You Should Be Dressing Better Part 2: On How To Begin

If you have ever fallen in love with an entire outfit you saw on a model or in a magazine and attempted to recreate it, only to discover it looks completely different on you, this post is for you.  

"The issue is as simple as this: not every outfit is flattering to every body type."

When we are young, the world looks at us through a softened lens. Sharp edges are blurred, failures are swept away without comment, and our early attempts at discovering talent and purpose are met with general patience. Clothing, too, feels more forgiving in those years. Styles that once seemed perfectly acceptable at eighteen grow inexplicably frumpy at twenty-eight, and by thirty-eight, intolerable.

I noticed a significant shift in my style after turning twenty-five.  Perhaps it was the lifting of the youthful veil that shifted how I viewed my style.  Outfits and silhouettes I could pull-off (or believed I could pull off) when I was younger now looked… unflattering.  Perhaps it is the inevitable march of time, but it has become more difficult to feel confident in what I am wearing as I go up in years.  Even when I recreated a look straight off the model, taking care to copy it from head-to-toe, it never looked quite as good on me.  Trends quickly became the enemy.  It seemed as if the hottest items, so edgy and chic on others, became a shapeless mumu on me.  

Something was terribly wrong. 

"The goal is to remove the barriers that keep you from feeling and looking your best.  Understanding your body type is the first step to removing these barriers."

Mmk, that’s a little dramatic, but you get my point.  I was frustrated.  Why spend all this time and money trying to look good when it always ended in disappointment?  If you have wondered the same about yourself, it is not because you are too fat or too thin or too short or too tall or too anything.  

Do it to simplify your life:

The issue is as simple as this: not every outfit is flattering to every body type.  

Understanding this is the first step to beginning to feel more confident in your clothing and ending the endless cycles of shopping frustration.  Once you discover your body type, it does take a bit of trial-and-error to understand which clothing looks best on you, but I promise, it is worth your time.  A bit of time investment now will pay you dividends in styling confidence in the future.  

Knowing my body type has made shopping a breeze.  After spending a few seasons locking in the guidelines for my shape, I can now quickly weed out the pieces that will never be flattering to my shape and hone in on exactly what types of clothing I can invest in without regret.  We often think having unlimited choices means more freedom, when it usually ends in a state of complete overwhelm.  By limiting my clothing options to what looks best on my shape, I feel more confident in my decisions.

First, determine Your Body Type:

As you may already know, there are four main body types: straight, hourglass, pear, and apple.  The most flattering silhouette is the hourglass, and if you are in the majority of women who are not naturally an hourglass, then we can use clothing to create the hourglass for us.

There are great online resources on how to determine your body type.  I have found the easiest way is to think about where you tend to gain weight.  I am a pear shape, so I put on weight first in my hips, thighs, and backside.  If you are an apple, you tend to gain weight first in your bust and stomach.  Apples usually have amazing legs - thin and shapely.  If you are well balanced, but not curvy, you might be a straight.  And if you are curvy on both the top and the bottom with a defined waist, congratulations!  As an hourglass, you may be the envy of your friends but also have the most difficult body type to style.  The good news is every type is beautiful in its own way, and, more importantly, every body type can look amazing in the right outfit.  

If you are still uncertain about your type, check out Adore Your Wardrobe at https://adoreyourwardrobe.com.  The founder, Kelly, breaks each shape down into specific ratios so you can be absolutely certain of your body type.  She also has a free body-type calculator on her website.  Her website is a wealth of knowledge.

Because there are already amazing resources available describing each body type and all of the intricacies and guidelines for how to dress them, I will not be going into each type and every dressing rule as in-depth in this article.  I will be giving you my thoughts on how best to use your new-found body type knowledge to your styling advantage as quickly as possible without spending thousands of dollars revamping your wardrobe.

"A few lucky women...are born with hourglass proportions.  The rest of us create balance through our clothing."

My Top 5 Tips For Dressing Your Body Type:

#1 Dressing Well is Simply Engineering Balance

Whether we like it or not, most women’s fashion is designed around the visual ideal of the hourglass shape: defined waist with balance between top and bottom.  A few lucky women, such as Marilyn Monroe and my beautiful mother, are born with hourglass proportions.  The rest of us create balance through our clothing.  

The best way to demonstrate the power of engineering balance is with a visual.  

Picture in your mind the beautiful and talented British singer Adele.  What body type is she?  

If you’re like me, you guessed hourglass.  In reality, she is a pear type.  What about Princess Catherine?  Or Zendaya?

All three women are, first-off, beautiful.  They also understand (or have stylists who understand) how to engineer balance with their style.  Adele creates balance on her top half with fitted dresses emphasizing her slim waist and shoulders, while de-emphasizing her lower half.  She loves a dramatic neckline paired with a simple skirt.  She uses these body-type guidelines to create the illusion of an hourglass by bringing all attention up to her beautiful shoulders and face.

The same is true with Princess Catherine and Zendaya, both straight body types.  They have learned to emphasize their waistlines to give the illusion of curve.  These stylish ladies look exceptional in close-fitting outfits but can easily appear overwhelmed and shapeless in the wrong outfits.

Below are a few side by side comparisons of Zendaya to show what happens when she follows the body type guidelines for straights versus when she does not:

See how easily she can create an hourglass with her clothing by simply defining her waistline?  Whether with a tailored blazer, a closely-fitted dress, or a simple black belt and tucked in blouse, she is able to mimic the hourglass shape, even though she is technically a straight.  In the fourth picture, even though the outfit is a banger, the boxy sweater hides her waistline and makes her appear more shapeless than she is.

For those of us with the pear body type, we have the bottom half of the hourglass and the nipped waist without even breaking a sweat.  For pears, the goal is to visually fill in the top half of the hourglass.  This means all the interest should happen from the waist up.  Our closets should be full of brightly colored or patterned tops, bold necklines, chunky jewelry, and anything to bring the focus up.  

#2 Find Your Celebrity Body-Type Twin and Copy Them

One of the best ways I have found to get realistic and body-type-specific styling inspiration is by following a number of celebrities with the same body type.  While I may not share their clothing budget, I can get inspiration from them, specifically by watching which body type guidelines they always follow and which ones they can bend while still looking great.  

Below is a list of stylish celebrities by their body type:

Because straight body types can bend the rules a bit, I also keep an eye on Catherine, Princess of Wales’ styling to see if she’s wearing something which can translate for pears.

#3 Start with What You Already Love

I promise you, you already have outfits which work for your body type, you just didn’t realize it.

When I started to really dig into how to dress my pear body shape, I started thinking back to some of my favorite outfits of all time, the ones I felt good in and also tended to receive compliments on.  All of them, including my wedding dress, inherently fit the pear styling guidelines, and I hadn’t even realized it.

I was naturally leaning towards shapes that highlighted my top-half so I could balance out my bottom half.  I had also always loved a dramatic neckline, such as an off-the-shoulder or one shoulder dress.  Both of these styles are perfect for pears, since they bring the eye upwards.  Pleated skirts, although I tried them over and over and over again, never looked right.  It made sense once I understood how the pleats and added volume on my lower half made it nearly impossible to balance out my smaller, upper half.

Think about the outfits you feel the best in, the ones you naturally gravitate towards.  Even if you spend a lot of time in jeans and a sweater, you most likely have a favorite pair of jeans and a few favorite sweaters you keep reaching for.  Pull them out and take a good look at them.  What are their main characteristics?  Do they have an empire waistline that defines your waistline?  What is the wash and cut of the jeans?

I bet you will find at least a few of them follow the exact guidelines for your body type.  You are not starting from ground zero, and you do not have to throw away everything in your closet.  Start with those few items, lock in on what makes them your favorites and keep an eye out for similar characteristics in anything new you purchase.

#4 Lock in your perfect jeans, and everything else gets easier

I realize finding the perfect pair of jeans is easier said than done, but stick with me.  

Styling myself as a pear was a not easily scalable until I found the right pair of jeans.  Before, I had to create each outfit from scratch, every day.  Once I found the right bottoms which followed the pear body type guidelines - dark wash, no whiskering, balanced cut like a boot cut or flare leg - every outfit decision was easier.  

The right jeans act as an outfit anchor.  If I have them dialed in, I simply pop on a lighter colored button-up, a dark belt, some flashy earrings, and boom, I have a flattering and low-maintenance outfit combination I can repeat over and over again without extra effort.  The anchor piece takes the guesswork out of creating the right outfit for your shape.

If you are an apple body type and you find the right pair of jeans to balance your curvy top, finding the right top to create balance becomes easier.  And then you can repeat this formula over and over again.

In the end, learning your body type is not about forcing yourself to follow strict rules. It is about creating an outfit framework that works for your body type and your lifestyle.  It is about finally understanding the science behind why certain clothes have always made you feel like yourself, and why others never quite worked no matter how beautiful they looked on someone else.

Style becomes infinitely less frustrating once you stop dressing for the fantasy body in your mind and begin dressing for the one you actually have.  Confidence begins when we acknowledge our unique proportions and dress them in the most flattering way.

The goal is to remove the barriers that keep you from feeling and looking your best.  Understanding your body type is the first step in removing these barriers.  The most stylish women I know are not the trendiest; they are the ones who know what highlights their best qualities and who lean into them wholeheartedly.

Stay tuned for You Should Be Dressing Better Part 3: Know Your Color Palette, and share your thoughts below.

Until next time,

Elise Martindale