Monica loves to shop, but never has gone shopping for “my style.” In the past, she’d look for clothes that popped. For her, what made the clothes pop were the colors. It seems she’s always been drawn to color. In the past year, she’s learned that she also needs to look for the right design lines for her body and she has her friends: Sam, Alice, Grace and Veronica, to keep her on track.
This shopping trip, Monica didn’t have her friends with her. She was out of town in the Los Angeles area visiting family. Her friends reminded her to stop in the South Coast Plaza to look for an outfit she could wear on their next outing. Monica thought that was a perfect idea. Keep reading to learn what she found.
Monica’s Body Elements
As a review, these are Monica’s Body Element clues:
- Body Shape — O (Body Shape — The Girls)
- Angular clothes silhouette
- Avoid placing horizontal lines at the waist
- Avoid placing vertical lines at the shoulders
- Face Shape — Pear (Face Shape — The Girls)
- Curved design lines, prints and accessories
- Color Skin, Hair, Eyes — Medium Color Contrast (Color Skin, Hair & Eyes — The Girls)
- Favorite Colors — Green, Yellow and Red/Orange
- Color Combinations (other colors) — Analogous
- Color Combinations (relative lightness and darkness) — Medium contrast
- First Scale Clue — Medium
- Body Proportions — Long between bust/waist, Long between waist/crotch, Short between crotch/knees, Short between knees/floor (Body Proportions — The Girls)
- Horizontal lines — Don’t place them between her crotch/knees and knees/floor but she can place them between her bust and crotch. However, because she has an O Body Shape, she needs to avoid them at her waist
- Vertical lines — Limit them between her bust/crotch but do place them between her crotch/floor
- Second Scale Clue — Increase overall scale between bust/crotch and decrease it between crotch/floor
- Body Frame Size — Medium (Body Frame Size — The Girls)
- Third scale clue — Large
- Scale Strategy — Medium/Large (Scale Strategy — The Girls)
- Increase to large between her bust/crotch
- Decrease to medium between her crotch/floor
Shopping For “My Style” -- Monica’s Style
Monica loves bright vivid colors especially green, yellow and red/orange. These colors just make her happy. She’s known for wearing these colors in the form of prints because they fit her outgoing bubbly personality.
Monica wears both dresses and pants, and never skirts. She has an addiction to fun shoes that complement the outfit she’s wearing.
For this outing, she would love to find a fun dress.
Shopping For “My Style” -- Dress
Monica knew she wanted to find a dress she could wear on her outing with her friends. Recently, she saw her niece wearing a baby doll dress and thought that the style would be fun to wear. When she was in the dresses department at Macy’s, she found this tiered dress and fell in love with it. She loved the yellow stripes and the design is different from anything she has in her closet.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Monica learned that she has an O Body Shape which puts her into the angular category. She looked at the silhouette of the dress and noted that the shoulders, waist and hips all have the same width. In fact, there’s enough room for her wider waist and when she puts it on, the waist fits perfectly. This style of dress is perfect for her and reflects her personality of being fun and outgoing.
Horizontal Lines
In the last 9 months, Monica learned that horizontal lines stop the eye, emphasize the area, and make it appear a little wider and a little shorter. She also learned that her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues to the placement of these design lines.
For her O Body Shape, Monica learned that she doesn’t want to put horizontal lines in her widest area, her waist; but should put them in thinner areas like her shoulders and hips. On the other hand, for her Body Proportions, she doesn’t want horizontal lines in her short area: between her knees and floor; but should put them in her long area: between her bust and crotch.
Monica noted that the mock turtle neck creates 2 horizontal lines: one on the neck and the other at the base of the neck. There’s another horizontal line below her bust and another at her hips. The last horizontal line is at her knees, created by the dress hem. She was excited that the horizontal lines are placed perfectly for her Body Elements.
Vertical Lines
Along with learning about the placement of horizontal lines, Monica learned about the placement of vertical lines. She learned that vertical lines move the eyes up and down, and make that area appear a little thinner and taller.
The only vertical lines this dress has are created by the print. Monica noticed how her eyes moved up and down between the horizontal lines. She saw how length was created between these areas. However, the areas didn’t feel thinner. She wears a size M and felt the lines didn’t make a lot of difference.
Shape Of Design Lines
Monica learned that her Face Shape gave her clues as to the shape of design lines. Her Face Shape is pear which falls into the curved category.
Monica thought that the main source of design line shape came from the stripes, which are angular. She loved the color and felt a little taller and the fullness felt fun; so she bought it. Because of everything she learned this last year, she knew she had to make sure the jewelry and shoes had curved lines to match her Face Shape.
Color
Monica’s favorite colors are green, yellow and red/orange and her color contrast profile is medium contrast. She figured out her best color combination is analogous.
The yellow in the dress is a yellow/orange. She thought this could work because it’s in between yellow and red/orange. It would be an analogous color to yellow.
The next thing Monica considered was the color contrast between the yellow/orange and white stripes. When she looked in the mirror and put the dress up to her face, she thought it would work. It was definitely a dress to try on. When she put it on, she loved the color combination.
Shopping For “My Style” -- Earrings
After finding the dress, Monica looked for jewelry to go with it. She saw these earrings and thought they would go great with the dress. In thinking about her style, she thought a necklace would be too much, but loved the idea of earrings and a bracelet. She loved the floral motif.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Shape Of Design Lines
With Monica’s pear Face Shape, she knew she needed to look for accessories with curved design lines. She thought these earrings were perfect with their floral design. The top two flowers were curved but the bottom one seemed to have more straight lines which could be seen as angular. Monica thought the overall feel was curved.
Color
The colors in these earrings blended well with the yellow/orange stripes of the dress. Monica thought she had other blouses and dresses they would go with as well.
Scale
Monica’s overall scale strategy is medium/large and these earrings have the same scale.
Shopping For “My Style” -- Bracelet
Once Monica found the earrings, she looked for a bracelet that went with them. She was happy to find one.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Shape Of Design Lines
Because this bracelet is a match set to the earrings, Monica knew it would work with her Face Shape. She noticed when wearing jewelry that matched her curved Face Shape, she felt lighter and balanced. She’s always amazed by this fact.
Color
Like the earrings the bracelet compliments the Rachel Roy yellow/orange stripe dress.
Scale
The scale of the bracelet matches Monica’s medium/large overall scale strategy.
Shopping For “My Style” -- Shoes
When looking for sandals Monica looked for white, casual ones that can be worn with many summer outfits. When she found these, she knew they were perfect.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Shape Of Design Lines
This last year, Monica learned that the shapes of shoes are important. She found it interesting that they should match the shape of her face. With her Face Shape being pear, she needed shoes with a curved toe. When she looked in her closet at her favorite shoes, she noticed that they all had curved toes.
Monica found a lot of cute white sandals with a pointed or square toe so she passed on them. She might not have done that a year ago. These sandals have a round toe, which is perfect for her.
Horizontal Lines
Another interesting fact Monica learned this past year is that horizontal lines can make an area appear shorter. With her legs being shorter than her torso, she needed to be mindful of placing horizontal lines in this area. She also learned when she wears dresses, it’s hard to know where her torso ends and her legs begin. This gives her some leeway in wearing shoes with ankle straps.
These sandals have ankle straps so she can wear them easily with dresses; however she needs to be mindful when wearing them with pants.
Color
Monica thought the white color tops and tan heels work well with her coloring and the yellow/orange and white colors in the dress.
Scale
Monica learned that she needs to consider the scale of shoes. She has an overall scale of medium/large but with her legs being short, she should decrease the scale to medium for her shoes.
After looking at the shoes, she thought their scale was medium/large. However, because she’s wearing a dress she can keep the scale at medium/large. When she put the whole outfit on, the shoes felt perfect.
Final Thoughts
Monica had a great time shopping for “my style” at the Macy’s in the South Coast Plaza. Her confidence in knowing what design lines and colors enhance her body has definitely increased. She’s amazed how wearing the right clothes changes how she feels. More specifically, she feels more confident in her abilities.
The next blog post will be about Alice’s “my style” shopping trip. It’s called: Shopping For “My Style” — Alice.
Wear Your Greatness!!
