Now that Monica knows what it feels like to wear clothes with the right design lines and colors for her body, she’s excited to apply this knowledge to what to wear to bed. She noticed that whenever she felt confident, because she had a great day, she slept better. So thinking about what to wear to bed is a natural next step.
Monica and her friends: Sam, Alice, Grace and Veronica are shopping for night clothes to lounge around in and wear to bed. She starts most mornings early to do her creative work. She’s found this is the best time to get her creative juices going, because there are no distractions. Wearing lounge clothes that reflect her body’s clues so she can tap into her confidence and personal power is ideal.
Keep reading to learn which design lines and colors work best for Monica’s body clues.
Monica’s Body Elements
As a review, these are Monica’s Body Element clues:
- Body Shape — O (Body Shape — The Girls)
- Angular clothes silhouette
- Avoid placing horizontal lines at the waist
- Avoid placing vertical lines at the shoulders
- Face Shape — Pear (Face Shape — The Girls)
- Curved design lines, prints and accessories
- Color Skin, Hair, Eyes — Medium Color Contrast (Color Skin, Hair & Eyes — The Girls)
- Favorite Colors — Green, Yellow and Red/Orange
- Color Combinations (other colors) — Analogous
- Color Combinations (relative lightness and darkness) — Medium contrast
- First Scale Clue — Medium
- Body Proportions — Long between bust/waist, Long between waist/crotch, Short between crotch/knees, Short between knees/floor (Body Proportions — The Girls)
- Horizontal lines — Don’t place them between her crotch/knees and knees/floor but she can place them between her bust and crotch. However, because she has an O Body Shape, so she needs to avoid them at her waist
- Vertical lines — Limit them between her bust/crotch but do place them between her crotch/floor
- Second Scale Clue — Increase overall scale between bust/crotch and decrease it between crotch/floor
- Body Frame Size — Medium (Body Frame Size — The Girls)
- Third scale clue — Large
- Scale Strategy — Medium/Large (Scale Strategy — The Girls)
- Increase to large between her bust/crotch
- Decrease to medium between her crotch/floor
What To Wear To Bed -- Pajama Set
Monica loves bright colors. It’s the first thing she looks for in any outfit. If it doesn’t have bright colors, she doesn’t wear it. Color makes her happy. While walking through the Intimate Apparel department, she didn’t see a lot of bright colors in the lounge wear. However, bright colors were in the sexy nightgowns. This shopping trip, she’s looking for things to wear when she gets up in the morning and after a long day at work.
In a sea of neutrals and pastels, she found this pajama set. She likes teals and decided this would work perfectly. However she wasn’t sure about the horizontal striped bottoms.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Monica has learned that the silhouette of an outfit is the first design line she needs to look at. The silhouette is the outside line; it’s the difference between the shoulders/waist, waist/hips and hips/shoulders. There are two categories: angular and curved. In the angular category, the shoulders, waist and hips all appear to be the same width. While in the curved category, the waist is significantly smaller than the shoulders and waist. Her Body Shape gives her clues as to which category she should wear.
Monica has an O Body Shape. Her waist is significantly wider than both her shoulders and hips. This means she should look for clothes with an angular silhouette.
Monica looked at the silhouette of the pajama set. She noted that the shoulders, waist and hem of the top appeared to be the same width. Then she looked at the bottoms. They have an elastic waist which means it could fit either a curved or angular Body Shape. She concluded that since the top has an angular silhouette, it’s perfect for her Body Shape.
Horizontal Lines
Monica learned that the placement of horizontal design lines is an important component of determining whether the fit works for her. She learned that horizontal lines stop the eyes, emphasizes the area and makes it look wider and shorter. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of these lines.
For Body Shape, she doesn’t want to place horizontal lines in her widest area, which is her waist. This is because they bring emphasis to this area and makes it appear even wider. However, she wants horizontal lines at her shoulders or hips, because they emphasize these areas and make them appear wider and better balanced with her waist.
For her Body Proportions, she wants them between her bust/waist and waist/hips because her Body Proportions are long in these areas. However, she wants to avoid them between her crotch/knees and knees/floor because her proportions are short in these areas. This creates a quandary for Monica because her Body Shape clues say to avoid horizontal lines at her waist.
The top has several horizontal lines: neckline, sleeve hem, bust pocket and hem. The placement of all these horizontal lines is perfect for Monica. The base of the neckline creates a horizontal line between her chin/bust. The sleeve hems create horizontal lines at her bust along with the patch pocket. The hem of the top creates horizontal lines at her hips. She determined that all these horizontal lines bring emphasis to the right places and make her torso appear shorter.
The pajama bottom is made out of horizontal striped fabric. Monica always thought this pattern would make her legs appear shorter and wider; but she learned the opposite is true. By wearing a horizontal striped print, her legs appear longer. She loves this optical illusion. With the few horizontal design lines in her torso area making this area appear shorter and the horizontal line print in her leg area making this area look longer; she has created balance between her torso and legs without bringing emphasis to her waist. Monica loves this pajama set.
Shape Of Design Lines
Monica learned another clue her body gives her is the shape of design lines. That is the shape of necklines, collars, pockets, and plackets to name a few, along with shapes within a print. Design line shapes come in two categories: angular and curved. Her Face Shape gives her the clue as to which category she needs to wear. She has a pear shaped face, which falls into the curved category. This means ideally she wants necklines and pockets to be curved.
This pajama top has a scooped neckline, which is perfect for Monica; however, the patch pocket shape is angular. Many times in the ready-to-wear world; designers mix design line shapes. As a consumer, she’ll need to pick her battles. For her, the neckline is more important than the pocket. When she tried on the set to determine how she felt in it she felt light so it works for her.
Color
Monica always likes vibrant colors. This teal isn’t one of her top three favorite colors; but, it looks great on her.
Monica learned that the color contrast is another important aspect to color. Color contrast has a range between low to high. The difference between the Color of Skin, Hair and Eyes gives her the clue as to where she falls on the scale. She falls within the medium range.
The contrast between the teal and white is in the medium/high range, a little higher than ideal. However, Monica has a big personality and loves colors so the contrast works well for her.
Scale
Monica also learned that the scale of a print is another important component of design lines. Scale has a range of small to large. The combination of her relative lightness and darkness of her Skin, Hair and Eyes, Body Frame Size and Body Proportions give her clues as to her best scale size.
Monica’s Coloring and Body Frame Size give her an overall scale clue of medium/large. Because she’s wearing stripes in her leg area, which is short compared to her torso, she learned that she should decrease the scale to medium. The scale of the stripes is in the medium range, which is perfect for her.
What To Wear To Bed -- Robe
After Monica found the pajama set, she looked for a robe. There are times she likes a little extra warmth in the morning. She liked the classic simplicity of this one. However, the big problem is the placement of the tie. She looked for robes on and off line and couldn’t find any that weren’t grandma robes. She thought she would change the placement of the tie so it’s under her bust. Her friends all agreed that after placing the tie there the robe would work for her.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Monica looked at the side seams and determined the underarm, waist and hips all have the same width, which works perfectly for her.
Horizontal Lines
This robe has three horizontal lines: tie, sleeve hem and body hem. Monica determined that the sleeve and body hems work well for her. The sleeve hems bring attention to her hips and makes this area appear wider which balances the width of her waist. The body hem brings attention to below her knees. She determined that this works for her because when it’s tied, one can’t tell the length between her waist/crotch or shortness between her crotch/knees.
The tie is the troublesome horizontal line, because it brings attention to the waist. Monica looked for robes without a tie and couldn’t find one she liked. One of her super powers is to troubleshoot. She determined that the best and easiest solution is to move the tie to another spot, just under her bust. Another solution would be to add some kind of closer to keep the robe together like what one sees on Japanese clothes. She’ll move the tie first to determine if that works and if it doesn’t, she’ll try the Japanese closer idea. She knows there’s a solution to her dilemma.
Vertical Lines
Monica learned that vertical lines move the eyes up and down and make the area appear thinner and taller. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of these design lines.
For Monica’s Body Shape, she wants vertical design lines to go through her waist area because they’ll move the eye away from this area and make it appear thinner. On the other hand, for her Body Proportions, she doesn’t want them just in this area because the vertical lines will make this area appear even longer. This creates a dilemma for her. However, she learned that she can put vertical lines through both long and short areas and that’s what the center front opening does, which is perfect for Monica. Also by placing the tie, a horizontal line, under her bust it’ll break up the vertical line in the torso area.
Shape Of Design Lines
Design line shapes are created by the neckline which is incorporated by the center front opening, patch pockets and the transition from the center front opening and to the hem. Because of Monica’s curved Face Shape, she looks for curved design line shapes. The neckline is a type of shawl collar which creates curved design lines. On the other hand, the patch pockets and hem line transitions both have angular design line shapes. She’s noticed this happens quite often in the ready-to-wear world.
The most important design line shape is around the face, which is perfect for Monica. One day, she plans to have a robe designed just for her so all the design lines are perfect for her body.
Final Thoughts
Monica loves the feeling of being confident all the time. It’s allowed her to explore different parts of her life that she’s been afraid to explore. Learning what design lines and colors enhance her natural beauty and then translating that knowledge into her own style has been life changing. Who knew that knowing what to wear to bed could make sleep and lounge time even better.
In the next blog post, Alice will share what night/lounge clothes she’ll start wearing. She never thought what she wears to bed or lounges around in was important. So she was pleasantly surprised. Go to: What To Wear To Bed — Alice to learn what she’s now wearing to bed.
