Learning to transform clothes’ design lines is a skill Monica wants to learn. She has a closet full of tops she’d love to wear more often. Monica loves bright colors and prints and sometimes tops with all the right design lines for her can be hard to find. She knows she isn’t the only one who has this problem.
Today Monica will learn how she can transform design lines on one of her tops.
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 — High 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
Transform Clothes’ Design Lines -- Top
Monica is always drawn to tops with bright prints especially with her favorite colors of green, yellow and red/orange. She also loves floral prints. They make her happy. However, whenever she wears this top, something feels off. She doesn’t know why.
Monica wants to learn what designs enhance her body so she can have a closet full of clothes she loves to wear.
Transform Clothes’ Design Lines -- Design Lines
There’s so much right about this top. The colors are perfect. The main color is Monica’s favorite yellow and it’s paired with a yellow/green and yellow/oranges creating an analogous color scheme. The scale of the print is a medium/large which reflects her Body Elements. The silhouette of the top is angular matching her Body Shape category. She has a pear Face Shape which lies in the curved category. The neckline is curved, matching her Face Shape. This neckline also creates a horizontal line at her shoulders.
There are two design lines that aren’t perfect for her Body Elements and one that she needs to make more pronounced.
Top’s Hem
The first design line that should be adjusted is the top’s hem. The hem creates a horizontal line and lands below her crotch. Because Monica has a long torso and short legs, this horizontal line makes her torso appear even longer and legs even shorter. The best place for her to place a top hem is around two inches above her crotch. This is an easy fix. She can take the top to a tailor/seamstress to shorten it. If she has a sewing machine, she can easily do it herself.
Top’s Sleeve Length
The second design line which she needs to address is the sleeves’ length. They’re ¾ length and land at her waist. This brings attention to her waist, the widest part of her body. Monica can have them shortened to her mid-upper-arm. This will bring the hem to her bust and shoulder area. By moving the sleeve hems to this area, they’ll create horizontal lines which will help make this area appear wider, creating balance with her waist.
Horizontal Line Between Chin And Bust
The design line that Monica needs to make more pronounced is a horizontal line between her chin and bust. By placing a horizontal line in this area, it’ll appear wider creating balance with her waist. She can do this through adding accessories. Adding a medium/large scale necklace creates a horizontal line between her chin and bust. Or she can wear a scarf which creates a horizontal line in the same area.
Ways To Transform Clothes’ Design Lines
Shortening hemlines and adding accessories are the two easiest ways to transform clothes’ design lines. These are examples of top hem lengths for Monica:
To avoid bringing focus to her waist, Monica should wear sleeve lengths at her bust level or higher, or at her wrists. These are examples of sleeves lengths that are good for Monica:
Necklaces are an easy way to create horizontal lines. Examples of necklaces that create them between her chin and bust are:
Finally these are examples of scarves Monica can wear to create a horizontal line which brings width at her shoulders and shortens her torso length:
Final Thoughts
Now that Monica knows she can shorten hem lengths and add accessories to transform clothes’ design lines, she can go through her closet and transform the tops that need these adjustments. As a result, she’ll increase her wardrobe without going shopping. Her only cost will be the cost of alterations but if she does it herself, it’s free.
Monica learned that she needs horizontal lines between her chin and bust, the sleeve hems can’t land at her waist and top hems need to be above her crotch, about 2 inches.
If you want to learn how to shorten hems, you can go to YouTube and search for “shorten top hem” or “shorten top sleeves.”
In the next blog post, Alice will learn how to transform clothes’ design lines for her Body Elements. It’s called: Transform Clothes’ Design Lines — Alice.
Wear Your Greatness!!
