale Strategy — Small/Medium (Scale Strategy — The Girls)
- Decrease scale to small between her bust/waist and waist/crotch
- Increase to medium between her crotch/knees and knees/floor
Analyze Favorite Outfit -- Favorite Outfit
Veronica has three favorite outfits. Each one representing her favorite color:
- Red — Dress
- Violet — Pant/Blouse combination
- Yellow — Skirt/Blouse/Jacket combination
The best outfit to analyze is the yellow one because it has a variety of design lines.
Analyze Favorite Outfit -- Jacket
Veronica loves wearing this yellow jacket. She feels happy and cheerful every time she wears it. She likes wearing it on days she knows she has a lot of work to get done. It helps her keep going even when her energy runs out. Veronica works for a small startup company and she wears a lot of different “hats” in regard to her work.
She’s tried to duplicate this jacket in other colors but hasn’t been able to find a similar jacket. There’s always something wrong with anything she finds but she hasn’t figured out what it is.
Analyze Favorite Outfits -- Design Line & Color
This jacket’s design lines and color reflect Veronica’s body clues perfectly. It’s one of her favorite colors and she always feels better when wearing it.
The jacket’s silhouette matches her curvy X Body Shape. With this Body Shape she can wear any horizontal or vertical line placement. She’ll need to refer to her Body Proportions for their placement.
Veronica has a short torso and long legs. As a result, she wants to place vertical lines in the torso area and horizontal lines in the leg area. This jacket does just that. The princess lines, lapels and center front opening create vertical lines which give the illusion that her torso is longer. The hem of the jacket is placed in the upper thigh area, which does two things. First, it gives the illusion that her torso is longer and second, her legs appear shorter. As a result, the balance between her torso and legs appears to be equal.
The jacket has a shawl lapel which has curved design lines. Veronica’s face shape is heart which is in the curved category. As a result, the design lines the lapels create are perfect for her.
Analyze Favorite Outfit -- Blouse
Veronica loves wearing this green top with her yellow jacket. Somehow they seem to go together. Whenever she wears something yellow she always matches it with this green. It’s comfortable and she can wear it all day without feeling restricted by it. She has yellow and green print pants she also wears with this top. It’s a great basic top.
Analyze Favorite Outfits -- Design Line & Color
They’re several reasons why Veronica loves this top. First the color is yellow/green which is next to her favorite yellow on the color wheel. These two colors together create part of an analogous color scheme: yellow/orange, yellow, yellow/green. This is the best color scheme for her given her low contrast color profile.
The top is made out of a rayon knit fabric which naturally follows her curved silhouette. The neckline is scooped, which is perfect for her curved face shape.
She wears the hem out creating a horizontal line at her hips. This horizontal line helps create the illusion that she has a longer torso. Her instinct to wear the hem out is perfect.
One thing this top doesn’t have is vertical lines, which will help her torso look longer. All in all, this is a perfect top for her to wear under a jacket.
Analyze Favorite Outfit -- Skirt
Veronica loves this skirt mostly because of the flared hem. She loves the way it moves when she walks. The yellow/green color matches her top and goes well with her favorite jacket.
Analyze Favorite Outfits -- Design Line & Color
The design lines in this skirt are perfect for Veronica. The curvy silhouette matches her body shape. The flared hem skirt creates two horizontal lines: one where the flare is sewn to the skirt and also the hemline itself. These lines create the illusion that her legs are more balanced with her torso. Finally the flare creates a curvy hemline which matches her face shape.
The yellow/green color of the skirt is next door to her favorite color yellow on the color wheel. Both colors together create a monochromatic color scheme which is perfect for her low contrast color profile.
Summary
Each piece of clothing has great design lines and colors that are perfect for Veronica. All three put together makes the perfect overall combination to create balance between her torso and legs.
Here are a few suggestions about how Veronica can duplicate each piece of clothing so she can create a closet full of clothes she loves to wear.
Jacket
There are four design lines Veronica should look for when looking for jackets. First, it should have strong vertical lines in the torso area. These lines can come in the forms of princess lines, darts, center front openings or lapels.There are four design lines Veronica should look for when looking for jackets. First, it should have strong vertical lines in the torso area. These lines can come in the forms of princess lines, darts, center front openings or lapels.
Second, the silhouette of the jacket should be curvy to match her curvy Body Shape. The princess lines and darts will help in creating this silhouette.
Third, the hem should be below the crotch. This will create length in the torso and more importantly shorten the length of her legs. Veronica can easily wear duster jackets, cardigans or toppers. If they happen to have an angular silhouette she can have them altered by putting in darts to create a curved silhouette which also creates a vertical line in her torso area.
Finally the shape of the neckline and/or lapels should have a curved shape.
These are some jacket options for Veronica:
Top
This top is a great top to wear under a jacket. When wearing it by itself, the top doesn’t have vertical lines which Veronica needs to create length in her torso. However, most tops/blouses have an angular silhouette so she can have darts sewn in to create a curved silhouette which also creates vertical lines.
Another way to create vertical lines is through print patterns, ruffles or wearing a long scarf or long sleeves. Wearing a long sleeve top under a jacket will give Veronica the freedom to take off her jacket.
One thing Veronica should remember, because she has a short torso, is that the hems of many tops/blouses will lay longer on her body. She’ll need to try them on to determine the placement of the horizontal line. These are some examples:
Skirt
The main design line Veronica should look for in skirts is multiple horizontal lines. These can be created in various ways. Here are a few examples:
One design line element problem she’ll come across is the silhouette of the skirt. Most skirts are designed for an angular Body Shape. This means the skirt will be too big around her waist if the hips fit perfectly. This is an easy fix. She can easily have the skirt altered so that the waist fits.
Final Thoughts
By understanding the placement of horizontal and vertical lines, Veronica will have an easier time duplicating her favorite outfits. She just needs to look for tops that have at least one vertical line and for bottoms that have at least one horizontal line. Put together, they’ll create balance.
In the last five posts, I made comments that Sam, Monica, Alice, Grace and Veronica might need to have clothes altered to fit and match their body clues. This is a concept foreign to many and begs the question, “How does one find a tailor/seamstress.” This question will be answered in next week’s blog post: How To Find A Tailor/Seamstress.
Wear Your Greatness!!
