Do you have that one outfit in your closet that you love to wear and when you wear it you get tons of complements and your confidence skyrockets? Most people do. The problem is you have no idea how to replicate it.
Keep reading because I know a way for you to have a closet full of clothes that you feel great in and love to wear.
I have created what I call the Five Body Element System which helps you figure out what clothes and accessories look best on your body. This system takes clues from your body and as a result you know what clothes and accessories will enhance it. You see by looking at five different body elements that you can determine what clothing fundamentals flatter your body.
The clothing fundamentals are:
- Clothes and accessories’ silhouettes
- Inside lines (shape of collar, pockets, cuffs, and prints, to name a few)
- Color and color combinations
- Placement of horizontal lines
- Placement of vertical lines
- Scale of prints, accessories and design details
The five body elements are:
In this post you will receive an overview of each body element and the clues it gives. In future posts, you will learn more details about these body elements.
Body Shape
Understanding your body shape gives you clues as to:
- Silhouette (outside lines) of the clothing
- Placement of horizontal lines
- Placement of vertical lines
Body shape refers to your body silhouette. There are 2 categories of body shapes:
- Angular
- Curved
In each category there are 3 body shapes:
There are two categories because there are two clothing silhouettes. When you look at the silhouettes of the clothes they either show a definite waist or not. Usually curved clothes have a definite waist with vertical darts or princess lines that tuck in the waist. Sometimes knit fabrics are made with the waist taken in on the sides.
All other clothes are in the angular category. They can be rectangular looking or flowing, where the waist area is wider than the shoulders and the hip area is wider than the waist. One might think this flowy style would good on an A body type but it doesn’t because it accentuates the hips.
According to my system, you should wear clothes that match your body type. Body shapes A, S and X should wear curvy clothes silhouettes and H, V and O should wear angular clothes’ silhouettes.
Face Shape
As with the body shape there are two categories of face shapes:
- Angular
- Curved
There are four face shapes in each category:
- Angular
- Square — Forehead, cheeks and jawline appear to have the same width, and the width and length of the face are the same.
- Rectangle — Forehead, cheeks and jawline appear to have the same width, and the width of the face is much shorter than the length.
- Diamond — Cheeks are much wider than forehead, and jawline, and forehead and chin appear to go to a point.
- Triangle — Forehead is the widest part of the face while the cheeks are wider than the chin and the chin appears to go to a point.
- Curved
- Round — Jawline and hairline are rounded and wide, cheekbones are curved, and the length of the face is similar to the width of the cheekbones.
- Oval — Jawline and hairline are softly rounded, cheekbones are the widest part of the face, and the length of the face is longer than the width of the cheekbones.
- Heart — Forehead is narrow and softly rounded, cheeks are full, and chin is wide and softly rounded.
- Pear — Forehead is the widest part of the face,chin is narrow, and hairline is softly rounded and may have a widows peak.
Why is knowing your face shape important? Because it gives you clues as to the shape of inside style lines and accessories.
Examples of inside lines are:
- Pocket shape
- Collar shape
- Cuff shape
- Lapel shape
Color of Hair, Skin and Eyes
Much has been written about these areas. The colors of your hair, skin and eyes give you clues as to what colors and color combinations look best on your body. This is important because the right colors and color combinations will brighten your skin, hair and eyes making them and you look more alive. The wrong colors and color combinations can dull the skin, hair and eyes and make you appear unwell.
The color of skin, hair and eyes also give you the first of three clues as to the scale of accessories and prints. Scale relates to how big and heavy, small and delicate, or somewhere in between accessories and prints visually appear to be.
Body Proportion
Body proportion refers to the distance between:
- Top of head to chin
- Chin to bust
- Bust to waist
- Waist to crotch
- Crotch to knees
- Knees to floor
A well proportioned woman’s body is made up of 8 “head lengths”:
- 1 head — top of head to chin
- 1 head — chin to bust
- 1 head — bust to waist
- 1 head — waist to crotch
- 2 head — crotch to knees
- 2 head — knees to floor
Understanding your body proportion helps you understand the placement of horizontal and vertical lines. As you learned in previous posts (link to post horizontal lines, vertical lines), horizontal lines stop the eye and make spaces appear smaller while vertical lines move your eyes up and down and make spaces appear taller and thinner.
The important thing to remember is in areas where you are short and/or wide you want to avoid horizontal lines and place vertical lines if possible.
Body proportion is the second clue needed to choose the scale of accessories and prints.
Body Frame Size
Body frame size is the width of your body compared to your height. This body element gives you the third and last clue needed to choose the scale of accessories and prints.
Now you have an overview of the five body elements. If this blog has intrigued you about learning what your body elements are telling you and you want further detail, buy and download my workbook “Beauty Fashioned Simply — The Science of Dressing Impeccably.” (Click Here).
The workbook comes in pdf form so you can print it out and write in it. I have created exercises in every section so you can determine your body elements and what clues they are giving you.
You can also just keep reading the next set of posts, in which you will learn more about each body element.
In the comments below describe that one outfit you love to wear and would like to learn to duplicate.
Wear Your Greatness!!
