Knowing what to wear for your Body Shape is about understanding what design lines on clothes will flatter your body. This is true for those of you who have a V (inverted triangle) Body Shape. You won’t go into the dressing room with an arm full of clothes and come out with maybe one or two items anymore. By understanding what design lines enhance your body you’ll know which ones to leave on the racks.
In addition this understanding will take you from feeling like Plain Jane to Proud Mary and you’ll be able to tap into your confidence and personal power. As a result, you’ll start pursuing your dreams because you have the confidence to do so. Plain and simple, clothes change how you feel. So why not wear the ones that make you feel like you can conquer the world?
I believe all women are born beautiful. One needs to understand what clothes have the right design lines and colors to enhance this natural beauty. For any Body Shape it’s about understanding the silhouette of the clothes and placement of horizontal and vertical lines. To learn more about Body Shape and the clues it gives you, read my blog post, What Are Your Body Shape Clues.
Anatomy Of A V (Inverted Triangle) Body Shape
How to determine if you have a V (inverted triangle) Body Shape? It’s when your shoulders appear to be wider than both your waist and hips. Frequently women with this Body Shape are also big busted, have no butt and skinny legs. Whenever they gain weight, it’s up front in the belly and bust.
Now that you understand the anatomy of a V (inverted triangle) Body Shape, you can determine what to wear by understanding which design lines will enhance this Body Shape. As I said above, there are three design lines that need to be evaluated:
- Silhouette of clothes
- Horizontal line placement
- Vertical line placement
The information below will be divided up into these three sections.
What To Wear -- Silhouette Of Clothes
Clothes’ silhouettes are divided up into two different categories:
- Angular
- Curved
Clothes with an angular silhouette have no indentation at the waist. In most of these clothes, the shoulders, waist and hips appear to be all the same width. Angular Body Shapes should wear clothes with angular silhouettes. These Body Shapes are:
- H or rectangle
- V or inverted triangle
- O or apple
In a curved silhouette, the waist appears to be smaller than both the shoulders and hips. Curved Body Shapes should wear clothes with curved silhouettes. These Body Shapes are:
- A or pear or triangle
- S or figure eight (transition at the waist is curved)
- X (transition at the waist is angular)
Since the V (inverted triangle) Body Shape is angular, look for angular silhouette clothes where the shoulders, waist and hips appear to be the same. You’re in luck because most fashion designers create clothing for this silhouette.
These are a few examples of angular silhouettes:
What To Wear -- Placement of Horizontal Lines
I wrote about horizontal lines in, Horizontal Lines: Friend Or Foe. Horizontal lines:
- Stop your eye and bring focus an area
- Widen the area
- Shorten the area
Look at these rectangles and notice where your eye stops, and how the rectangles with a horizontal line appear wider and shorter than the one without a horizontal line:
The first question to ask yourself: “Where do I want the focus to go?” And then ask: “Is there an area I want to add width?”
Now let’s examine how horizontal lines look on an H or rectangle Body Shape.
Notice how the horizontal lines look great anywhere they’re placed. Now let’s look at the V (inverted triangle) Body Shape:
When you place a horizontal line at the shoulders your focus goes right there and they appear even wider than they are. On the other hand, notice when you place a horizontal line at the hips, mid-hip or waist: the focus goes there. They appear wider and magically the body appears more balanced.
What does this tell you? If you have a V (inverted triangle) Body Shape, place horizontal lines at the waist or below because they’ll create overall balance.
Now you may wonder where you can find horizontal lines at the waist or below. Here are some examples of horizontal lines in these areas:
Hidden Horizontal Lines To Watch Out For
In many clothes you’ll find hidden horizontal lines that can bring attention to the shoulders and make them appear wider. These hidden horizontal lines come in the form of short sleeves. Remember hem lines create horizontal lines. Short sleeve or cap sleeves create horizontal lines right at your shoulders. In fact this season designers created various sleeve designs bringing more emphasis to the shoulders. This is great for A (pear) or O (apple) Body Shapes, but not for V (inverted triangle) Body Shapes. These are some examples:
What To Wear -- Placement of Vertical Lines
I wrote about vertical lines in, Vertical Lines Can Be A Foe. Vertical lines:
- Draw your eye up and down
- Elongate your appearance and make you look taller
- Cut your body vertically, creating a slimmer profile
Look at these rectangles and notice how your eye is drawn up and down. Also notice how the rectangles with a vertical line appear taller and slimmer than the one without a vertical line.
When considering vertical lines ask yourself: “What area(s) do I want to draw my eye over?” And then ask: “Which area(s) do I want to make slimmer?”
Now let’s examine how vertical lines look on an H or rectangle Body Shape.
Notice how all the vertical lines look great on this Body Shape.
Now let’s look at the V (inverted triangle) Body Shape:
Notice how your eye flows over the shoulder area when the vertical line goes through the shoulders. When vertical lines start at the neck and stop at the armpits (picture 4) these lines make the shoulders appear thinner creating overall balance with the rest of the body. This type of vertical line is called raglan sleeves. Finally when the princess lines start at the armpits (picture 5), the shoulders appear even wider because the vertical lines are making the rest of the body appear thinner. V (inverted triangle) Body Shapes should avoid this set of vertical lines.
Raglan sleeve design lines can be found in many forms. These are some examples:
Summary
For the V (inverted triangle) Body Shape the placement of design lines is critical because they create horizontal and vertical lines. Horizontal lines stop your eye, create width and make the area look shorter. Conversely vertical lines move your eye up and down, making the area look thinner and taller.
You want horizontal lines to be placed at the waist and hips to make them appear wider creating balance with your shoulders. Horizontal lines are created by:
- Hems
- Waistbands
- Plackets on pants and skirts
- Pockets
- Seam lines
- Belts
- Ties
To determine the placement of horizontal lines on an outfit, ask yourself: “Where does my eye stop?”
For vertical lines, place them through the shoulders to move your eye over them and make them appear thinner. Vertical lines are created by:
- Raglan sleeves
- Vertical cold shoulder sleeves (avoid horizontal cold shoulder sleeves)
- Sleeve that end mid shoulder
- Princess lines that start at the shoulder
- Halter necks
- Necklines that create vertical lines at the shoulder
To determine the placement of vertical lines on an outfit, ask yourself: “Where does my eye easily move up and down?”
For best results combine the vertical lines at the shoulders and horizontal lines at the waist and hips. Below are some examples:
Do you have a V Body Shape? If so, what did you learn about the three design lines? Please make a comment in the section below. I would love to hear your insights.
Next Week’s Blog Post
In the next blog post I change the focus from Body Shape to Body Proportions. Specifically you’ll learn the placement of horizontal and vertical lines for bodies with long torso and short legs. It’s called: What To Wear With A Long Body & Short Legs.
Wear Your Greatness!!
