Grace is excited to figure out what to wear to leisure activities because she knows clothes change how you feel. She would usually just wear anything, thinking it really doesn’t matter. Now she knows differently because whenever she wears clothes that work best for her body, she feels like she can conquer her world. It’s just like when she wears her favorite outfit.
Grace and her friends: Sam, Monica, Alice and Veronica are going to the Northern California coast so each can work on how to start pursuing each of their passion projects. She has had a passion project since she was in college. Her plan was to work to get more experience and then start pursuing it. But life kept happening which kept chipping away at her confidence to do it. As a result, it’s been on the back burner for all these years. Now she’s starting to feel like her old self, she’s ready to start taking steps to make her passion project a reality.
Grace wants to start a non-profit which helps homeless women get back on their feet. She plans to do this by giving them a safe place to stay, therapy to heal their traumas, and figuring out the next steps of their life. This includes creating an income and a safe place to live. As a result, they can be united with their children.
Keep reading to find out which design lines and colors work best for Grace’s body which helps her feel like she can conquer her world.
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 her 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 knees/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
What To Wear To Leisure Activities -- Hoodie
The first thing Grace looked for is a hoodie because she gets cold easily and likes to wear layers. Over the last year and half, she’s learned that she might not find every design line that works for her body. However, she looks for as many as she can. She’s learned how to get around it.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
The first design line Grace looks at is the silhouette. The silhouette is the outside line of an outfit or garment. It’s the difference between the shoulders/waist, waist/hips and hips/shoulders. It comes in two categories: angular and curved. A silhouette is considered angular when the shoulders, waist and hips appear to be all the same width. On the other hand, a silhouette is considered curved with the waist significantly smaller than both the shoulders and waist. She learned that her Body Shape gives her clues to which category works best for her.
Grace has an A Body Shape where her waist is significantly smaller than her shoulders and her shoulders are significantly smaller than her hips. This Body Shape is in the curved category which means she should wear clothes with a curved silhouette.
Grace found one problem with looking for curved silhouettes and that is most clothes in the ready-to-wear world are angular. However, she’s learned how to overcome this problem by wearing clothes made out of knits and learning how to accentuate her waist by bringing attention to this area.
This hoodie has an angular silhouette and is made out of a velour knit, however, it’s cropped which brings attention to her waist. Grace determined that this hoodie works for her body by bringing attention to her waist and when paired with the velour knit pants, a curved silhouette is created perfect for her Body Shape.
Horizontal Lines
Grace learned that horizontal lines are neither good or bad. It all depends on their placement. Horizontal lines stop the eyes, emphasizes the area and makes it appear wider and shorter. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of them.
For Body Shapes, one wants to avoid placing them in their widest area because it will bring emphasis to this area and make it appear even wider. However, when placed in one’s thinner areas, it emphasizes these areas and makes them appear wider creating balance with the wider area.
For Body Proportions, one wants to avoid placing them in their short areas because it will make these areas appear even shorter, creating even more out of balance. On the other hand, one wants them in their long areas because it makes these areas appear shorter, creating overall balance.
Since Grace has an A Body Shape she wants to avoid placing horizontal lines in her hip area. On the other hand, wants to place them in her shoulders and waist area because they will emphasize these areas, make them appear wider and create overall balance.
Grace is short between her bust/waist and knees/floors. She is long between her waist/crotch. This means she wants to avoid horizontal lines between her bust/waist and knees/floor. But she wants horizontal lines between her waist/crotch to create better overall balance.
Hoodie
This hoodie has three sets of horizontal lines: the hood itself, hem band and sleeve hem band. The horizontal line created by the hood itself is perfect because it emphasizes the shoulders and makes them appear slightly wider. It also contributes to making her torso appear shorter creating balance with her legs.
The hem band hits Grace an inch below her waist area also bringing emphasis to this area and making them appear wider. Because Grace is short between her bust/waist and long between her waist/crotch, these horizontal lines make her bust/waist area appear longer and waist/crotch area appear shorter.
The horizontal lines created by the sleeve hem band can be problematic; they bring emphasis to her hips. She will need to look at the other components of the outfit to determine if the length of the sleeves will work for her. One alternative is she could push up the sleeves to make them a ¾ length sleeve which will hit her mid-hip.
Vertical Lines
Grace learned vertical lines are also neither good or bad, it all depends on their placement. Vertical lines move the eye up and down, and make the area appear thinner and wider. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions help her determine the placement of them.
For her Body Shape, Grace determined that she wants vertical lines through her hip area because they will move the eyes away from this area and make them appear thinner. She doesn’t want vertical lines just between her shoulders and waist because they will make this area appear even thinner and make her hips appear even wider.
For her Body Proportions, Grace determined that she wants them through her bust/waist and knees/floor areas because they will make these areas appear longer. However, she doesn’t want vertical lines just between waist/crotch area because vertical lines will make this area appear even longer. This can be a problem for Grace because vertical lines in this area will make her hips appear thinner.
This hoodie only has two sets of vertical lines created by the two ties to the hoodie and the dropped shoulder sleeves. The ties start at the hoodie and go down almost to Grace’s waist. If these were the only vertical lines that could be problematic. However, the other vertical lines created by the dropped shoulder sleeves make the shoulders appear wider. As a result, the ties don’t make the shoulders appear thinner, perfect for her Body Shape.
As for being short between her bust/waist, the vertical ties don’t make the area appear longer. The ties needed to go through her waist to make this area appear longer.
Color
Grace’s favorite colors are green and orange. This brown has a lot of orange undertones which work well for both green and orange. It’s a great neutral color for her.
What To Wear To Leisure Activities -- Top
After finding the hoodie, Grace went on a search for a turtleneck to wear under the hoodie. She likes layering clothes because she gets cold easily. However, as the day goes on she can start taking off layers. When she found this turtleneck in the junior’s department because she knew this was the one because of all the colors and they match perfectly with the brown of the hoodie.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
The first design line Grace looked at when determining if this turtleneck would work for her body was the silhouette. She determined that it was angular. However, it’s made out of knit which can mold to her curvy body easily. Many of the clothes in her closet are made out of knit just for this reason.
Horizontal Lines
The next design line Grace looked at were horizontal lines. The knit pattern in this turtleneck is a horizontal stripe. In the past, she learned from many stylists to always advise to stay away from horizontal stripes because it makes people appear wider and shorter. She learned this isn’t necessarily true. Horizontal strips actually make the area appear longer and don’t affect the width. She tried on the turtleneck and noted she felt like she was longer between her shoulders and mid-hip. Because she will be most likely tucking in this turtleneck into the pant waistband, these horizontal strips are perfect for her short area between her bust/waist.
Color
What Grace loved about the striped turtleneck is all the different colors. Over the last year and a half she learned that the colors of her skin, hair and eyes give her clues as to color combinations and the relative lightness and darkness of the colors along with which individual colors work for her. The best color combinations and relative lightness and darkness of those combinations is determined by the color contrast between her skin, hair and eyes. This is known as the color contrast profile. Grace as a medium color contrast. This means analogous (three colors next to each other on the color wheel) and triadic (every fourth color on the color wheel) color combinations are best for her. The colors on this turtleneck are orange and violet which are two of the triadic color combination of orange, violet and green. This color combination is perfect for her.
Next Grace looked at the relative lightness and darkness of these colors. Because there is a dark violet and a cream color the relative lightness and darkness is high contrast. Since her color contrast profile is medium, she should look for medium contrast. She thought she could wear this turtleneck without another layer on days when she already felt her natural confidence. On the other hand, on days she didn’t feel it she would always add another layer. The turtleneck itself had a medium color contrast which worked perfect for her.
What To Wear To Leisure Activities -- Pants
When Grace found the hoodie she looked for the pants that went with it. She found them and looked at their design lines. What she liked about them are the wide-legs because they work well for her wider thighs and wider hips. She tried them on to make sure they weren’t too wide and determined they work perfect for her.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
As with most pants, Grace determined these pants had an angular silhouette. But they’re made out of a knit which can mold to her curved Body Shape. She tried on pants that fit her waist and one size up to determine which pant size works best. After trying both on, she found the pants that fit her waist perfectly worked the best.
Horizontal Lines
Next Grace looked for all the horizontal lines and determined there are three: top of the waistband, bottom of the waistband and hem of pants. She knew all three would work for both her Body Shape and Body Proportions..
Grace determined for her Body Shape the emphasis goes to just below her waistline and just above her mid-hip. They also make these areas appear wider and balances out the wider hip.
For Grace’s Body Proportions the horizontal lines just below her waist and just above her mid-hip make the area between her waist/crotch appear shorter. The hem below her ankles balance makes her legs appear longer. The horizontal design lines on this pair of pants work perfectly for Grace.
What To Wear To Leisure Activities -- Slippers
Grace saw Alice Uggs slippers and wanted a pair. Alice told her they’re so comfortable and works well with her Face Shape clues. Grace tried a pair on and agreed with Alice.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Design Line Shape
Grace learned that the shape of design lines are an important aspect of design lines. They come in two shapes: angular and curved. Angular design lines have angles and curved ones are curved. Her Face Shape gives her clues as to which category works best for her. She has a rectangular Face Shape which falls into the angular category. This means she should wear design lines with angular shapes.
Grace also learned that she should look for design lines shapes in design on clothes themselve, accessories which includes shoes, and prints. Because her Face Shape clue is angular design lines the shape of shoes/boots/slippers toe is important. She can wear a square toe or pointed toe. These Uggs slippers are close to square toed, perfect for Grace.
Final Thoughts
Grace is excited about her trip to the northern coast of California. She’s determined what to wear to leisure activities and is ready to determine how she can start working on her dream of creating a non-profit facility for homeless women to be reunited with their children. Over the last year and a half she’s learned what clothes help her feel like she can conquer her world; which allowed her to start feeling more confident like she did when she just graduated from college. She’s grateful that her husband and friends keep pushing her to find her confidence so she can finally make her dream a reality.
In the next blog post, Veronica will be sharing what she chose to wear to leisure activities and what she’ll be taking on the trip. Over the last year and a half she learned what design line combination works best for her body and is now feeling confident to start pursuing her passion project. The post is called: What To Wear To Leisure Activities — Veronica.
Wear Your Greatness!!
