By understanding design lines on outfits, Alice is learning to identify which ones work well with her body. This is a big step forward for her because in the past, finding clothes she felt good in was a hit or miss process. Now, when she walks into a store, she’s looking for specific design lines and she’s surprised that shopping isn’t as overwhelming as it once was.
As a result, Alice looked forward to shopping with her friends: Sam, Monica, Grace and Veronica for an outfit to wear on their upcoming wine tasting trip. It gives her an opportunity to practice this newfound skill and to add another outfit to her dream closet. She wants something she can also wear to work on days she needs to dress casual.
Alice was excited that she found another pair of pants that work for her body. In the past, she stayed away from pants because nothing fit her well. She learned that one has to find the manufacturer that fits one’s body and she thinks she’s found one that works for her.
Keep reading to learn which manufacturer fits the best for Alice’s body.
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
Understanding Design Lines -- Pants
In the past, Alice has had problems finding pants that fit her body. She has no waist or butt, which made finding pants without excess fabric at the hips and butt too difficult for her. As a result, she wore dresses all the time. Now that she’s learned that she needs to find the right manufacturer for her, she’s more open to exploring her options.
She started out this shopping trip looking for pants and she tried on several of them but these INC ponte straight leg pants were the best. In the past, she’s had good luck with pants made with ponte fabric. Now she knows this type of fabric works well for her.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Alice learned that the first design line she needs to consider is the silhouette. For pants, this is the difference between the waist and hips. Silhouettes come in two categories: angular and curved. In the angular category, the waist and hips appear to be the same width and in the curved category, the waist is significantly smaller than the hips. Her Body Shape gives her the clue as to which category is best for her.
Alice has a V Body Shape: her shoulders are significantly wider than both her waist and hips. In most women, this means their waists and hips appear to be the same width, and Alice falls into this group. This means she needs to look for pants with an angular silhouette.
The pair of pants she chose has a tag which says “Regular Fit” which means it has an angular silhouette. If the tag says “Curvy Fit,” then the silhouette is curvy. The silhouette of this pair of pants is perfect for Alice.
Horizontal Lines
Another important category of design lines that Alice needs to consider is horizontal lines. They stop the eyes, emphasize the area and make it appear wider and shorter. She learned that her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of these design lines.
For Body Shape, Alice doesn’t want to put horizontal lines in her widest area or shoulders; but she does want to put them in her thinner areas, which are her waist and hips. She doesn’t want these lines in her shoulder area because they’ll bring emphasis to this area and make it appear wider. On the other hand, she wants horizontal lines in her waist and hip areas because they’ll bring emphasis to these areas, and make them appear wider, creating balance with her shoulders.
For Alice’s Body Proportions, she’s short between her shoulders/bust and long between her waist/crotch. This means she doesn’t want horizontal lines between her chin/bust because they’ll make this area appear even shorter; but she does want them between her waist/crotch because they’ll make this area appear shorter.
This pair of pants has three horizontal design lines: waistband at the waist, mid-hip placket and below ankle hem. All three of these design lines work perfectly for Alice. The waist and mid-hip plackets are placed between her waist/crotch, making this area appear shorter and in balance with the rest of her body. The below ankle hem works well for her Body Proportions because the length of her torso and legs are the same. These pants are perfect for Alice.
Color
One of Alice’s favorite colors is olive green. These pants are a perfect addition to her dream closet.
Understanding Design Lines -- Top
Then Alice looked for a top. She looked for something in one of her other favorite colors: coral or violet. This season, she saw a lot of different coral colors but couldn’t find anything with her design lines. When she saw this top, it had the right design lines and was close to coral but more of a neutral that would look great with the pants.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
With Alice having a V Body Shape, she knows she needs to look for an angular silhouette. She looked at the side seams of this top to determine if it was angular or curved. This top’s silhouette is perfect for her.
Horizontal Lines
Next, Alice looked for horizontal design lines. Because she has a V Body Shape, she doesn’t want any of these lines in her shoulder area. If one was there, it would bring attention to this area and make it appear even wider. For her Body Shape, a better placement of horizontal lines is between her waist and hips. These design lines will bring attention to this area and make it appear wider and in balance with her shoulders.
For her Body Proportions, Alice didn’t want horizontal lines in her shoulder area either because she’s short in the area. But she does want them between her waist and crotch because she’s long in this area.
This top has three horizontal lines: a diagonal line that’s more horizontal than vertical that starts below the right waist side seam and goes to the center front hem; the actual hem; and the hem of the sleeves. All three of these horizontal lines work perfectly for Alice’s Body Shape and Body Proportions.
Vertical Lines
Where Alice wants vertical design lines is between her chin and bust. She wants them for three reasons: to move the eyes away from her shoulders, to make them appear thinner, and to make the area between her shoulders appear longer.
Alice looked for V shaped necklines because they create vertical design lines. This top had the V neckline but even better, it had a faux wrap look, which means the eyes didn’t stop at the V but kept going to the side seam just below the bust. As a result, the eye is brought to this area, which is perfect for her V Body Shape.
Shape Of Design Lines
Alice learned that her Face Shape gives her clues as to the shape of design lines. They can be either angular or curved. If she has an angular Face Shape, they need to be angular and if she has a curved Face Shape, they need to be curved. She has a rectangle Face Shape which falls into the angular category.
Alice also learned that she should look for design line shapes in three areas: design lines built into the clothes, accessories, and prints. She determined that the top’s neckline is angular, and the hem has a curved feel along with the print.
The neckline matches her Face Shape clues but the hem and print don’t. Over this past year, Alice learned that sometimes it’s hard to get all the design lines shape to match one’s Face Shape clues. She should try on the whole outfit to determine how she feels in it. If she feels light, then buy it. On the other hand, if she feels heavy, then keep looking for a top that she feels light in. Alice tried on the whole outfit and felt light in it.
Color
In the past, Alice stayed away from prints because she couldn’t figure out what looked good on her. She learned that there are four components: shape, grouping of colors, relative lightness and darkness of those colors, and the scale of the print details. She learned that her angular Face Shape gives her clues as to the overall shape of the print. The color contrast of her Skin, Hair and Eyes gives her clues as to which group of colors are best and their relative lightness and darkness. Finally, the combination of clues from her color contrast, Body Proportions and Body Frame size give her clues as to the scale of the print.
Alice learned that she has a low color contrast profile because the colors of her Skin, Hair and Eyes have the same lightness and darkness. This means she should look for a monochromatic (same color family) or analogous (colors next to each other) color schemes. Also, the relative lightness and darkness need to be next to each other for monochromatic color schemes and on the same rung. (To learn more about color go to: Color Combinations and Relative Lightness And Darkness Of Colors.)
The color scheme of this print is monochromatic and the relative lightness and darkness is low. Both are perfect for Alice.
Scale
Alice learned to determine the best scale of accessories and prints for her, which is determined by combining the clues from her Color Skin, Hair and Eyes, Body Proportions and Body Frame Size. As a result, her best scale size is small/medium. The scale of this top’s print is on the smaller side of small/medium. She doesn’t want to get any smaller. This works for her because she’s still getting used to wearing a print.
Understanding Design Lines -- Necklace
Over the past year, Alice has learned that necklaces create a vertical line, which works best for her because of her V Body Shape and being short between her chin/bust. She had been eyeing this one for a while and decided it would be a great addition to her necklace collection.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Vertical Lines
With the combination of the long pendant and the chain creating a V-shape, this necklace creates a vertical design line, helping to move the eye away from the shoulders and making them appear thinner and taller. It’s a perfect addition to Alice’s dream closet.
Shape Of Design Lines
With Alice’s Face Shape being angular, she looked for angular pendants. The pendant on this necklace is rectangular, which is perfect for her Face Shape.
Understanding Design Lines -- Shoes
Alice looked for flat comfortable shoes. She wanted this outfit to serve double duty to wear out with her family and friends, along with wearing it to work on casual days. Usually on a casual work day, she’s running around getting things ready for a big project, so she needs comfortable shoes. When she tried them on, she knew they were what she was looking for.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Shape Of Design Lines
Alice learned the most important design line to look at on shoes is the overall shape of them. Is the toe angular or curved? Then she should look at the other design details: are they angular or curved? This shoe had a little of both design lines. Alice found a lot of shoes that had both. So she tried them on with the whole outfit to see how she felt. With the color of the shoes and pants being the same color, she felt that the shoes worked.
Final Thoughts
Alice has come a long way from where she started a year ago. Now she understands which design lines enhance her natural beauty. As a result, she’s able to go clothes shopping without getting overwhelmed. Now she looks for vertical design lines between her chin and bust to make this area appear thinner and longer. She also looks for horizontal lines between her bust and crotch to make this area appear wider and shorter. As a result, Alice is creating her dream closet.
In the next blog post, Grace will share the outfit she’ll wear on the wine tasting trip. Her self -confidence and her ability to find clothes that match her body’s clues are increasing. In fact, her body image is improving because she’s starting to see her natural beauty. To find out what outfit she found, go to: Understanding Design Lines — Grace.
Wear Your Greatness!!
