Body Proportions

Body Proportions — The Girls

The fourth Body Element is Body Proportions. It’s one most women don’t know about let alone the clues it gives. When the clues it gives are translated correctly it’s a game changer in helping them tap into their confidence and personal power.

However, balancing the clues it gives can create dilemmas when considering other Body Element clues. Several of the Girls have to deal with these dilemmas.

Body Proportions

Body Proportion

To determine your Body Proportions, compare the lengths of different areas of your body with that of a well-proportioned body at your same height. The areas you’re comparing are:

  • Top of head to chin
  • Chin to bust
  • Bust to Waist
  • Waist to crotch
  • Crotch to knees
  • Knees to floor

Next, determine if these areas are:

  • Same
  • Long
  • Short

To learn more about determining your Body Proportions read Body Proportions — Out Of Balance?

Body Proportions -- Design Line Clues

The design line clues Body Proportions give you are:

  • Placement of horizontal and vertical lines
  • Scale of prints and accessories

Placement Of Horizontal Lines

Horizontal Lines

The Girls learned that horizontal lines stop the eyes, emphasize that area and make it appear wider and shorter when learning about their Body Shapes. When it comes to Body Proportions, horizontal lines can make a long area appear shorter and in balance with the rest of the body. In contrast, placing it in a short area makes that area look even shorter and more out of balance.

Equally important when considering the placement of horizontal lines for her Body Proportions, she needs to have an eye on horizontal line placement for her Body Shape. This can be a difficult thing to do when an area is short but it’s the best place to put a horizontal line for her Body Shape. The same goes for a long area when her Body Shape clue says: no horizontal lines.

Placement Of Vertical Lines

Vertical Lines

When learning the clues their Body Shapes give them, the Girls learned that vertical lines move their eyes up and down, making that area look thinner and taller. The importance of vertical lines with respect to Body Proportions is that it can make short areas appear longer creating balance with the rest of the body.

Just like the placement of horizontal lines, the Girls need to consider their Body Shape clues when placing vertical lines. They have to balance the tricky issue if their Body Proportion is short and they want to place a vertical line there, but their Body Shape clue says no vertical lines. The same goes for when their Body Proportion is long and they don’t want to place a vertical line there, but their Body Shape clue wants a vertical line.

Scale Of Prints & Accessories

Body Proportions give clues to determine the scale of prints and accessories within the different areas of the Girls’ bodies. If a body area is the same, the overall scale stays the same. However, if it’s short the scale for that area decreases; conversely, when the area is long, the scale of a print and/or accessory increases.

Body Proportions -- Sam

Body Proportions Same

Sam’s Body Proportions are:

  • Top of head to chin — Same
  • Chin to bust — Short
  • Bust to waist — Same
  • Waist to crotch — Long
  • Crotch to Knees — Same
  • Knees to floor — Same
  • Torso — Same
  • Legs — Same

Placement Of Horizontal Lines

Sam will need to watch for horizontal lines between her chin and bust because she is short in this area. These horizontal lines can come in the form of necklines, plackets, scarves, and necklaces. These lines will make this area appear shorter making it appear more out of balance.

However horizontal lines placed between her waist and crotch are perfect because this area needs to appear shorter. These lines can be created by hems, waistbands, belts and seamlines.

In all the other areas Sam is free to place horizontal lines or not.

Sam is lucky in the placement of horizontal lines when it comes to her Body Shape. In the Body Shape section she learned that her H Body Shape allows her to wear any placement of horizontal lines. All she needs to be concerned with is making sure the placement is right for her Body Proportions.

Placement Of Vertical Lines

Placing vertical lines between her chin and bust is perfect for Sam. These lines will make this area appear longer and more in balance with the rest of her body. She can find them in the form of necklines, raglan sleeves, necklaces and scarves.

Sam needs to be aware of vertical lines between her waist and crotch because she is long in this area. It can be hard to avoid them because openings and/or seam lines allow the clothes to be put on and taken off easily. For example, the center front opening of a shirt. Also pants are created with seam lines in the center front and center back. To combat this problem she can put  horizontal lines between her waist and crotch, for example a patch pocket or top hemline.

Her H Body Shape gives Sam freedom in placing vertical lines allowing her to concentrate on placing them for her Body Proportions.

Scale Of Prints & Accessories

The scale clues for Body Proportion are:

  • Top of head to chin — Same
  • Chin to bust — Decrease
  • Bust to waist — Same
  • Waist to crotch — Increase
  • Crotch to Knees — Same
  • Knees to floor — Same
  • Torso — Same
  • Legs — Same

When considering what necklaces Sam will wear, she’ll need to decrease the scale when solely worn between her chin and bust because she’s short in this area. However when considering the scale of belts and handbags which land between her waist and crotch, she can increase the scale. In all other Body Proportion places the scale will stay the same.

Body Proportions -- Monica

Body Proportions Monica

Monica’s Body Proportions are:

  • Top of head to chin — Same
  • Chin to bust — Same
  • Bust to waist — Long
  • Waist to crotch — Long
  • Crotch to Knees — Short
  • Knees to floor — Short
  • Torso — Long
  • Legs — Short

Placement Of Horizontal Lines

When considering her Body Proportions, Monica should place horizontal lines between her bust and waist, and waist and crotch. Placing them there will make these areas appear shorter.

However, Monica has a dilemma: because she has an O Body Shape placing horizontal lines for her Body Proportion is difficult. She’s long between her bust and crotch, but the widest part of her body is at her waist. She’ll need to be strategic in placing horizontal lines. The best places would be just below her bust and at her hips about 2 inches above her crotch.

When wearing pants Monica should also consider avoiding these lines between her crotch and  the floor because she’s short in these areas. Shorts or capris or ankle pants will only make her legs look even shorter. It’s not as big of a problem for her when wearing a dress or skirt because it’s hard to tell where the crotch begins.

Placement Of Vertical Lines

In order to make her legs appear longer Monica can place vertical lines in this area. Full length pants create vertical lines. If she pressed center front and back creases into her pants, she would create vertical lines. Also by wearing heels and allowing the pant length to go close to the floor, she can create visual length.

Scale Of Prints & Accessories

The scale clues for Body Proportion are:

  • Top of head to chin — Same
  • Chin to bust — Same
  • Bust to waist — Increase
  • Waist to crotch — Increase
  • Crotch to Knees — Decrease
  • Knees to floor — Decrease
  • Torso — Increase
  • Legs — Decrease

Monica can increase the scale of prints and accessories between her bust and crotch. However, she needs to be aware if any create horizontal lines at her waist. For example, the top of a handbag shouldn’t start at her waist.

She’ll decrease the scale of prints and accessories between her crotch and the floor. This means she’ll need to decrease the scale of her shoes and pant prints.

Body Proportions -- Alice

Body Proportions Alice

Alice’s Body Proportions are:

  • Top of head to chin — Same
  • Chin to bust — Long
  • Bust to waist — Same
  • Waist to crotch — Short
  • Crotch to Knees — Same
  • Knees to floor — Same
  • Torso — Same
  • Legs — Same

Placement Of Horizontal Lines

Just based on Alice’s Body Proportions, she should place horizontal lines between her chin and bust and avoid them between her waist and crotch. However, she has a V Body Shape and horizontal lines would make her wide shoulders look even wider but placing them in her hip area would make this area appear wider, creating balance. This is the dilemma for Alice just like Monica. One thing in Alice’s favor is that the proportions between her torso and legs are the same.

A tactic she can use is to create strong horizontal lines at her waist (by using a belt or seam line) and place the hems of tops below her crotch. Because the length between her torso and legs are the same she can easily place horizontal lines in her leg area.

Alice can also use a necklace to create a horizontal line between her chin and bust. It would create a short horizontal line. She’ll have to experiment with this tactic to see if it works for her, and if it does, which necklace works best.

Placement Of Vertical Lines

Alice has the same dilemma with vertical lines. She’s short between her waist and crotch. Vertical lines will create length in this area. Because of her “V” Body Shape, vertical lines in this area will make it appear even slimmer making her shoulders appear even wider. Therefore, she needs to be strategic when it comes to vertical lines in this area as well.

In contrast, Alice’s Body Shape clues tell her to place vertical lines in her shoulder area to make them appear slimmer. However placing them there makes her long proportions, between her chin and bust appear even longer. Normally a raglan sleeve would be a great option for her. In this case it would only emphasize the long length in this area.

A tactic Alice can use is to take advantage of the eye up and down effect of vertical lines. At her shoulder area, she can place a vertical line which makes the area appear thinner and quickly moves the eye down out of this area to a strong horizontal line at the waist. Alice can use the center front line (opening or seam line), princess lines starting at the shoulders or a long scarf which ends at the waist.

Scale Of Prints & Accessories

The scale clues for Body Proportion are:

  • Top of head to chin — Same
  • Chin to bust — Increase
  • Bust to waist — Same
  • Waist to crotch — Decrease
  • Crotch to Knees — Same
  • Knees to floor — Same
  • Torso — Same
  • Legs — Same

Based on this Body Proportion clue, Alice should increase the scale of her necklaces between her chin and bust and decrease the scale of handbags that land between her waist and crotch. Because she could increase the scale of prints between her chin and bust and decrease it between her waist and crotch, she should also experiment with the best overall print size to enhance her natural beauty to determine which scale size adds to her confidence and personal power.

Body Proportions -- Grace

Body Proportions Grace

Grace’s Body Proportions are:

  • Top of head to chin — Same
  • Chin to bust — Same
  • Bust to waist — Short
  • Waist to crotch — Long
  • Crotch to Knees — Same
  • Knees to floor — Short
  • Torso — Long
  • Legs — Short

Placement Of Horizontal Lines

Grace’s Body Proportion clue for horizontal line placement tells her to place them between her waist and crotch and the worst places are from her bust to waist and knees to floor. This is doable for Grace as long as they’re not at her hips because with her A Body Shape horizontal lines in this area will make them appear even wider. The best places are at her belly button (about 2 inches below her natural waist) or 2 inches above her hips. Either horizontal line will create length between her bust and waist, and shorten the area between her waist and crotch.

Grace is lucky her Body Shape and Body Proportions don’t clash like Monica and Alice’s do.

Because she’s short between her knees and the floor and her torso in general is longer than her legs, Grace will need to avoid capris because her legs will appear even shorter. In the summer when it’s hot she can wear a straight long leg flowy fabric, like linen, to create comfort. Also she can wear dresses or skirts because they hide the length of her torso. The hem should be between her crotch and knees.

Placement Of Vertical Lines

Grace can easily use vertical lines to her advantage to create length between her bust and waist. She can use accessories like scarfs and cross-body handbags to create them. Another way she creates vertical lines in this area is to use darts or princess seam that begin at mid arm as long as the hems of tops and jackets don’t land at the hips. This way she can add length between her bust and waist and shorten the length between her waist and crotch.

Creating visual length to her legs can be as easy as pressing in center front and back creases into the legs of pants. She can also look for pants with center front and back seam lines. Another way to create leg length is to wear heals so that the hem of the pants covers the shoes.

Scale Of Prints & Accessories

The scale clues for Body Proportion are:

  • Top of head to chin — Same
  • Chin to bust — Same
  • Bust to waist — Decrease
  • Waist to crotch — Increase
  • Crotch to Knees — Same
  • Knees to floor — Decrease
  • Torso — Same
  • Legs — Decrease

Creating visual length to her legs can be as easy as pressing in center front and back creases into the legs of pants. She can also look for pants with center front and back seam lines. Another way to create leg length is to wear heals so that the hem of the pants covers the shoes.

Body Proportions -- Veronica

Veronica’s Body Proportions are:

  • Top of head to chin — Same
  • Chin to bust — Same
  • Bust to waist — Short
  • Waist to crotch — Short
  • Crotch to Knees — Long
  • Knees to floor — Long
  • Torso — Short
  • Legs — Long

Placement Of Horizontal Lines

Veronica is lucky like Sam because her X Body Shape gives her more freedom with the placement of horizontal lines. However because she is short from her bust to waist and waist to crotch she should avoid horizontal lines in these areas. In fact because her torso is shorter than her legs, she should limit or avoid horizontal lines in this area.

For Veronica the best placements for horizontal lines are in her leg area. Monica and Grace don’t have this luxury. Veronica’s Body Proportions are ideal for shorts and capris. Other types of pants include cargo pants with all the patch pockets creating horizontal lines.

Placement Of Vertical Lines

Placement of vertical lines between Veronica’s bust to crotch area is ideal for her to create length. She can do this through center front openings, princess lines, scarves, long necklaces and crossbody handbag straps.

To keep her legs from appearing even longer, Veronica wants to avoid vertical lines in this area. They can be created by center front and/or back seam and crease lines.

Scale Of Prints & Accessories

The scale clues for Body Proportion are:

  • Top of head to chin — Same
  • Chin to bust — Same
  • Bust to waist — Decrease
  • Waist to crotch — Decrease
  • Crotch to Knees — Increase
  • Knees to floor — Increase
  • Torso — Decrease
  • Legs — Increase

Veronica should decrease the scale of prints and accessories she wears on top and increase them on ones she wears on the bottom. For example, she is a great candidate for increasing the scale of shoes she wears.

Summary

As Alice and Monica found out, placing horizontal and vertical lines for their Body Proportions isn’t always easy when the placement clashes with their Body Shape clues. They’ll have to experiment to figure out what works for them so they can feel like they can conquer their world.

For all the Girls, the important next step is to be able to identify all the horizontal and vertical lines in any outfit. There are many hidden ones. They can practice by looking at what others are wearing (without judgement because most women don’t understand these concepts) to determine if the overall look is balanced or out of balance based on the placement of the horizontal and vertical lines.

In the next blog post the Girls will learn about the last Body Element, Body Frame Size, and the clue it gives them. This blog post is called, Body Frame Size — The Girls.

Wear Your Greatness!!

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