To prepare for this shopping trip, Alice researched what to wear this fall. This is something she never had done before. Now she understands which design lines and colors work for her body, she has the confidence to determine which fall trends will work for her.
Alice also discovered that understanding her body’s clues she can play around with styles she’s never considered before. She’s also learning which clues she can’t deviate from and which ones she can play with. As a result, she’s feeling more confident in picking out the right clothes for her.
There were two fall trends that piqued her interest; corduroy pants and sweater dresses. She was open to what she found. Keep reading to find out which one she chooses.
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
What To Wear This Fall -- Top
Alice was open to a dress or top/pant outfit. She looked in the dress department first but didn’t find anything that caught her eye. Then she found herself in the INC department and found this top. It had her favorite colors in it and the design lines were perfect. She thought this was a good start.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Alice learned her Body Shape gives her clues as to the silhouette of clothes. The silhouette of an outfit is the outside lines, the difference between the shoulders/waist, waist/hips and hips/shoulders. Silhouettes come in two categories: angular and curved. An angular silhouette is where the shoulders, waist and hips all appear to be the same width. While a curved silhouette the waist is significantly smaller than both the shoulders and hips.
Body Shapes have the same two categories: angular and curved. If a Body Shape falls into the angular category, then the angular silhouette is best for that shape. Conversely, if the Body Shape falls into the curved category, then the curved silhouette is best.
Alice has a V Body Shape which falls in the angular category. Her shoulders are significantly wider than both her waist and hips which appear to be the same width.
This top has an angular silhouette, perfect for Alice’s body’s clues.
Horizontal Lines
Alice learned that the placement of horizontal lines is an important component of an outfit. Horizontal lines stop one’s eye, emphasize that area and make it appear wider and shorter. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to strategically placing these design lines.
For her Body Shape, Alice doesn’t want horizontal lines at her widest area, her shoulders. By putting these design lines in this area, they will emphasize this area and make it appear wider. As a result her shoulders appear even wider and more out of proportion. A better place for her to put horizontal lines is at her waist and/or hips, because these areas will be emphasized, appear wider and create better overall balance.
For her Body Proportions, Alice doesn’t want them between her chin/bust area because this area is short compared to the ideal Body Proportion for her height. On the other hand, she does want horizontal lines between her waist/crotch because she’s long in this area. She’s lucky that both her Body Shape and Body Proportions clues are the same.
This top has two horizontal lines at this hip area: top and sleeve hems. These design lines are perfect for Alice because the focus goes to the hip area and makes this area appear wider.
Vertical Lines
The next design line which Alice learned about is the vertical one. These design lines move one’s eye up and down, and makes the area appear thinner and taller. Once again, her Body Shape and Proportion give her clues as to the placement of vertical lines.
For Alice’s Body Shape, she wants them in her shoulder areas, because vertical design lines will move one’s eye away from the shoulders and make them appear thinner. She doesn’t want them just between her bust and crotch because this area will appear even thinner than her shoulders and make them appear even wider.
Alice learned that for her Body Proportions, she wants them in her shoulder area because they will make this area appear thinner. She doesn’t want them just between her waist/crotch area because these lines will make this area appear even longer and more out of proportion.
Alice analyzed this top and found there are two vertical design lines: the v-neckline and center front seam. The v-neckline creates two vertical lines between her shoulders and bust which make this area appear thinning. Also, at the same time, making this short area appear longer. The neckline goes straight into the center front seam which moves the eye straight down to the hem. Alice decides both vertical lines work well for her body’s clues.
Shape Of Design Lines
Alice learned that her Face Shape gives her clues to the shape of design lines. Design lines come in two categories: angular and curved. In the angular category the design lines have angles, while in the curved category the design lines have no angles. She looks for design line shapes in actual design lines in an outfit; i.e. neckline, pockets, collars, cuffs, hems, plackets to name a few. She also looks for them in accessories and prints.
Alice has a rectangle Face Shape which means she should look for design lines shapes that form angles.
After looking for vertical lines, Alice looked at the top which is V-shaped and falls into the angular category perfect for her Face Shape clues. She next evaluated the print which is floral.
Color
This top had two of Alice’s favorite colors: coral and olive green. Over this last year she learned she also needed to be concerned about color combinations and the relative lightness and darkness of those colors. She thought it was fascinating that the colors of her Skin, Hair and Eyes give her clues to these color elements. More specifically the contrast between her Skin, Hair and Eyes or color contrast profile. Her color contrast profile is low.
This means Alice should wear monochromatic (same color family) and analogous (color next to each other on the color wheel) color schemes. Also the relative lightness and darkness of the colors should be next to each other for monochromatic color combinations and on the same rung on the color wheel.
The colors in the print are yellow/green, yellow and yellow/orange, with a little blue/violet and a black background. Alice knows the yellow/green, yellow, and yellow/orange works for her because they are an analogous color scheme. However, the blue/violet is a wild card and is a complementary color to the yellow/orange. Also the relative lightness and darkness is medium to high because of the black background and a few flowers are almost white.
When Alice tried on the top she felt good in it. With all the other elements working for her and she loved the floral print, she thought that she could wear it when out with her family and/or friends.
Scale
The last element Alice learned about this past year is the scale of prints. This is one of the major reasons she never wore them before. The combination of the clues her color contrast profile and Body Frame Size tell her the best overall scale of prints, and accessories. Then that scale is adjusted for Body Proportions in a specific area. When she’s short in an area, she’ll decrease the scale to small. On the other hand when she’s long in an area, she’ll increase the scale to medium.
Alice’s overall scale is small/medium. With her torso and legs being the same length, that’s her best scale of printed tops. The scale of the top is closer to medium than small/medium. When trying on the top she felt great in it, but knew she wouldn’t wear it to work or when she was going outside her comfort zone.
What To Wear This Fall -- Pants
On her way to the INC department Alice saw corduroy pants. She’s seen a lot of them this year and knows they’re on trend this fall. She thought the color of these pants looked the best. She thought she would be wearing these corduroy pants all fall and winter.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Alice feels lucky when it comes to the silhouette of pants, because most pants have an angular silhouette. This is the best silhouette for her. These corduroy pants have an angular silhouette.
Horizontal Lines
Alice looked for the placement of horizontal lines on these pants. She determined they’re at the waist and hem. The waist is mid-rise which means it’s below her natural waist which works well for her Body Shape and Body Proportions. The hem also works for her Body Proportions because the proportions between her torso and legs are even, therefore, she can place horizontal lines anywhere in her leg area.
What To Wear This Fall -- Necklace
After trying on both the top and pants for fit, Alice went looking for a necklace to go with it. One of her favorite stones is jade so she looked in the fine jewelry department for a pendant necklace. This one caught her eye because of the angular shape and bamboo design.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Vertical Lines
Alice looked for necklaces which had a pendant on them because the pendant creates a vertical line. She also looked for pendants that also create vertical lines. This necklace does just that. It not only helps the shoulders appear thinner but also the chin/bust area appear longer. Both are perfect for her Body Shape and Body Proportions clues.
Shape Of Design Lines
Another element Alice looked for in the necklace is that the pendant needed to have an angular shape which matched her Face Shape. The bamboo leaves also create an angular feel.
What To Wear This Fall -- Boots
The last piece of the puzzle for Alice is booties. A great fall shoe. She wanted one that blended with the pants.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Horizontal Lines
This pair of ankle boots has several horizontal lines, the top and the wrap around straps around the boot also create horizontal lines. This works for Alice because her torso and legs are the same length which means her Body Proportions can handle these design lines. If she was like Monica or Grace, this would be a problem.
Shape Of Design Lines
Alice learned an important aspect of design line shape on shoes is the shape of the toe. Since she has an angular Face Shape, she should wear either pointed toe shoes or squared ones. These ankle boots have a pointed toe, and are perfect for her.
Final Thoughts
Shopping for what to wear this fall is so much easier this year because Alice knows what design lines and colors work for her. She doesn’t have to try on an arm full of clothes and maybe come out with one or two items. She looks for only the design lines and colors that work for her. If she doesn’t find any, she no longer blames her body. She knows the design lines and colors for this season, along with all the other women with similar bodies.
Alice also learned that by understanding the clues her body gives her, she knows which clues she needs to be strict on and which ones she can go outside their parameters. By understanding her clues she can experiment with different trends and styles to find which ones reflect her.
In the next blog post, Grace will be sharing what she’s wearing this fall. Like Alice, she understands what design lines and colors work best for her body and is enjoying shopping again. In fact, she’s feeling more confident overall and is dusting off a passion project. To read about what Grace is wearing this fall read: What To Wear This Fall — Grace.
Wear Your Greatness!!
