Shopping for “my style” isn’t something Sam thought she’d ever do. She’s never been into clothes and figured they just cover her body. But over the last year, she’s learned that the right clothes can change how she feels. In fact, knowing which clothes are right for her has allowed her to feel more confident.
While sitting on the beaches in Hawaii, Sam and her friends: Monica, Alice, Grace and Veronica talked about the fact that they don’t spend a lot of time together like they used to do before their lives got busy. They decided once a quarter, they’ll get together and go out to do something for a day. Some of the ideas they came up with are: going to art gallery shows, visiting museums and going on wine tastings.
They all loved this idea, but then they thought about what they’d wear. Their closets are full of work clothes, clothes to run errands, and clothes for their kids’ sporting events: they own nothing in between. All their clothes are practical and rather than fun. With further discussion, they decided it was time to step outside their comfort zones and look for new ways to express their fun sides which they don’t get to express very often.
They decided to go shopping separately, using their knowledge from the past year, to find an outfit to wear to an art show.
Sam had fun discovering her style and how to express it.
Sam’s Body Elements
As a review, these are Sam’s Body Element clues:
- Body Shape — H (Body Shape — The Girls)
- Angular clothes silhouette
- Can place horizontal and vertical lines almost anywhere when considering Body Shape
- Face Shape — Oval (Face Shape — The Girls)
- Curved design lines, prints and accessories
- Color Skin, Hair, Eyes — High Color Contrast (Color Skin, Hair & Eyes — The Girls)
- Favorite Colors — Blue, Pink (red/violet), Green
- Color Combinations (other colors) —
- Triadic — Blue
- Triadic or Complementary — Pink
- Complementary — Green
- Color Combinations (relative lightness and darkness) — High contrast
- First Scale Clue — Large
- Body Proportions — Short between chin/bust, Long between waist/crotch (Body Proportions — The Girls)
- Horizontal lines — Don’t place them between her chin/bust but do place them between her waist/crotch
- Vertical lines — Limit the amount between her waist/crotch but do place them between her chin/bust
- 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 — Medium/Large (Scale Strategy — The Girls)
- Decrease it to medium between her chin/bust
- Increase it to large between her waist/crotch
Shopping For “My Style” -- Sam’s Style
Sam was never into fashion trends. Her number one goal has always been comfort. Growing up she wore athletic wear because it was the most comfortable and she was into athletics. She’s always been active and wanted her clothes to move with her. As an adult, that hasn’t changed.
When Sam became an architect, she looked for clothes that were comfortable but appropriate for her position. She was in the office, meeting with clients and visiting construction sites.
Now that Sam is expanding her wardrobe into non-work and non-athletic clothes, she wants to make sure the clothes are comfortable. She’s starting out with a pair of pants and a top.
Shopping For “My Style” -- Pants
(Sam picked the navy blue pants but the navy picture didn’t show the design lines so she wanted to use this color so you can see them.)
While shopping at Macy’s, Sam saw a pair of pants in the INC department that she thought looked interesting. They appeared to be cargo pants in a jogger style. She tried them on and they were comfortable. The moment she put them on, she knew she had to have them. In fact, she bought a pair in black, navy blue, and white.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Sam learned that her Body Shape gives her a clue about whether she should wear an angular or curved silhouette.
Sam has an H Body Shape, which puts her into the angular silhouette category. She looked at the pants’ tag and it didn’t say curvy on it, so she knew the pants were created with an angular silhouette. She learned this fact because her friends Grace and Veronica are always looking for pants with “curvy” on the tag.
Horizontal Lines
Sam learned that horizontal lines stop your eye, emphasize that area, and make it appear a little wider and shorter. She also learned that her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of these lines.
When looking to see where her eyes stopped, Sam found they stopped at the patch pockets on each leg. Cargo pants tend to have a patch pocket mid-thigh with a flap. This pocket style creates a horizontal line on the top of the pocket, bottom of the flap and on the bottom of the pocket. This particular set of cargo pants is a jogger pant, which creates two horizontal lines at the ankle.
Sam learned that her H Body Shape gives her the freedom to place horizontal lines anywhere. She feels lucky because her friends Monica, Alice and Grace don’t have this freedom.
Sam’s torso and legs are the same length, which allows her to easily wear horizontal lines in the leg area. She knows her friends Grace and Monica would never be able to wear this type of pants because their legs are much shorter than their torsos. She feels grateful that she doesn’t have to be concerned about horizontal lines on pants.
Vertical Lines
Over the last year, Sam learned that vertical lines move the eye up and down and make the area appear thinner and taller. She also learned that her Body Elements: Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of these lines.
When looking for vertical lines in the pants, Sam saw diagonal lines created by other patch pockets. Cargo pants typically have a diagonal design line created by a pocket between the waistband and crotch. Diagonal design lines are a type of vertical line because they move the eye down and make the area appear thinner.
With Sam’s Body Shape being an H, she learned that she has the freedom to place vertical lines anywhere. These pants might not work for her friend Alice because her thinnest area is between her waist and hips.
When it comes to Sam’s Body Proportions, she learned that because she’s long between her waist and crotch, placing vertical lines in this area will make it appear longer. She loved the comfort of these pants and thought she could wear them with a shirt where the hem creates a horizontal line in this area.
Shape Of Design Lines
The only places on the cargo pants that have a design line shape are the patch pockets on each leg. These pockets and the flap over them have both rectangular and curved shapes. The top of the pockets and the flaps are angular and the bottoms of the pockets are curved.
Sam has an oval Face Shape which gives her the clue that she should look for curved design lines. She figured that this is a minor problem and could be overcome by making sure the top has curved design lines.
Sam has an oval Face Shape which gives her the clue that she should look for curved design lines. She figured that this is a minor problem and could be overcome by making sure the top has curved design lines.
Color
Sam learned that the color of her skin, hair and eyes gives her clues as to which colors, color combinations and the relative lightness and darkness of the color combinations she should wear.
Sam wears mostly black for work for convenience. She loves wearing navy blue but doesn’t always have a chance to wear it. This is the major reason she chose these pants in the navy.
Shopping For “My Style” -- Top
Sam decided to wear the navy blue utility jogger pants to the outing with her friends. So she started to look for a top that would go well with them. While looking, she tried to keep an open mind and found this blouse in the Vince Camuto section. It looked comfortable and the print appeared to go with the pants.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
With Sam’s Body Shape being an H, she needs a top with an angular silhouette. She learned that she needs to look at the width of the shoulders, waist and hips and needs them to be around the same width. To her, the shoulders and waist appeared to be the same width. She considered these concepts while looking at the top in the Vince Camuto section before she tried it on.
Horizontal Lines
When she looked at the top, she saw only two horizontal lines: the hem of the blouse and the hem of the sleeves. Sam learned that with her H Body Shape, she’s lucky because she can place horizontal lines anywhere so she needs to look at her Body Proportion clues.
With respect to her Body Proportions, Sam is short between her chin and bust and long between her waist and crotch. She learned that she doesn’t want to put horizontal lines between her chin and bust because they’ll make that area look even shorter. However, these lines are perfect between her waist and crotch. Once again, Sam analyzed the horizontal lines while in the Vince Camuto section.
Vertical Lines
Like horizontal lines, Sam learned that she can place vertical lines anywhere for her H Body Shape and should look at the clues her Body Proportions give her. Being short between her chin and bust, this is a perfect place for them.
While the top was on the hanger, she looked at the neckline and saw that it was a V-shape which creates a vertical line on either side of her neck and brings her eye down to a point.
Her eye then moved down to the tie at the hem. She wasn’t sure about it because vertical lines in this area aren’t great for her long Body Proportion between her waist and crotch. She thought it might be okay given that the hemline was also in this area. She decided to try it on to see how it looked and felt. After trying it on, she was amazed how comfortable it was and the tie at the hem didn’t create further length in this area.
Shape Of Design Lines
When Sam looked at the blouse itself, she saw that the neckline is V-shaped which has an angular shape. She runs into this all the time, she has always been drawn to this neckline because she’s short between her chin and bust. She also learned that if she wears a curved necklace, she can lessen the effects of the angular neckline.
The next design line shape Sam saw was the print. It’s a curved floral print, which she knew was perfect for her.
Color
Sam looked at the colors in the print and they were navy, the same color as the pants, a lighter blue, a light pink and white. As an architect she knew the blue and pink were two sides of a triadic color scheme and all the colors create high color contrast.
Sam learned that the color of her skin, hair and eyes gives her clues showing that a triadic color scheme and high color contrast are perfect for her.
Scale
This past year Sam learned that she should look for prints with a medium to large scale. The combination of the clues from the color of her skin, hair and eyes along with her Body Proportions, and Body Frame Size give her Scale Strategy.
Sam’s architect training gives her the knowledge that the print scale on the top is small. However, when you look at it from a distance, a larger pattern appears, which is in the medium/large range.
When she put on the blouse to see how she felt in it, she felt great and decided this was the top.
Shopping For “My Style” -- Necklace
(Lucky Brand Open Link Lapis Pendant, only found in store)
When Sam found this necklace, she knew it was the one. First of all, she loves lapis stones. Second, she loves the fact that it could be worn long or short. Finally it draws the eye down. When paired with the Vince Camuto top it works perfectly. Plus, she knows she can wear it with other outfits too.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Horizontal Lines/Vertical Lines
When Sam saw this necklace, her eye only moved up and down, which would give the area between her chin and bust length. This is the style of necklace she always gravitates towards.
Shape Of Design Lines
Sam looked at the overall feel of the necklace and it was curved. The curved pendant above the lapis stone is the major contributor to the overall feel.
Color
The gold chain is the other side of the triadic color scheme. As a result, the whole outfit creates this color scheme. This shopping trip helped Sam determine that she could transfer her architectural knowledge to clothes. This fact alone gave her even more confidence in her abilities.
Scale
Sam determined that the scale of the lapis stone and pendant is medium, which is perfect for the area between her bust and chin. She learned that her overall scale strategy is medium/large; but because she’s short between her chin and bust, the scale should be decreased to medium in this area.
Shopping For “My Style” -- Shoes
When picking out shoes, comfort is Sam’s number one goal. She tries to avoid wearing heels and pointed toes as much as possible. She liked how the color of these shoes matched the pink on the top. She put these shoes on and they were comfortable. She knew she could wear them for long periods of time.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Shape Of Design Lines
There are several design line shapes on this pair of shoes: toe shape and the buckle shape. Both have an overall shape of curved which is perfect for Sam’s curved Face Shape.
Shape Of Design Lines
Sam learned that her Face Shape gives her clues as to the design line shapes on shoes. She has a curved Face Shape so she looked for curved design lines. The first design line she looked for is the toe shape. Then she looked for other design lines. She determined that this shoe was perfect for her.
Color
Normally Sam would look for blue shoes to match the pants. But she put her architectural knowledge to work and decided to go with the pink color in the blouse. Sam’s thought was that the color of shoes is like the color of the front door. Sometimes it’s nice to have a little color pop. When she put the shoes on with the whole outfit, it felt like she got close to figuring out her style.
Scale
Sam’s overall scale strategy is medium/large. The shoes are more in the medium range; but the buckle is larger scale.
Final Thoughts
This was an eye opening shopping trip for Sam. She learned that her architectural knowledge can be transferred to clothes. This fact alone increased her confidence when determining her style. She felt she took giant strides forward in determining her style of clothes and being able to find clothes that she’ll love to wear.
The next blog post will be about Monica’s “my style” shopping trip. It’s called: Shopping For “My Style” — Monica.
Wear Your Greatness!!
