Monica is excited to figure out what to wear for leisure activities. She and her friends: Sam, Alice, Grace and Veronica are taking a weekend trip to the northern California coast. They will each start working on a plan for their own passion project. Monica’s passion project is to focus her social media business to help women entrepreneurs get their message out to the world.
Today, Monica’s social media business is focused on small business and entrepreneurs in general. She gets most excited when helping women who want to take their knowledge so they can create impact and make the world a better place to live. Her focus will be on getting more of these clients during 2023. She has ideas on how to do it but wants to come up with a plan.
Monica’s go-to outfit for leisure activities has always been sweaters and leggings. Now that she understands what designs work best for her body she looks for sweaters and leggings with those designs. Keep reading to find out which designs work best for her body.
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, 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 Leisure Activities -- Sweater
Monica has always been attracted to color. She looks for bright colored sweaters and then looks at the design within the sweater to determine if it works for her. Red/orange is one of her favorite colors and when she saw this hanging on the wall she went to check out its designs. She saw they were perfect for her. However, she needed to make sure the hem hit in the right place on her body so she tried it on. It hit her in the perfect place.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Monica learned that the first design line to consider is the silhouette. The silhouette is the outside line. It’s the difference between the shoulders/waist, waist/hips and hips/shoulders. It comes in two categories: angular and curved. A silhouette is angular when the shoulders, waist and hips appear to be the same width. On the other hand, a silhouette is curved when the waist is significantly smaller than both the shoulders and hips. Her Body Shape gives her clues as to which category she should wear.
Body Shapes come in those same two categories. A Body Shape is angular when the waist isn’t significantly smaller than both the shoulders and hips. While a curved Body Shape is when the waist is significantly smaller than both the shoulders and waist. Monica has an O Body Shape where her waist is significantly wider than both her shoulders and hips. This Body Shape falls into the angular category which means she should wear angular silhouetted clothes
To determine the silhouette of this sweater, Monica looked at the side seam under the sleeve. She looked there because the sweater was designed with a dropped shoulder. The side seam went straight down, and didn’t curve in at the waist. This meant that the silhouette of this sweater is angular and is perfect for her.
Horizontal Lines
Another aspect of designs Monica learned to look for are horizontal lines. 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 the best place to put them.
For Body Shape, Monica learned one shouldn’t put horizontal lines in their widest area because it stops the eye in this area, brings focus to it and makes it appear even wider. However, if a horizontal line is placed in a thinner area, it brings focus to this area and makes it appear wider. As a result, it creates better balance with the wider area.
This meant Monica shouldn’t put horizontal lines at her waist area because they will emphasize this area and make it appear wider. However, by putting them at her shoulders and/or hips horizontal lines will bring emphasis to these areas, make them wider and create balance with her waist area.
For Body Proportions, Monica learned that one shouldn’t place horizontal lines in short areas because they make the area appear even shorter. On the other hand, by placing them in long areas, horizontal lines will make these areas appear shorter, creating better balance.
Monica is long between her bust/waist and waist/crotch. She’s short between her crotch/knees and knees/floor. Her torso is significantly longer than her legs. This means she wants horizontal lines between her bust/waist and waist/crotch and avoids them between her crotch/knees and knees/floor.
Sweater
This sweater has three sets of horizontal lines: turtleneck, sleeve hem and sweater hem. The turtleneck has two horizontal lines: upper and lower. Both the sleeve and sweater hem have two horizontal lines where the knit changes into a rib knit.
All of these horizontal lines are perfect for Monica. For her O Body Shape they land at the shoulders and hip areas. They bring balance to her wider waist. For her Body Proportions, she has 6 horizontal lines helping her torso to appear shorter, which brings better balance to her shorter legs.
Vertical Lines
Monica also learned vertical lines are an important design aspect. 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 the placement of the design lines.
For Body Shape she wants vertical lines to go through her waist area, because the eye will move away from the area and make it appear thinner. She doesn’t want them in just her shoulder or hip areas because they will make these areas appear even thinner. Making her waist area appear even wider.
For Body Proportions, she wants vertical lines because they will give visual length to her leg area and avoid them in her torso area.
This sweater doesn’t have any vertical lines, so it’s perfect for Monica’s Body Proportions in her torso area.
Color
Monica is always drawn to clothes because of their color. One of her favorite colors is red/orange. Seeing the sweater hanging on the wall brought her to it. She learned it’s important to wear her favorite colors because they change how she feels. They help her feel like she can conquer her world. This color helps her feel this way even on days she doesn’t feel 100%.
What To Wear To Leisure Activities -- Pants
As Monica was looking at the red/orange sweater she saw these ponte pull-on pants. She has wanted a gray pair and tried them on with the sweater. They fit perfectly and the design lines matched her body’s clues perfectly.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Monica looks for pants with an angular silhouette. She learned that most pants in the ready-to-wear world have this type of silhouette. However, there are a few with a curved silhouette so she wants to make sure she doesn’t get one of them.
Monica looked at the waist and hips and saw they appeared to be the same width which means this pair of pants had an angular silhouette perfect for her O Body Shape.
Horizontal Lines
Because Monica’s legs are shorter than her torso, she made sure there were limited horizontal lines in this area. She knows the hem on each leg creates horizontal lines so she wants them to be below her ankles. When she tried on the pants, they did lay below her ankles, and are perfect for her Body Proportions.
Vertical Lines
Vertical lines are Monica’s friend when placed in her leg area. She always looks for center front seam lines and when she’s lucky center back. These pants have center front seam lines that are perfect to help her legs appear longer.
Monica loves the magic that happens when she strategically places horizontal and vertical lines. By placing horizontal lines at her shoulders and hip area and vertical ones in her leg area, her shoulders, waist and hips appear balanced, her torso appears shorter and legs appear longer. As a result, she feels balanced and feels like she can conquer her world.
Color
Monica chose a charcoal gray color to create a low color contrast with the red/orange sweater. The color of her skin, hair and eyes appear to have the same dark colors. This means she should wear color combinations with low contrast. The relative light contrast between the charcoal gray pants and red/orange sweater is perfect for Monica.
What To Wear To Leisure Activities -- Slippers
Monica next looked for slippers. When she gets home from work the first thing she does is change into her slippers. She loves Isotoners because she loves the cushion. Her pair is worn out and needs a new pair.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Design Line Shape
An interesting aspect of design details Monica should look for is design line shape. They come in two categories: angular and curved. Angular design lines have angles, while in the curved category the lines are curved. She should look for design line shapes within the clothes themselves, accessories and prints. Her Face Shape gives her clues as to which category she should wear. Shoes/slippers are considered accessories and the shape of the toe should match her Face Shape.
Monica has a pear Face Shape which falls into the curved category. This means she should look for shoes/slippers with a round toe. She saw that most slippers have a round toe which this slipper does. She feels lucky that this design clue works for her.
Final Thoughts
Monica had an easy time figuring out what to wear for leisure activities. She’ll be wearing it on her trip to the coast with her friends. This hasn’t always been the case. Now that she understands the clues her body gives her, she’s able to look for clothes with the right designs even before she goes into the fitting room. As a result, she feels like she can conquer her world, and she needs that extra boost to figure out how she can change the direction of her social media company.
In the next blog post, Alice will be sharing what she will be wearing on the trip to the coast with her friends. She’s excited about how she will start working on her dream project. She’s had it on the back burner for a while and is ready to start working on it. The post is called: What To Wear To Leisure Activities — Alice.
Wear Your Greatness!!
