What To Wear This Fall -- Grace

What To Wear This Fall — Grace

Grace has not considered shopping or thinking about what to wear this fall. Shopping for clothes has always been a nightmare. Over the last year she’s learned it’s not her body that’s the problem, but rather the fashion industry that doesn’t want to design for her body. However, by understanding the clues her body gives her she can find clothes that work for her body.

This shopping trip with her friends: Sam, Monica, Alice and Veronica, she’s looking for a dress to wear to a wedding in a couple of weeks. She thought this would be a good time to actually shop for dresses with fall trends in mind.

Keep reading to find out what she found.

Grace’s Body Elements

Grace

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 This Fall -- Dress

What To Wear This Fall -- Grace Dress

Grace loves wearing dresses and skirts. She started to wear them because most of them fit around her hips. When she walked into the dress department at Macy’s she saw a lot of velvet. She loves velvet because of the drape. She found several velvet dresses with the right design lines for her. However, when she put this one on, she knew it was the one. Over the last year she learned to look for the “feel like I can conquer my world feeling.” The moment she put the dress on she felt just that way.

Design Line & Color Analysis

Silhouette

Grace learned that her Body Shape gives her the clue as to which silhouette: angular or curved, she should look for. She has an A Body Shape in which her hips are wider than both her shoulders and waist and her shoulders are wider than her waist. This Body Shape is in the curved category, therefore, she would wear a curved silhouette.

When looking at the side seams she noticed the waist is significantly smaller than both the shoulders and hips which puts the silhouette of the dress into the curved category, and is perfect for Grace.

Horizontal Lines

Grace also learned the placement of horizontal lines are critical for her. They stop the eye,  emphasize the 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 her Body Shape, Grace doesn’t want horizontal lines in her hip area because this is her widest area. Horizontal lines in this area will bring attention and make it appear even wider. However, she wants them in her shoulders and waist areas because it brings emphasis to this area, makes it appear wider and creates balance with her hips.

For her Body Shape, Grace doesn’t want horizontal lines between her bust/waist and knees/floor because she’s short in these areas and they will appear even shorter with horizontal lines. On the other hand she wants them between her waist/hips because she’s long in this area.

This dress has four horizontal lines: waist, sleeve hem, top of hem ruffle and bottom of hem ruffle. The horizontal line at the waist is perfect for Grace because the focus goes to her small waist, making it appear wider creating better balance with her hips. This horizontal line is also good for her Body Proportion because she is short between her bust/waist causing the seam to be just below her belly button which is below her natural waist. As a result, her bust/waist area appears longer.

The sleeve hem hits her at her hips which on the surface isn’t great. However, she doesn’t plan to have her arms down all the time which would bring emphasis to this area.

The top of the ruffle hits Grace just above her knees and the bottom just below them. This works great for her because it doesn’t make this short area appear even shorter.

Vertical Lines

Grace learned vertical lines move the eyes up and down and make the area appear thinner and taller. Her Body Shape and Proportions gives her clues as to the best placement of these lines.

Grace has an A Body Shape which means she wants vertical lines through her hip area because it will move the eye away from this area and make it appear thinner. She doesn’t want a vertical line just between her chin and mid-hip because this area will appear even thinner and make her hips appear even wider.

For her Body Proportions, Grace is short between her bust/waist and knees/floor; and long between waist/crotch. This means she wants vertical design lines between her bust/waist and knees/floor because they will make these areas appear taller. However, she doesn’t want them just between her waist/crotch because they’ll make this area appear even longer.

This dress has a vertical line created by the faux wrap neckline which goes directly into the ruffle in the skirt. As a result, a vertical line goes from the neck/shoulders down to the hem of the dress. The ruffle on the dress also creates a second vertical line from the waist to the hem. Both of these vertical lines are perfect for Grace’s Body Shape and Body Proportions.

Shape Of Design Lines

Grace thought it was fascinating that her Face Shape gives her clues as to design line shape which comes in two categories: angular and curved. Angular design lines have angles and curved ones don’t. Face Shapes have the same two categories. If one has an angular Face Shape then she should wear angular design lines and on the other hand, if she has a curved Face Shape she should wear curved design lines.

Design line shape can be found in 3 different places: design detail within clothes themselves, prints and accessories.

Color

Grace has two favorite colors: orange and green. This dress is her favorite color of green. Whenever she wears it she feels like she can conquer her world.

What To Wear This Fall -- Necklace

Grace wanted to look for a necklace next. She wanted a green and gold one with some rhinestones. She prayed she could find one that matches her Face Shape clues. When she found this one she did her happy dance because it met all her design element requirements.

Design Line & Color Analysis

Shape Of Design Lines

With Grace’s Face Shape being angular she wants her jewelry to have angular shapes. This necklace is perfect for her.

Color

Grace learned that the color of her Skin, Hair and Eyes give her clues to color combinations and the relative lightness and darkness of those colors. She determines them by the contrast in lightness and darkness of her Skin, Hair and Eyes or color contrast profile. She has light skin and medium hair and eyes. This gives her a color contrast of medium.

This means the best color combinations for Grace are analogous color scheme and triadic. The gold and green are in the analogous color scheme and their contrast is medium. Both are perfect for her.

For the relative lightness and darkness of these colors should have some lightness and darkness.

The colors in this necklace are green and gold. That’s a part of the analogous color scheme: yellow, yellow/green and green. The gold feels lighter than the green which is in the medium range. Both of these elements are perfect for Grace.

What To Wear This Fall -- Shoes

The next department Grace went to is the shoe department. She wanted to find gold sandals to wear with the dress. Based on what her friends said were fall trends for shoes, she looked for gold platform sandals and she found the perfect pair.

Design Line & Color Analysis

Horizontal/Vertical Lines

This shoe has both horizontal and vertical lines. Horizontal lines are created by the ankle straps and the vertical lines are created by the tall heel.

Grace is short between her knees/floor and her legs are shorter than her torso, which means she should avoid horizontal lines and seek out vertical ones. She tried on the shoes with the dress and necklace and felt like she could conquer her world. She knows if the shoes didn’t have such a tall heel the ankle straps wouldn’t work.

Shape Of Design Lines

Grace looked for shoes with either a pointed toe or a square one because she has an angular face shape. The square toe of these shoes is perfect for her.

What To Wear This Fall -- Clutch

What To Wear This Fall -- Grace Clutch

The last piece Grace looked for was a clutch. She looked for a gold one because gold was the accent color to her green dress. This clutch worked perfectly with the dress, necklace and shoes.

Design Line & Color Analysis

Shape Of Design Lines

Grace looked for angular shaped clutches because of her rectangle Face Shape. This rectangular clutch works perfectly.

Final Thoughts

By understanding the clues her body gives her, Grace is feeling more confident in finding clothes that work well with her body. In fact, she’s feeling some of the confidence she had back in her 20’s. She’s found that clothes truly change how you feel and always wearing clothes based on her body’s clues is an easy way to start tapping into her confidence.

In the next blog post, Veronica will be sharing what she’s wearing this fall. She surprised herself. By understanding her body’s clues, she can look at a fashion trend to see if it works for her. Shopping for clothes can actually be fun. Learn what fashion trends she’ll be wearing this fall in What To Wear This Fall — Veronica.

Wear Your Greatness!!

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