It’s Grace’s turn to learn how to transform clothes’ design lines on an outfit in her closet. She has several outfits she would love to wear more. There’s so much she likes about them; but when she puts them on something’s wrong.
Grace wants to learn the skill to transform clothes’ design lines because she has a hard time finding clothes she loves to wear. She loves feeling more confident when wearing her favorite outfit. So she wants to be able to transform design lines that don’t work into ones that do to change her closet and life.
Keep reading to learn how Grace can transform design lines on a dress that doesn’t quite work for her.
Grace’s Body Elements
As a review, these are Grace’s Body Element clues:
- Body Shape — A (Body Shape — The Girls)
- Curved clothes silhouette
- Horizontal lines — Place them at her shoulders and waist, and avoid placing them at her hips
- Vertical lines — Place them between her waist and hips, and avoid placing them at her shoulders
- Face Shape — Rectangle (Face Shape — The Girls)
- Angular design lines, prints and accessories
- Color Skin, Hair, Eyes — Medium Color Contrast (Color Skin, Hair & Eyes — The Girls)
- Favorite Colors — Orange, Green
- Color Combinations (other colors) — Triadic and Analogous
- Color Combinations (relative lightness and darkness) — Medium contrast
- First Scale Clue — Medium
- Body Proportions — Short between bust/waist, long between waist/crotch, short between knees/floor (Body Proportions — The Girls)
- Horizontal lines — Place them between her waist/crotch but not at the hips, and don’t place them between her bust/waist and knees/floor
- Vertical lines — Place them between her bust/waist and knees/floor; limit them between her waist/crotch; however when she places them from her bust to below her crotch, the eye passes over this entire area and will make it appear thinner for her Body Shape
- Second Scale Clue — Decrease overall scale between bust/waist and knee/floor; increase it between waist/crotch
- Body Frame Size — Small (Body Frame Size — The Girls)
- Third scale clue — Small
- Scale Strategy — Small/Medium (Scale Strategy — The Girls)
- Decrease scale to small between her bust/waist and knees/floor
- Increase to medium between her waist/crotch
Transform Clothes’ Design Lines -- Dress
Grace loves the color of this dress and it fits her body perfectly. That in itself is unusual because she has a hard time finding clothes to fit her shoulders, waist and hips together. Despite her love for the dress, when she puts it on something is off and she can’t figure it out. She feels like her hips look even wider.
Grace wants to learn how to transform the design lines on this dress so that it works for her.
Transform Dress Design Lines
The curvy silhouette of this dress is perfect for Grace because it matches her curvy Body Shape. Its color is her favorite color orange. It’s a color she has a hard time finding. Normally it’s only available during the fall season but not every year.
There are two design lines that are causing her to feel like this dress isn’t totally right for her:
- Neckline
- Raglan sleeves
The neckline is curved and Grace has a rectangle Face Shape. Her Face Shape is angular. This is an easy fix by adding a jacket or cardigan and/or a necklace or scarf. When adding them, the shape can be transformed.
The raglan sleeves are the major reason why Grace feels like her hips appear even wider. These sleeves create vertical lines from below her arms to her shoulders/neck and as a result make her shoulders appear thinner and hips appear wider. The best way to transform the design lines these sleeves create is to add a jacket or cardigan. Grace can also use a scarf as a wrap to cover the sleeve design lines.
Ways To Transform Dress Design Lines
Grace should look for shorter cardigans where the hem hits between her waist and mid-hip. She’s short between her bust and waist so placing the hem below this area (a horizontal line) will visually lengthen it. The sweater should also have a V-neck because she has an angular face and V-necks create angular lines. It also breaks up the curved neckline of the dress making it appear more angular. Finally by wearing a cardigan, she can hide the raglan sleeve design lines, which cause her shoulders to appear thinner and her hips to appear wider.
When choosing a jacket/blazer to pair with her orange dress, Grace will also want to place the hem between the waist and mid-hip to create length between her bust and waist and more importantly to de-emphasize her hips. The lapels should be angular to complement her angular face shape. A denim jacket, like the INC jacket below, is a great choice because most denim jackets have a placket at the shoulders creating a horizontal line. This helps the shoulders to appear wider along with the puff sleeves.
When Grace considers pairing a scarf with the dress, she needs to make sure the raglan sleeves are hidden. Perfect ways to do this are shown in the pictures below.
Final Thoughts
When shopping for tops, blouses, dresses and jackets in the future, one design line Grace needs to stay away from is raglan sleeves. They’ll always make her shoulders appear thinner resulting in her hips appearing even wider. If the piece of clothing is perfect in every other aspect, she’ll know she needs to make sure she’s pairing it with a cardigan, jacket/blazer or scarf which hides these vertical design lines.
In the next blog post, Veronica will be learning how to transform clothes’ design lines. There’s an outfit in her closet she would love to learn how to transform so she can wear it more often. It’s called: Transform Clothes’ Design Lines — Veronica.
Wear Your Greatness!!
