Veronica thinks Monica’s suggestion — to determine what to wear to the gym using the knowledge she’s learned over the last nine months — is brilliant. She wants to start creating the habit of working out, but something keeps getting in the way. When wearing clothes that enhance her body, she started to feel a change in how she felt. At work and in other aspects of her life, she now feels a deeper level of confidence. She can use this newfound knowledge to help her feel more confident in order to create the habit of working out.
In the past, Veronica’s Body Proportions threw her off when determining what clothes to wear. Now that she understands which design lines help create balance, she feels she can use that knowledge to determine what to wear to the gym.
Below you’ll learn how she created balance.
Veronica’s Body Elements
As a review, these are Veronica’s Body Element clues:
- Body Shape — X (Body Shape — The Girls)
- Curved clothes silhouette
- Can place horizontal and vertical lines almost anywhere when considering Body Shape
- Face Shape — Heart (Face Shape — The Girls)
- Curved design lines, prints and accessories
- Color Skin, Hair, Eyes — Low Color Contrast (Color Skin, Hair & Eyes — The Girls)
- Favorite Colors — Yellow, Violet, Red
- Color Combinations (other colors) — Analogous
- Color Combinations (relative lightness and darkness) — Low contrast
- First Scale Clue — Small
- Body Proportions — Short between bust/waist and waist/crotch, long between crotch/knees and knees/floor (Body Proportions — The Girls)
- Horizontal lines — Place them between her crotch/knees and knees/floor; don’t place them between her bust/waist and waist/crotch
- Vertical lines — Place them between her bust/waist and waist/crotch; don’t place them between her crotch/knees and knees/floor
- Second Scale Clue — Decrease overall scale between bust/waist and waist/crotch; increase it between crotch/knees and knees/floor
- 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 bust/waist and waist/crotch
- Increase to medium between her crotch/knees and knees/floor
What To Wear To The Gym -- Top
When Veronica looked for a top to wear to the gym, she looked for two things: one that would follow her Body Shape and a long hem. She found that nowadays this can be hard to do because everything is cropped (not good for her short torso) and rectangular shaped (not good for her S Body Shape). Then, she remembered Grace found a Calvin Klein Performance top that gathered on the sides which allowed the top to follow her Body Shape. She found one that also works well for her Face Shape.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Veronica learned that understanding her Body Shape is important because it gives her a clue as to the silhouette of clothes. She has an S Body Shape which gives her the clue that she needs to wear clothes with a curved silhouette. When determining what to wear to the gym, she found it hard to find a curved silhouette top because most activewear tops had an angular silhouette.
Veronica knew Grace had the same problem and looked for tops with ruching on the side seams. This allowed the top to follow her curvy body. She felt lucky to find this top. In the future, she’ll keep a lookout for activewear tops that have a curved silhouette.
Horizontal Lines
Understanding horizontal lines has been a big breakthrough in determining what clothes help Veronica tap into her confidence. She learned that it’s all about where to place them because they stop the eyes, emphasize the area and make that area appear a little wider and shorter. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of these design lines.
With Veronica’s S Body Shape, she has the freedom to place horizontal lines anywhere; however, her Body Proportions dictate where she can put them. She’s short between her bust/waist and waist/crotch, and long between her crotch/knees and knees/floor. As a result, her torso is much shorter than her legs.
Therefore, Veronica wants to limit the number of horizontal lines in her torso area. This top has two: the neckline and hem. She looked for a top with the longest hemline and this top had it and with the right silhouette.
Vertical Lines
Veronica learned that vertical design lines move your eyes up and down along with making an area appear a little longer and thinner. Her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of these design lines.
For Veronica’s Body Shape, she can place vertical lines anywhere, but her Body Proportions dictate where she should put them. Because she has a short torso, she should place vertical design lines in her torso area so it’ll appear longer. Unfortunately, she didn’t find a lot of vertical design lines on activewear tops. In the future, she’ll keep her eye out for them.
Shape Of Design Lines
Veronica thought it was fascinating that her Face Shape gives her clues as to the shape of design lines. She has a heart Face Shape which means she should wear curved design lines.
The only design line on the top is the neckline which is curved and is perfect for Veronica’s Face Shape. She’s noticed that she feels more like herself when she wears curved necklines. She thinks this fact is fascinating.
Color
Veronica’s favorite colors are: yellow, violet and red. This top only came in softer tones of blue, green and pink along with white. The blue, green and pink don’t do a lot for her so she picked the white one.
As with the silhouette and horizontal and vertical design lines, she’ll keep a lookout for activewear tops in her favorite colors.
What To Wear To The Gym -- Bottoms
Veronica knew she needed to find horizontal design lines built into the activewear leggings. They’ll make her legs appear shorter. In years past, she’s seen a lot of color blocked and other horizontal design lines in leggings; but this year she hasn’t. Like finding the right design lines for the top, she’ll keep a lookout for horizontal design lines in leggings.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Veronica knows with her curvy Body Shape that she needs to look for bottoms that have a curved silhouette. These leggings have an angular silhouette, but because they’re made out of Lycra, they’ll mold to her body.
Horizontal Lines
Because her legs are longer than her torso, Veronica looked for leggings with horizontal design lines. These leggings were as close to horizontal lines as she could find. Even though the design lines are diagonal, when she put the leggings on, she felt her legs appeared a little shorter.
Vertical Lines
Veronica noticed that there’s logo tape sewn in at each side seam. This tape creates a vertical line, which she wants to stay away from in her leg area. However, she noticed that the color blocking cut the vertical lines.
Color
The colors of these leggings are: black, fuchsia and white. Veronica knows that these colors aren’t the best for her for several reasons.
First, she likes and looks good in fuchsia, but the color doesn’t give her any energy.
Second, black and white in the leggings, along with the white top, create a high color contrast. Veronica knows her color contrast profile is low. She tried on a black angular silhouette top with the right horizontal design lines and compared it to wearing it with the white top. When she tried on the white top, she found that she felt better in it because the silhouette matched hers.
Final Thoughts
In some ways Veronica was frustrated with this shopping trip because she couldn’t find the right activewear clothes that had the right design lines and colors for her body. She chose this top and leggings because she wanted to get started in her exercise routine. She realizes that from season to season, ready-to-wear stores/manufactures may or may not have the colors and design lines she wants to wear. As a result, when shopping for other items, she’ll keep a look out for activewear clothes that have her design lines and colors.
In next week’s post, Sam, Monica, Alice, Grace and Veronica are spending the day together shopping and going to lunch. They want to fill in their summer wardrobes now that summer has arrived. Sam is looking for both work and play clothes. She’s not sure what she’ll find, but has an open mind. She’s learning that if she can’t find clothes that fit her, it’s not a reflection on her body, but rather that the current fashion trends don’t match her Body Elements. The post is called: What To Wear This Summer — Sam.
Wear Your Greatness!!
