Veronica loved her time shopping for a New Year’s Eve Dress with her friends: Sam, Monica, Alice and Grace. Actually she loves shopping in general but especially with her friends. Unlike Alice and Grace, she can easily find clothes to fit her X Body Shape. Her problem is how to balance her short torso and long legs.
Now that she knows it’s a matter of putting horizontal and vertical lines in the right places, it makes the process easier.
Read further to learn what dress she found.
Veronica’s Body Elements
As a review, these are Veronica’s Body Element clues:
- Body Shape — X (Body Shape — The Girls)
- Curved clothes silhouette
- Can place horizontal and vertical lines almost anywhere when considering Body Shape
- Face Shape — Heart (Face Shape — The Girls)
- Curved design lines, prints and accessories
- Color Skin, Hair, Eyes — Low Color Contrast (Color Skin, Hair & Eyes — The Girls)
- Favorite Colors — Yellow, Violet, Red
- Color Combinations (other colors) — Analogous
- Color Combinations (relative lightness and darkness) — Low contrast
- First Scale Clue — Small
- Body Proportions — Short between bust/waist and waist/crotch, long between crotch/knees and knees/floor (Body Proportions — The Girls)
- Horizontal lines — Place them between her crotch/knees and knees/floor; don’t place them between her bust/waist and waist/crotch
- Vertical lines — Place them between her bust/waist and waist/crotch; don’t place them between her crotch/knees and knees/floor
- Second Scale Clue — Decrease overall scale between bust/waist and waist/crotch; increase it between crotch/knees and knees/floor
- 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 bust/waist and waist/crotch
- Increase to medium between her crotch/knees and knees/floor
Shopping For New Year’s Eve Dress & Accessories
Shopping For New Year’s Eve Dress -- Dress
Veronica wanted a dress in one of her favorite colors: yellow, violet or red. All she could find were red dresses. There were several she could choose from. She tried them on and felt the best in a Ralph Lauren Crepe Off-the-Shoulder Cocktail Dress.
Design Line & Color Analysis
The color and design lines of this dress are perfect for Veronica. The red is one of her favorite colors. She responds to color and this color brings out the leader in her. This will be a great dress to wear to business events where she needs to be a leader.
Veronica’s X Body Shape lies in the curvy category. The dress’s silhouette also lies in the curvy category. She finds many dresses have a curvy silhouette so she gravitates toward dresses, which is a good move on her part.
Horizontal Lines
This dress has two horizontal lines: under the bust and the hem. Having a horizontal line under her bust is fine for her Body Shape. In fact with her X Body Shape she can place horizontal lines almost anywhere. She doesn’t have one area that’s much wider than the others like Monica, Alice or Grace. She only needs to consider her Body Proportions. Body Proportions-wise, her torso is much shorter than her legs. Strictly speaking, being short in her torso, placing horizontal lines in this area isn’t a great idea because they’ll make the torso look even shorter. She should look to see if there are any vertical lines to lengthen the area and in fact there are.
The horizontal line created by the hem of the dresses doesn’t affect her Body Shape but does her Body Proportions. Veronica’s legs are longer than her torso therefore horizontal lines are perfect in her leg area. She can place as many horizontal lines as she wants and anywhere in this area.
Vertical Lines
The vertical lines in this dress are created by the crisscross diagonal lines from under the bust to the shoulders. These diagonal lines have the opposite effect as Alice’s halter top dress. The lines on Veronica’s dress move the eye outward while the lines on Alice’s dress move the eye inward. Veronica’s dress makes the shoulders appear wider and Alice’s dress makes the shoulders appear thinner. Veronica is lucky in that her X Body Shape allows her to place vertical lines anywhere. As with horizontal lines, she needs to consider her Body Proportions.
Vertical lines in her torso are perfect for Veronica’s Body Proportions. They make her torso appear longer, specifically under her bust to her shoulders. There are several vertical lines created by the pleating. All of the vertical lines create even more length without causing the shoulders to appear thinner because the eyes are drawn outward.
Design Line Shape
The only design line shape in this dress is the neckline. The pleated crisscross diagonal lines create a V-neckline. Veronica has a heart shaped face which is in the curved category. This dress isn’t the best neckline for her; however her choice of necklace helps to solve this problem.
Veronica picked a great dress even though the dress has a horizontal line under the bust and V-neckline. The horizontal line doesn’t make her torso appear shorter because of all the vertical lines created by the crisscross pattern and all the pleats. Her choice of necklace helps soften the neckline as well.
Shopping For New Year’s Eve Dress -- Shoes
Veronica looked for red shoes but didn’t find any that she liked and were comfortable. As a result, she looked for nude colored pumps. She liked the fact that the nude shoes can be easily worn with yellow and violet. This pair was the most comfortable of all the ones she tried on. This is important because at work she doesn’t just sit at her desk; she’s on her feet a lot.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Design lines-wise this pair of shoes is perfect for Veronica. Her heart Face Shape falls in the curved category. The toe of the shoe is round and the upper toe area is also curved. The straps that go around her ankles create a horizontal line which is perfect to shorten the appearance of her long legs.
Color-wise the nude is darker creating a low to medium color contrast with the red dress. Veronica’s color contrast is low; but it’s in a good range.
The scale of the shoes is perfect for Veronica. Her overall scale strategy is small/medium. When taking into consideration her Body Proportions in her leg area, she can increase the scale of shoes to medium. The block heel increased the scale.
Shopping For New Year’s Eve Dress -- Jewelry
Veronica wanted a necklace that made a statement; something out of the ordinary. When she saw this necklace, she knew it was the one. It matched the red of her dress and the curved shape of her face. She recently learned that the shape of jewelry should match the shape of her face. She was excited about her choice.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Many aspects of this necklace are perfect for Veronica. First, she was right to choose a necklace with curved design lines because her Face Shape falls in the curved category.
The red and gold colors work well with her coloring. However, the color contrast between them might have too much of a contrast. Veronica’s color contrast is low and the necklace’s contrast is in the lower side of the medium range.
The biggest problem with the necklace is its scale. The necklace has a medium/large scale and Veronica’s overall scale is small/medium. She has a big personality so she’s able to carry off the larger scale which is perfect for the celebration and when leading. But whenever she wants to be relatable, she might look for necklaces which are in the small/medium range.
Summary
Dress
Veronica picked a great dress with the right design lines for both her Body Shape and Body Proportions. Dresses are a great way to hide where her short torso ends and long legs begin.
Shoes
The shoes’ design lines are perfect for Veronica. Because her legs are significantly longer than her torso, she can increase the scale to medium and maybe medium/large. This gives her a bigger selection to pick from. She loves shoes and is excited about the shoes she can pick from in her closet.
Jewelry
The color and shape of the necklace is perfect for Veronica. In the future, she should consider the scale of her accessories. She has a scale strategy of small/medium. The scale will decrease when wearing prints and accessories between her bust and crotch, but will increase when worn in her leg area. By wearing the right scale for her Body Elements she can tap into her confidence a little further.
Final Thoughts
Veronica has come a long way in understanding what design lines help her Body Proportions appear more balanced. She still needs to understand what scale of prints and accessories match her body’s clues.
Sam, Monica, Alice, Grace and Veronica are taking a trip to Hawaii and specifically the Island of Maui. They plan to take this trip the week of February 13th. It’s Grace and her husband’s 15th wedding anniversary. They plan to spend a lot of time at the beach and need to get new swimsuits. Now that each understands the design lines that enhance their bodies, they want to use this new found knowledge on swimsuits. Many have a love/hate relationship when shopping for swimsuits. Sam is the first to share the swimsuit she chose. It’s called Shopping For Swimsuits — Sam.
Wear Your Greatness!!
