I created the 5 Body Element System to help women be remembered. Years ago when I looked around I saw a lot of women but really only saw what they were wearing. I felt I was also one of these women. There were only a few women I could say I remembered for themselves.
“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; Dress impeccably and they remember the woman.” – Coco Chanel
I believe all women should be remembered. This lead me to start a journey of determining how every woman can dress in a way so they are remembered.
At that time I had worked in corporate (big and small) and government (federal and state) America for 15 years. Over this time I saw a lot of women who were very smart and had a lot of good ideas being passed over and discounted. They were being discounted by others and themselves.
You see, I have a dream and in this dream women all over the world have equal rights, equal respect, equal pay and equal opportunities as their male counterparts. For this dream to happen women need to be remembered by others and themselves.
The Journey
To make this dream into a reality I started on a journey. This journey took me in many places and I started seeing a pattern:
- A woman has one outfit in her closet that fits her body which she loves to wear and when she wears it she comes alive with confidence and personal power.
- When she wears other outfits that don’t fit as well I didn’t see that same confidence and personal power.
- In general most women are struggling to find clothes that fit their body and personality
I created the 5 Body Element System to help women be remembered. Years ago when I looked around I saw a lot of women but really only saw what they were wearing. I felt I was also one of these women. There were only a few women I could say I remembered for themselves.
- Fashion industry caters to a limited number of body shapes. The most prevalent being shoulders, waist and hip visually the same because all style lines look great on this body shape.
- The fashion industry in the last few years has started to provide pants with a curvy fit on a limited basis. This fit is mostly for women whose shoulders and hips appear to be the same width and waist much smaller. (Step in the right direction.)
- Fashion industry caters to B/C cup size. Women who are larger or smaller than that have a hard time finding clothes that fit in this area.
- Regular size clothes are mostly made for women who are around 5’5”.
- Fashion industry caters to well proportioned body
- Top of head to chin – one head,
- Chin to bust – one head,
- Bust to waist – one head,
- Waist to crotch – one head,
- Crotch to knee – two heads and
- Knee to floor – two heads
- Fashion industry caters to slender women when placing horizontal and vertical lines using various types of style lines because it really doesn’t matter where these lines are placed.
Patterns
Have you run into any of these patterns? I have. When I was younger my overall skeletal and muscle structure around my hip area made my hips appear wider than my shoulders and waist, making my body shape not compatible with the fashion industry’s ideal body shape. My bust was 32 inch (A cup), 23 inch waist and 37 inch hips. I wasn’t fat, I weighed between 120 and 125 and my height was and still is 5’8”. To find pants that went over my hips the waist had to be enormous, and if the waist fit my waist I couldn’t get it over my hips.
When it came to pant length I could never find any long enough because I’m taller than 5’5”. Also because of my height (I believed but later found out I was wrong because I’m also long waisted by 2 inches) any tops or dresses with a waist didn’t fit because the waist on the garment was too short.
Ready to wear clothes did not fit my body. I loved to sew. I started learning to sew when I was 10 years old. My solution to this problem was making my own clothes. I’m very lucky because I have a solution. Most women don’t sew.
Today because of menopause I have lost much of this muscle structure around my hips. Now my shoulders and hips width appear to be the same and my waist is much smaller (not as small as in my younger days but much smaller by current standards). Today I still have trouble finding clothes that fit my body if the pants don’t come in a curvy fit. I’m still 5’8” and most clothes are still not long enough. I still create my own clothes.
5 Body Element System
On this journey I started seeing that these body elements (creating my 5 Body Element System) were important when evaluating a body:
Then I looked closer at these body elements and started to see why they are important when evaluating a body. These body elements gave clues as to the:
- Clothes and accessories silhouette
- Shape of inside lines (collar, pocket, cuff, prints to name a few)
- Color and color combinations
- Placement of horizontal lines
- Placement of vertical lines
- Scale of prints, design details and accessories
Closet Full Of Clothes You Love To Wear
I started to play with these elements and the clues they gave. I saw a very strong connection.
As a result of this journey I wrote the workbook Beauty Fashioned Simply – The Science of Dressing Impeccably to help women determine their body elements and the clues they gave her. Now that the workbook is finished I created this website/blog.
Do you have that one outfit in your closet that when you wear it you find confidence and personal power you don’t have normally? You don’t have a closet full of clothes that help you find you confidence and personal power because you don’t know how to recreate it? You want to create a closet full of these clothes?
If your answer is yes to these questions then join me and learn what your body elements are telling you and the clues they give by following this blog and Facebook page. Join in the conversation by writing comments about the blog postings and others comments. I look forward to getting to know you better.
Wear Your Greatness!!
