Alice is excited to learn what to wear to a Christmas party this year. First, she’s grateful Christmas parties are happening again. It’s a tradition she’s missed the last several years. Secondly, this is the first company party with her current company. It’s an event where she can get to know her co-workers better. And finally, she has the skills to pick out an outfit that works for her body. In the past, she’s always struggled figuring out what to wear for her Body Shape. Now she understands what designs to look for. As a result, she has more confidence in herself and skills than she has ever had. This is allowing her to do things she never thought she could do.
Keep reading to learn what designs Alice chose to help her feel more confident.
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 To A Christmas Party -- Dress
Over the past year and a half, Alice learned she needs to look for designs which de-emphasize her shoulders and make them appear narrower. She’s amazed how strategically placed design lines can transform a body to appear more balanced. It’s like magic. When she first looked at the designs on this dress, she wasn’t sure if they would work for her. But after putting it on, the designs worked like magic.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Alice learned the first design line to look at is the silhouette. The silhouette is the outside line of an outfit. It’s the difference between the shoulders/waist, waist/hips and hips/shoulders. It comes in two categories including angular and curved. A silhouette is angular when the shoulders, waist and hips appear to be the same width. While a silhouette is curved when the waist is significantly smaller than the shoulders and waist. Her Body Shape gives her clues as to which category.
Body Shapes also come in the same two categories. A Body Shape is angular when the waist isn’t significantly smaller than both the shoulders and hips. On the other hand, a Body Shape is curved when the waist is significantly smaller than both the shoulders and hips. If the Body Shape is in the angular category then wear angular silhouette clothes. On the other hand, if the Body Shape is in the curved category then wear curve silhouette clothes.
Alice has a V Body Shape, so she looks for angular silhouettes. This dress had a slightly curved silhouette to it; however, it was made out of a knit which stretches around the body. Because the shoulder area on the dress was designed, she didn’t need to get the size for her shoulders but for her waist and hips. As a result, the knit of the fabric molded to her body perfectly.
Horizontal Lines
Alice learned that horizontal lines 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.
Alice then learned for her Body Shape that she doesn’t want horizontal lines in her widest area, her shoulders, because it emphasizes this area and makes it appear even wider. On the other hand, she does want them in her waist and hip areas because these areas are emphasized and appear wider. As a result, balance is created with the shoulders.
For her Body Proportions, Alice learned that she doesn’t want horizontal lines in her short area, between her bust/chin, because it will make this area appear even shorter. However, she does want them between her waist/crotch because this area is long and the line will make it appear shorter creating balance.
When Alice first looked at this dress she wasn’t sure about it because there was a horizontal line between her chin/bust. She didn’t want to emphasize her shoulders and make them appear wider and at the same time make the area appear even shorter. To her surprise this didn’t happen because of the magic that happens when horizontal and vertical lines are strategically placed in an area.
Vertical Lines
Alice also learned vertical lines move the eye up and down, and make the area appear thinner and taller. As with horizontal lines, her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues to the placement of vertical lines.
Alice wants to place vertical lines in her shoulder area because they will help to de-emphasize this area and make it appear thinner. She wants them between her chin/bust area because they will make this area appear longer.
Alice saw this dress had three vertical lines: the halter armhole line, the pleats under the neckline and princess lines from the chest area to the dress hem. The halter armhole lines canceled out the horizontal line created by the neckline along with creating visual length between her chin/bust. The pleats also created visual length. The princess lines didn’t make her waist and hips any thinner because they started in the shoulder area and went straight through the hem. Because it’s a dress, it didn’t make her waist/crotch area appear longer because it’s a dress and you can’t tell the length of this area.
Alice thought it was amazing how understanding horizontal and vertical line properties can create balance by strategically placing them.
Shape Of Design Lines
Another design line Alice learned to look for is the shape of the design line. She looks for design line shapes in design lines on the clothes: for example, necklines, pockets, collars, cuffs and seam lines. She also looks for them in accessories and prints. There are two categories of design line shape: angular and curved. Angular design lines have angles; while curved ones are all about curves.
Alice’s Face Shape gives her the clue as to which category she should wear. She has a rectangular Face Shape; therefore, she should look for angular design line shapes.
The neckline of this dress is square creating angular design lines. The halter armhole also has an angular design line shape. Both are perfect for Alice.
What To Wear To A Christmas Party -- Earrings
Alice decided not to wear a necklace because the fabric of the dress had a sparkly thread running through the knit. She thought a necklace would overpower it and the neckline had enough design line detail. However, she wanted to bring in a little more sparkle through earrings. So many of the earrings she saw had too many rhinestones. When she saw this pair she knew they would be perfect.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Vertical Lines
When looking for a pair of earrings, Alice wanted a pair with a vertical line to create length between her chin and shoulders. The design lines on this pair move the eye up and down giving more length in this area.
Design Line Shape
Because Alice had an angular Face Shape, she looked for angular earrings. This pair was perfect not just because it had an angular shape, it also reflected the halter armhole line.
What To Wear To A Christmas Party -- Shoe
Alice looked for silver sandals to go with this dress. She wanted them to have a little bit of sparkle but not too much. These sandals had the perfect balance.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Horizontal Lines
Alice noted that the sandal had a horizontal line created by the ankle strap. Ankle straps work well on her because Body Proportion wise, the length of her torso and legs are even.
Design Lines Shape
Alice learned she should look for the toe shape on shoes/sandals that are angular. Her angular Face Shape gives her clues as to this shape. Once she learned this clue now she understands why she had always gravitated to square or pointed toe shoes. These sandals have a square toe shape.
What To Wear To A Christmas Party -- Clutch
The last item Alice looked for was a clutch. She wanted a plain silver one; however she couldn’t find one. She didn’t have the time to order one off of macys.com so she chose from what was in the store. This one had the right shape, but she wasn’t sure about the bling factor. So she tried on the whole outfit and found it worked perfectly because she was constraining the bling factor in other areas.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Design Lines Shape
Because Alice has an angular Face Shape, she looked for clutches that had an angular shape. This clutch had the angular corners she was looking for.
Final Thoughts
Alice is excited to go to her company’s Christmas party. It’s a great way to get to know the people she works with on a personal level. She was amazed how easy it was to find the perfect outfit. A year and a half ago she would have struggled. Now that she understands all the clues her body gives her, she’s able to find the perfect dress and accessories for her. As a result, she felt confident to mingle and get to know the people she works with better.
In the next blog post, Grace will be sharing the outfit she will be wearing to her husband’s company Christmas party. Since she learned clothes change how you feel and started to wear clothes that reflect her body’s clues, she’s starting to feel her old confident self. Now that she knows what designs look best on her body and has the confidence to mingle with people she doesn’t know well, she’s excited about this party. Go to: What To Wear To A Christmas Party — Grace, to learn which outfit she’ll be wearing to the Christmas party.
Wear Your Greatness!!
