What To Wear -- Long Legs & Short Torso

What To Wear For Long Legs & A Short Torso

Did you know that understanding what to wear for your body can transform you from feeling like Plain Jane to Proud Mary? You start out holding back and not speaking up and change to sharing your gifts, creating impact and making this world a better place to live.

A part of understanding what to wear for your body is understanding the best placement of design lines. These lines create horizontal and/or vertical lines. As a result the proper placements of them will enable you to start feeling like you can conquer your world.

I’ve helped many women with the placement of design lines. Any time they wear clothes with the proper line placement for their bodies, their body language changes, displaying more confidence. They stand up straighter, walk and speak more confidently and their faces glow.

Today’s blog post will help you understand the placement of design lines for those of you with the following Body Proportions: long legs and a short torso.

Body Proportions give us two clues:

  • Placement of horizontal and vertical lines
  • The second clue to determine the scale of prints and accessories

In this post I’ll only concentrate on the placement of horizontal and vertical lines. When placed incorrectly you’ll feel out of balance. When placed correctly you’ll be in balance so that you can easily tap into your confidence and personal power.

Anatomy Of Long Legs And Short Torso

What To Wear -- Long Legs & Short Torso

Understanding your Body Proportions is comparing the length of your body areas to that of a well-proportioned body at your same height. A well-proportioned body is eight heads tall. The body areas are:

  • Head — 1 head
  • Chin to bust — 1 head
  • Bust to waist — 1 head
  • Waist to crotch — 1 head
  • Crotch to knees — 2 heads
  • Knees to floor — 2 heads

The example picture above compared to a well-proportioned body is:

  • Head — Same
  • Chin to bust — Same
  • Bust to waist — Short
  • Waist to crotch — Same
  • Crotch to knees — Long
  • Knees to floor — Long

I’ve seen this body be short from head to crotch. There are many variations. The end result is the legs are longer than the torso.

To learn more about Body Proportions read my post on this subject: Body Proportions — Out Of Balance?

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 to 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:

What To Wear - Horizontal Line Placement

As a result, when it comes to Body Proportions, wear horizontal lines in long areas and avoid them in short ones. That means place them in long legs and avoid them in short torsos.

By putting them in just the leg area this area will appear shorter and more in balance with your short torso.

Notice when there are horizontal lines in the short torso area the torso looks even shorter and the legs look even longer. But when a horizontal line created by a top hem is below the crotch area the legs appear to be in balance with the torso. Also by placing another horizontal line via capris pants even more balance is created.

Besides top hems and capris length pants, horizontal lines can be created in pants by:

  • Pockets
  • Dye lines
  • Pant cuffs
  • Distressed jean holes that have a horizontal feel

For example:

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.

What To Wear - Placement of Vertical Lines

As a result, when it comes to Body Proportions, wear vertical lines in short areas and use them sparingly (sometimes their hard to avoid) in long ones. That means placing them in short torsos and avoiding them in long legs.

By putting them in just the torso area, this area will appear longer and more in balance with your long legs.

Vertical lines in the torso area can come in many forms:

  • Center front openings
  • Darts
  • Princess lines (as shown above)
  • Center front seams
  • Accessories
  • Color blocking

For example:

Summary

What To Wear - Best horizontal and vertical lines

To create balance for long legs and/or short torso bodies, place horizontal lines in the leg area or vertical lines in the torso area. For maximum results use both. When you feel balanced you can easily tap into your confidence and personal power.

By experimenting with different horizontal and vertical line placements you’ll figure out the best types of design lines for you and the placement of them. The key is to determine which ones you feel the lightest in.

In the next blog post I’ll show you how you can convert an angular silhouette into a curved one. This is important to know because most clothes in the ready-to-wear market have an angular silhouette and it’s hard to find ones for those of us with curved silhouettes. It’s called: How To Transform Angular Silhouettes.

Wear Your Greatness!!

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