Have you ever looked at your body in certain clothes and knew that something wasn't right?
I've been there way too many times in the past and it's not pretty!
The reason that some things may look good on others but not on you is because we all have different body types and shapes.
We could try as much as we could to change our body shape but there really is no point because it would be torturing yourself and your body and you wouldn't want that, would you?
Instead of starving yourself or over-feeding yourself, you can alter what you look like through your choice of clothing. Did you know that?
The reason being is that clothes have different styles and different patterns on them which makes you look a certain way depending on where it's placed on your body. It's crazy and quite confusing....until you know how.
There are five main body shapes that women can have and I am going to explain each of them in this blog post and how you can dress yourself to look your best in your own body shape.
If you wouldn't mind, I'll get on with the show....
The Hourglass figure
The hourglass figure is the figure considered to be the most "appealing" to men because of the tiny waist and the well-balanced, curvy silhouette.
Wear mostly anything that shows off your well-defined waist and curvy, proportionate figure. Wrap dresses and belted jackets work well.
When you are an hourglass shape, you learn that waist belts become your best friend. Since the main aim for your figure is to draw attention to your tiny waist, you're going to want to add some definition and to do that, you can use waist belts.
Try high-rise jeans and trousers instead of the low-rise option, as high-rise balances the body and accentuates the waistline, but the low-rise will leave your body looking unbalanced and top-heavy. A selection of good trouser styles for the hourglass figure include: slim, straight, bootcut and flared.
Dresses were made for the hourglass figure, which means that almost any style of dress goes! Just try and show off the best assets of your silhouette, keep yourself well-balanced and draw in at the waist. I would recommend the dress styles: jumpsuit, wrap, bodycon, striped skater and peplum as they all work really well with the hourglass figure.
I personally love keyhole tops for the hourglass shaped body. It keeps you reserved but also a little bit sassy and daring; the top gives you the ability to show off your curves without being too revealing which I think is the best personal style to have.
So make sure that you invest in a LOT of keyhole tops if you are an hourglass shape.
The Pear shape
If you have a pear shaped body, you most likely have a larger bottom half than your upper half: meaning that your thighs measure higher than your shoulders. It's likely that your derrière is larger in size than your breasts and your stomach size can be neither too large nor too slim.
The main goal for dressing the pear shaped body is to balance out the lower half with the top half.
If you are a pear shape, you should wear bright colours and prints on your upper body, whilst keeping the darker colours and plain/no patterns on the bottom half. This will keep the attention on the top half of your body and take the attention away from your larger bottom half.
Work with structured sleeves, sleeves with ruffles and volume to balance out your shoulders with your thighs, or else you'll have a bottom-heavy silhouette.
Boat-necks have horizontal necklines which visually broadens the shoulders, which balances the proportions. You get bonus points if the sleeves are puffed and/or have ruffles and there are eye-catching details.
