Alice was apprehensive about shopping for “my style,” especially on her own. The only time she goes shopping is with her friends: Sam, Monica, Grace and Veronica. She’s not sure if she’ll find an outfit to wear out with her friends; however, she’s willing to test her new skills of seeing design lines and colors on outfits and determining if they work for her.
Alice was amazed that she actually found an outfit she loves to wear.
Alice’s Body Elements
As a review, these are Alice’s Body Element clues:
- Body Shape — V (Body Shape — The Girls)
- Angular clothes silhouette
- Horizontal lines — Place them at her waist and hips, and avoid placing them at her shoulders
- Vertical lines — Place them between her chin and bust, and avoid placing them at her waist and hips
- Face Shape — Rectangle (Face Shape — The Girls)
- Angular design lines, prints and accessories
- Color Skin, Hair, Eyes — Low Color Contrast (Color Skin, Hair & Eyes — The Girls)
- Favorite Colors — Olive Green, Coral, Violet
- Color Combinations (other colors) — Analogous
- Color Combinations (relative lightness and darkness) — Low contrast
- First Scale Clue — Small
- Body Proportions — Short between chin/bust, Long between waist/crotch (Body Proportions — The Girls)
- Horizontal lines — Place them between her waist/crotch, and don’t place them between her chin/bust
- Vertical lines — Place them between her chin/bust, and limit them between her waist/crotch
- Second Scale Clue — Decrease overall scale between chin/bust and increase it between waist/crotch
- 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 chin/bust
- Increase to medium between her waist/crotch
Shopping For “My Style” -- Alice’s Style
Alice has no idea what her style is. In the past, she shopped for basic clothes because that’s all she knew how to buy. She was afraid of prints, and a lot of different design lines because nothing ever looked right. Most of the time, Alice only shopped with her friends and they encouraged her to buy different things.
Now that she understands which design lines and colors work well with her body, she’s starting to see clothes in a whole new light. This will allow her to start thinking about determining “her style.”
Shopping For “My Style” -- Dress
(Tommy Hilfiger Halter Neck Chiffon Dress, UPC 195105313411(available only in stores))
When Alice went shopping for “my style” to find an outfit for an outing with her friends, she thought she’d look for a top and pants. Now that she understands which design lines on tops and pants work best for her, she figured that she could start acquiring more of them. But when she saw this dress hanging on the aisle of the Macy’s store in Roseville, California, she knew she had to have it. It was one of her favorite colors and she loved the flowy look of it, the high/low hem and the ruffle around the hem.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Over the last 9 months, Alice has learned that her Body Shape gives her the clue to determining the silhouette of clothes. She also learned that Body Shapes fall into two categories: angular and curved and clothes have the same two categories. Alice has a V Body Shape which falls into the angular category. This means she needs to look for clothes in which the shoulders, waist and hips appear to have the same width.
When Alice inspected this dress, she determined that the shoulders and waist appear to have the same width. She noted that the skirt was designed to be full, which attached her to the dress. She believes the silhouette is perfect for her Body Shape.
Horizontal Lines
Alice now knows horizontal lines stop your eye, emphasize that area and make it appear wider and shorter. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her the clues as to the placement of these lines. For both her Body Shape and Body Proportions, Alice wants to avoid horizontal lines between her chin and bust. Body Shape-wise, horizontal lines will make her shoulders appear even wider. Body Proportions-wise, she’s short in this area and these lines will make the area appear even shorter.
Alice counted four horizontal lines: neck band, belt at the waist, top of the ruffle mid-thigh and hem mid-calf. She knows the only horizontal line that poses a problem is the neck band. Even though it doesn’t go across Alice’s shoulders it does bring attention to this area. She learned that she can change the focus by wearing a necklace that brings the eye down to another area. Also the halter neckline makes the shoulders less noticeable. (You’ll read more about this in the section below.) The horizontal lines at the waist, mid-thigh and calf make these areas appear wider creating balance with her shoulders.
Because Alice is short between her chin and bust, horizontal lines aren’t great in this area. However, the halter neckline creates length in this area. If she wears a necklace which creates vertical lines, she can create more length in this area.
Vertical Lines
Alice now knows vertical lines move one’s eye up and down and make the area appear thinner and taller. She learned that her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of these lines. Because she has a V Body Shape, she wants vertical lines in her shoulder area; but not just between her waist and crotch. If they were just between her waist and crotch, they would make this area appear even thinner and her shoulders even wider. For her Body Proportions, she wants them between her shoulders and bust because they’ll make this area appear longer even though she’s short in this area. On the other hand, she doesn’t want them between her waist and crotch because she’s already long in this area.
When it comes to vertical lines, this dress is perfect for Alice; mainly because it has a halter neckline. This neckline creates diagonal lines from under her armpit up close to where her shoulders and neck meet. These lines make her shoulders appear less wide and give length to this area. Alice has always been drawn to this neckline for good reasons.
Shape Of Design Lines
Alice has learned that the shape of design lines is also important and her Face Shape gives her clues as to which shape works best for her. Design Line shapes come in two categories: angular and curved. Face Shapes have the same two categories and Alice’s rectangle Face Shape falls into the angular category. She learned that the best design line shape for her is also angular.
When looking at clothes, she learned that she needs to look at design lines designed into the clothes: for example: neckline, collar, lapel, plackets and pockets to name a few. She also needs to look at the print.
This dress has two areas for design line shape: neckline and print. The neckline unfortunately is curved while the print has a chevron pattern which is angular. While an angular neckline is better, she can transform the neckline by wearing the right necklace.
Color
One of Alice’s favorite colors is olive green. This green is between olive and kelly green and as a result works for her.
The color contrast of Alice’s skin, hair and eyes is low. She looked at the contrast between the belt and green and thought they were close to low. This is one of the reasons why Alice always has trouble with prints. Most prints feel like they overpowered her. But now that she has a better understanding of the clues her skin, hair and eyes give her, she’s adventuring into the world of wearing different colors together.
Scale
In the last 9 months, Alice learned that the scale of accessories and prints are important factors to consider. In the past, she stayed away from prints because she always had a hard time figuring out which ones looked best on her.
Alice found out that the Color of her Skin, Hair and Eyes, Body Proportions and Body Frame size give her clues to determine her scale strategy. Her overall scale strategy is medium/small; between her chin and bust it’s small; and between her waist and crotch it’s medium.
Alice determined that the chevron design of the print fell into the medium/small range.
Shopping For “My Style” -- Necklace
Alice doesn’t like to wear lots of jewelry but thought the dress needed a necklace. She likes the look of this lariat necklace and when paired with the dress it somehow created the beginnings of an outfit.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Vertical Lines
Because Alice has a V Body Shape and is short between her chin and bust, she’s learned that the best shaped of necklaces are ones that create vertical lines. As a result, her shoulders appear thinner and the area between her chin and bust appears longer.
Through a lot of testing, she found that lariat necklaces do just that. She likes this necklace because of the rope design.
Scale
Alice determined that the scale of the rope lariat is medium/small, which is big for her; but she determined that she liked this necklace the best. She figured that because it ends below her bust, it would be ok for her. When she tried several necklaces on with the dress, she felt the best in this one.
Shopping For “My Style” -- Sandals
Lastly, Alice looked for sandals to go with the dress and necklace. She knew she wanted a neutral color that blended with the belt and can be worn with other summer outfits. There were so many sandals to pick from. She loved the simplicity of this strappy sandal. When Alice tried them on, they were comfortable and she could walk well in them.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Shape Of Design Lines
Because Alice has a rectangle Face Shape, she looked for shoes with a square or pointed toe shape. She saw a lot of shoes with these toe shapes.
When it comes to sandals, in the past, it was hard to find angular toe shapes. She’s happy this year the story is different. This sandal has the perfect toe shape.
Alice also likes the fact that the heel has an overall angular shape.
Color
Alice looked for a neutral color that was in the same color family as the belt. These shoes are a little darker, but when she puts all the pieces on, she loves the overall outfit. She knows she’ll wear it quite often this summer.
Scale
When Alice first looked at the overall scale of the shoes, she thought they were in the medium to medium/small range. The size of the heel puts them into the medium range. Alice thought that because the straps are on the small side the sandals would work for her.
Final Thoughts
Alice was amazed at how much she’s learned over the last 9 months. Her comfort in shopping for clothes has increased, especially when she doesn’t have her friends around giving her advice. It’s amazing that by understanding the clues her body gives her, she can start exploring and understanding “her style.” She’s always liked this style of dress; but never ventured to try it on. Now Alice is becoming more confident in her skills of creating a closet full of clothes she loves to wear.
The next blog post will be about Grace’s “my style” shopping trip. It’s called: Shopping For “My Style” — Grace.
Wear Your Greatness!!
