Alice wants to learn how to transform clothes’ design lines just like Sam and Monica. Right now she mostly wears dresses because she has a hard time finding tops and pants that look good on her. She finds it frustrating to go shopping because she’s all shoulders and no butt.
Follow along and find out what Alice learns about transforming clothes’ design lines.
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
Transform Clothes’ Design Lines -- Outfit
When Alice bought this outfit, she was so excited at first because the top was one of her favorite colors. She finds it hard to find this color. Secondly it’s hard for her to find slim pull on pants. She purchased both but only wore them one or two times because they didn’t feel right.
Transform Clothes’ Design Lines -- Top
This top is one of Alice’s favorite colors. She also loves the puffy ¾ length sleeves with the ribbon band. However, whenever she puts it on there is something wrong with it and she hasn’t figured it out. She would really like to know how to transform the design lines.
Transform Top
The colors in this top are 100% perfect for Alice. It’s her favorite color of violet and the ribbon is a slightly darker color. This creates a monochromatic color scheme perfect for her low contrast color profile.
Most of the design lines are perfect for her. The silhouette of the top is angular matching her V Body Shape silhouette.
The placement of the hem (a horizontal line) is perfect for both Alice’s Body Shape and Body Proportions between her waist and crotch. With a V Body Shape, placing a horizontal line in this area makes it appear wider and more in balance with her shoulders. With respect to her Body Proportions, she’s long in this area and by placing a horizontal line there; it’ll make it appear shorter.
The sleeve length and the ribbon placement also create horizontal lines in this area.
Finally the vertical ribbons placed at her upper mid shoulders decrease the visual width of that area.
The design lines that don’t work for Alice’s Body Elements are the square neckline and the ribbon under it. These two horizontal lines create two problems for her. First, Alice has a V Body Shape and these lines emphasize this area and make it appear even wider. Second, her Body Proportion between her chin and bust is short. These lines make this area appear even shorter.
There’s one more minor design line problem that can be affecting how Alice feels when wearing this top. It’s the fit of the top at her waist and hips. Because she needs to buy tops to fit her shoulders the fit at her waist and hips might be big on her.
Ways To Transform Top
Alice can transform the horizontal design lines between her chin and bust by adding accessories. She wants to add accessories that create vertical lines which will break up the horizontal lines and bring the eye down; creating length and making this area appear thinner. The best accessory is a scarf. The knot or curve in the scarf should be at or below her bust. This way there will be vertical lines between her chin and bust and the horizontal lines will be between her bust and crotch.
When it comes to the top’s silhouette, she can have the top’s waist to hem side seams taken in to match her silhouette. She can also have front and back darts sewn in. These are easy alterations and most tailors and seamstresses can do it. In fact, Alice can learn to do it herself if she wants to learn how.
Transform Clothes’ Design Lines -- Pants
When it comes to clothes, Alice has the most trouble with pants. Her waist and hips have the same width and she has no butt. As a result, pants tend to fall down easily. In the past she had the best luck with pull on slim pant legs. However her biggest problem is in the butt area. Because she has no butt, there’s always too much fabric in this area. Also her legs are skinny.
Alice would love to learn how to alter pants so they’ll fit her body. She feels like it’s a lost cause.
Transform Pant
Slim pant legs are perfect pants for Alice because it shows off her thin hips and legs without over emphasizing the width of her shoulders. She can easily wear straight and palazzo pant legs. She should stay away from skinny legs when wearing shirts tucked in or if the hem is above her crotch because of the contrast between her shoulders and hips.
Because Alice is long between her waist and crotch most pants naturally hit below her natural waist creating a horizontal line in this area making it appear shorter. She’s lucky in that she can wear her tops in or out. With her torso being the same length as her legs she can wear any length of top, jacket or cardigan.
Alice’s biggest problem is fit which can easily be remedied through alterations. This is why she gravitates toward dresses because they don’t need to be altered. Most ready-to-wear pants are made for a medium butt size. There are manufacturers who design for a smaller butt. Alice will need to find the one that fits her butt the best. One such manufacturer is JM Collections sold at Macy’s:
Ways To Transform Pants
The best way for Alice to transform the fit of pants is to have them altered at the back crotch and thigh area. It’s a fairly easy alteration. The tailor/seamstress will decrease the length of the back crotch which causes the width of the upper thigh to decrease also.
Final Thoughts
When looking for a top, Alice should look for v-neck ones which create vertical lines between her chin and bust. These lines help balance out her wider shoulders and lengthen her Body Proportion in this area. However, if she finds a top with the right colors and the only problem with the design line is the neckline shape, she can always use a scarf to reshape it. There are many ways to wear a scarf. Instyle Magazine has a great article showing ways to wear a scarf: 18 Ways To Tie A Scarf. Alice just needs to make sure the horizontal and vertical line placements are right for her.
For the pants, Alice will most likely need to have the back crotch area shortened to fit her smaller butt. She has to remember it’s much easier to decrease an area than to add length. She can look for manufacturers/designers who design pants with less back crotch length.
As a result of understanding how to transform clothes’ design lines, Alice can start wearing more tops and pants and create a closet full of clothes she loves to wear.
Next week, Grace will be learning how to transform the design lines of an outfit in her closet to match her body elements. It’s called: Transform Clothes’ Design Lines — Grace.
Wear Your Greatness!!
