Understanding design lines on outfits and her body is giving Monica the confidence to expand to different styles of clothes. As a result, she can determine which styles work for her personality and help her tap into her confidence and personal power.
Monica won a wine tasting weekend trip and wants to take her friends: Sam, Alice, Grace and Veronica with her. This is a great opportunity to look for non-work clothes and clothes that are outside her comfort zone so she can explore new styles.
After trying on different clothes, which included pants/tops and dresses, she concluded that she feels most confident in dresses. Keep reading to find out which dress she bought for the trip.
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 — Medium 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, so 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
Understanding Design Lines -- Dress
Monica was looking for a fun dress to wear wine tasting. She loved this one because it’s one of her favorite colors and she likes the baby-doll style. After examining the horizontal design lines, she thought they’re in all the right places.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Monica learned that the silhouette of a dress is the first thing to look at. The silhouette is the outside lines; the difference between the shoulders/waist, waist/hips and hips/shoulders. There are two categories: angular and curved. In the angular category the shoulders, waist and hips all appear to be the same width. On the other hand, in the curved category, the waist is significantly smaller than both the shoulders and hips. Her Body Shape gives her the clue to which category she’s in. Body Shapes fall into the same two categories. An angular Body Shape wears an angular silhouette dress and a curved Body Shape wears a curved silhouette dress.
Monica’s O Body Shape falls into the angular category because her waist isn’t significantly smaller than both her shoulders and waist. This means she should wear dresses with an angular silhouette.
When looking at this dress, Monica looked at the armpits, waist and hips and noted that all appeared to be the same width. This meant that the silhouette of the dress is angular, which is perfect for her.
Horizontal Lines
Monica also learned that horizontal lines stop her eyes, emphasize that area and make it appear wider and shorter. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of these design lines. For Body Shape, she doesn’t want to place them in her widest area because they bring emphasis to this area and make it appear wider. However, she does want to place them in a thinner area because they bring emphasis to this area and make it appear wider causing it to appear to be in proportion with her wider area.
For Body Proportions, she doesn’t want to put them in her short areas because they’ll make these areas appear even shorter. On the other hand, she does want them in her long areas because they’ll make these areas appear shorter and more in balance with the rest of her body.
Because Monica has an O Body Shape, she doesn’t want to place horizontal design lines at her waist. Placing them in this area will make it appear even wider. However, horizontal lines at her shoulders will help them appear wider and in better balance with her waist.
Monica knows she doesn’t have to worry about horizontal lines for her Body Proportions when it comes to dresses, because when looking in the mirror she doesn’t know where her torso ends and legs begin. This is a major reason why she loves wearing dresses. With her torso being much longer than her legs and not being able to wear horizontal lines around her waist area, it’s hard for her to feel balanced when wearing pants.
Monica looked at the horizontal lines on this dress and determined that they work perfectly for her Body Shape. They’re at her shoulders, hips, mid-thighs and ankles.
Color
The color of the dress is one of Monica’s favorite colors: red/orange. Color is always the first thing she sees and then looks at the design lines. In the past, she only looked at color and as a result, she created a closet full of clothes she loved the color of but did not necessarily love to wear. Now that she understands which design lines work for her body, she’s starting to create a closet full of clothes she loves to wear.
Understanding Design Lines -- Necklace
Monica loves wearing necklaces with unusual shapes. This one caught her eye. She loves the way the metal appears to fold. She thought she could wear it with other outfits creating a different feel.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Horizontal Lines
The folded metal part of the necklace creates a horizontal line. It brings emphasis to the area between Monica’s chin/bust. She determined that this placement is perfect for her because this is the area she wants to emphasize.
Shape Of Design Lines
One of the interesting facts she has learned is that her Face Shape gives her clues as to the shape of design lines. Face Shapes come in two categories: angular and curved. An angular Face Shape should wear angular prints and accessories, while a curved Face Shape should wear curved ones.
Monica has a pear Face Shape which puts her into the curved category; therefore, she should look for necklaces with a curved shape. The shape of the folded metal is curved, which is perfect for her Face Shape.
Scale
Another interesting fact Monica learned is that the contrast between her skin, hair and eyes, along with her Body Proportions and Body Frame Size, give her clues as to the best scale of prints and accessories in that area. These clues tell her that the best scale of necklace is medium/large.
After trying it on, Monica determined that this necklace is in that range and goes well with the dress.
Understanding Design Lines -- Sandals
Monica had been eyeing these sandals for a while. She loved the texture of the woven upper band. She tried them on and they were comfortable; so she decided it was time to purchase them.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Shape Of Design Lines
Because Monica has a curved Face Shape, she looked for sandals with curved toes. This season, she saw a lot of sandals with a square toe. When she tried on sandals with a square toe, she felt like her feet didn’t belong to her. But when she tried on sandals with a curved toe, her feet felt like they belonged. She’s amazed by this fact.
These sandals have a curved toe, which works for Monica.
Scale
Monica also learned that the scale of shoes is important. Too small in scale, and the shoes are underwhelming; but too big, and they take over, being all you see. She learned that she should look for shoes/sandals with a medium/large scale when wearing dresses. When she wears pants, the scale of the shoes/sandals she wears should decrease to medium because she has short legs. The reason she doesn’t have to decrease the scale when wearing dresses is because one can’t tell where her torso ends and legs begin.
The strap with the weave puts the scale of the sandals into the medium/large category, which is perfect for Monica.
Final Thoughts
Understanding the design lines that work best for her body helps Monica tap into her confidence and has been a game changer for her. She has always loved clothes, but clothes haven’t always worked for her odd shaped body. Before, color drove all her clothing decisions/purchases. Now she has a step two; look at the design lines. As a result, she feels different inside. She’s feeling more confident in her abilities, which is helping her explore undeveloped gifts.
In the next blog post, Alice will share what she’ll be wearing on the wine tasting weekend trip. Like Monica, Alice had no idea how to dress her odd shaped body. As a result, she tried to hide it and herself. Now that she understands which design lines enhance her body, she’s exploring different styles of clothes to determine which ones help her step into her confidence. The post is called: Understanding Design Lines — Alice.
Wear Your Greatness!!
