What To Wear To Leisure Activities -- Alice

What To Wear To Leisure Activities — Alice

Alice didn’t have time to go to a Macy’s store to find clothes to wear for leisure activities. Instead she went to macys.com. Now that she understands which design lines and colors work best for her body, it makes shopping online much easier. She looked at the pictures to find the design lines first and if they were the right ones for her, then she looked at the color.

Alice and her friends: Sam, Monica, Grace and Veronica are planning a trip to the Northern California coast. They all need quiet time away from their busy lives to figure out the steps for their passion projects. Now that all of them are feeling more confident because they’re wearing clothes that help them feel like they can conquer their world, they have the confidence to start bringing their projects to life.

Alice’s passion project is to become a virtual assistant. She loves her current job and her boss, but she and her husband have dreams of traveling the world and staying in a country for 2 to 3 months to learn more about the culture. As a virtual assistant she can travel anywhere as long as she has internet access. She’s been afraid of starting a virtual assistant business because she’s not a marketer or salesperson. She knows these are skills she can learn and nowadays there are platforms that can help her develop these skills and get her name out.

Keep reading to learn what design lines and colors work best for Alice’s body.

Alice’s Body Elements

Alice

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 Leisure Activities -- Sweatshirt

The first thing Alice looked for was a sweatshirt. She loves wearing them around the house and for running errands. All the design lines and colors work well for her body’s clues. This is unusual because finding a sweatshirt for her Body Shape and Face Shape can be difficult.

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, and is the difference between the shoulders/waist, waist/hips and hips/shoulders. There are two types of silhouette: angular and curved. For the angular category, the shoulders, waist and hips appear to be all the same width. While for the curved category, the waist is significantly smaller than both the shoulders and hips. Her Body Shape gives her the clue to which category works best for her body.

Body Shapes have the same two categories. A Body Shape is considered angular when the waist isn’t significantly smaller than both the shoulders and hips. On the other hand, a Body Shape is considered curved when the waist is significantly smaller than both the shoulders and hips.

Alice has a V Body Shape where her shoulders are significantly wider than her waist and hips which appear to be the same width. This Body Shape falls into the angular category.

Sometimes it’s hard to determine if the silhouette is angular or curved when looking at pictures online. But looking at the picture Alice thought they looked angular and purchased it. When she received it, she double checked and it was.

Horizontal Lines

Alice learned that horizontal lines can be a friend or foe. It all depends on their placement. 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.

For Alice’s V Body Shape, she doesn’t want it in her widest area, her shoulders, because it emphasizes this area and makes it appear even wider. However, if she places them below her bust, waist and hip areas, the focus goes to those areas, making them appear wider, creating more balance with her shoulders.

For Alice’s Body Proportions, she doesn’t want them between her chin and bust because she’s short in this area compared to an equally proportioned body at her height. Horizontal lines will only make this area appear even shorter. However if she places them between her waist and crotch, where she is considered long, horizontal lines will make this area appear shorter, creating better balance.

When looking at the pictures online, Alice noticed that this sweatshirt has 8 horizontal lines: top of collar, bottom of collar, bottom of a placket, top of pocket, top of hem band, bottom of hem band, top of sleeve hem band and bottom of sleeve hem band.

Alice realized for her Body Shape the horizontal lines work perfectly for her V Body Shape. None of them emphasizes her shoulders, but most are placed in her thinner areas. For her Body Proportions, she was concerned about the horizontal lines created by the collar. Over this last year and half, she learned the shortness between her chin and bust isn’t between her chin and shoulders, but her shoulders and bust. When she tried on the sweatshirt the horizontal lines created by the collar didn’t make this area appear shorter, especially with the vertical line created by the zipper.

Alice also realized that all the horizontal lines between the bust and hips work for both her Body Proportions. She thinks she has a new favorite sweatshirt.

Vertical Lines

Alice learned vertical lines, like horizontal ones, can be friend or foe. Vertical lines move the eye up and down, and make the area appear thinner and taller. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to their placement.

For her V Body Shape, Alice wants vertical lines through her shoulder area because they will move the eye away from this area and at the same time make it appear thinner. She doesn’t want them just between her waist and hip areas because they will make this area appear even thinner, making the shoulders appear even wider.

For her Body Proportions, Alice wants vertical lines between or through her chin/bust area because they will make this area appear longer. On the other hand, she doesn’t want them just between her waist/crotch because they will make this area appear even longer, creating imbalance.

This sweatshirt has three sets of vertical lines: center front zipper from the top of the collar to below the bust, the center placket with vertical lines starting mid-shoulder to bottom of the zipper and the diagonal pockets that start just below the waist to the top of the hem band.

The three vertical lines from the shoulders to the bottom of her bust work perfectly for her V Body Shape by making this area appear thinner and taking the emphasis away from this area. The diagonal pocket normally wouldn’t work if there weren’t any horizontal lines in the area. Because there are horizontal lines above and below visual lengthening is mitigated.

For her Body Proportions, Alice determined the vertical lines between her chin and bust help make the area appear long. Like with her Body Shape, the diagonal pocket lines are mitigated because of the horizontal lines above and below the pocket.

Design Line Shape

Alice learned that design line shape is an important aspect of understanding design lines. There are two categories: angular and curved. Angular design lines are more oblique, while curved ones are curved. Her Face Shape gives her clues as to which category she has. An angular face shape choses angular design line shapes and a curved Face Shape choses curved design line shapes.

Alice has a rectangular Face Shape which puts her in the angular category. She should look for design detail in clothes to be angular; for example collars. This sweatshirt has an angular collar shape, perfect for her Face Shape clue.

What To Wear To Leisure Activities -- Top

What To Wear To Leisure Activities -- Alice Top

Alice next looked for a top. She knows raglan sleeves work best for her shoulders so that’s what she looked for. Also she loves the colors olive green, coral and violet so she looked for one of those colors, but couldn’t find any. She found this lime color and liked it.

Design Line & Color Analysis

Silhouette

The first design line she looked for is an angular silhouette for V Body Shape. She learned most clothes have an angular silhouette which makes things easy for her. Looking at the online pictures she thought this top had this type of silhouette. When she received the package she looked at the silhouette to make sure it’s angular and it was.

Horizontal Lines

When looking at the pictures online, Alice determined that this top had 3 horizontal lines: neckline, top hem and sleeve hems. The neckline is right at the neck and shoulder transition. She learned that horizontal lines in this area aren’t the best place for both her Body Shape and Body Proportions. It’s a short line and coupled with the raglan sleeve diagonal lines, this horizontal line doesn’t make her shoulder area appear wider.

For her Body Proportions, a horizontal line at the neck/shoulder transition is also the best place to put it because she is short between this area and her bust.

Alice learned that horizontal lines in her hip area are perfect for both her Body Shape and Body Proportions. For her Body Shape horizontal lines will bring attention to this area and make it appear wider creating balance with her shoulders. For her Body Proportions, horizontal lines in this area will make it appear shorter creating overall balance.

Alice determined the horizontal lines in this top work well for both her body’s clues.

Vertical Lines

Alice realized the only vertical lines in this top are created by the raglan sleeves. These are diagonal lines that bring the eyes in making the area appear less wide. These lines also make the area between her shoulders/bust appear longer. This type of sleeve is perfect for her.

What To Wear To Leisure Activities -- Pants

Alice loves wearing jogger pants. They are so comfortable. She looked to see if she could find a pair in the same color as the sweatshirt and she found one. It appeared to be a lighter fabric than the sweatshirt which is perfect for her because tends to run hot unlike most of her friends who seem to be always cold.

Design Line & Color Analysis

Silhouette

When looking at the silhouette of the jogger pants, Alice at first had a hard time determining the silhouette because the hip area is relaxed making it appear like a curved silhouette. This is what she really liked about the pants so she took a chance and ordered them.

Alice tried on the pants when she received the pants and loved the relaxed fit and knew instantly that she could wear them to any leisure activity she had in mind.

Horizontal Lines

By clicking on the picture, Alice was able to get a close up look of jogger pants to look for horizontal and vertical lines. She determined there are 5 horizontal lines: top of waistband, bottom of waist band, bottom of pockets, top of hem band and bottom of hem band.

Alice knew the horizontal lines created by the waistband and pockets are perfect for both her Body Shape and Body Proportions. For her Body Shape, the horizontal lines will bring attention to this area and make the area appear wider creating balance with her shoulders. For her Body Proportions, the horizontal lines will make this area appear shorter creating overall balance.

Alice loves the fact that her legs and torso are even in length which means she can easily wear horizontal lines at her ankles. As a result, jogger pants with bands work for her Body Proportions.

Vertical Lines

When looking at a close up picture of the jogger pants, Alice saw three vertical lines: center front pant seam and two seams created by the pockets. In general she learned that vertical lines between her waist and crotch aren’t the best place to put them. For her Body Shape they will make the area appear even thinner making her shoulders appear wider. For her Body Proportions, they will create more imbalance by making this area appear even longer.

That said, Alice wasn’t worried about these vertical lines because she understood the magic of strategically placing both horizontal and vertical lines. Because of the strong presence of horizontal lines in this area, they negate the effects of the vertical ones.

What To Wear To Leisure Activities -- Slippers

What To Wear To Leisure Activites -- Alice Slippers

Alice wanted to get a new pair of Ugg slippers. She found that if her feet are cool she gets cold. She’s had her other ones for years and wants a gray pair for this outfit to wear to the coast.

Design Line & Color Analysis

Design Line Shape

One thing she loves about Ugg slippers is that the toe shape is close to being a square toe. Because of her angular Face Shape, she looks for angular toe shape on shoes and slippers. She believes this is one of the reasons she loves Ugg slippers because most slippers have a round toe.

Final Thoughts

Alice is excited about the trip to the coast with her friends. She figured out what to wear for leisure activities and believes she will be able to wear the sweatshirt, top and jogger pants a lot of different places. What she’s most excited about is starting the journey to become a virtual assistant so she and her husband can travel the world.

In the next blog post, Grace will share the outfit she put together for the weekend trip to the coast with her friends. Over the last year and a half her confidence has increased so much that she’s ready to look at her passion project. She isn’t sure if she can pull it off, but she knows it’s calling her. The post is called: What To Wear To Leisure Activities — Grace.

Wear Your Greatness!!

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