What makes YOU special? Your beliefs and personality, your hair colour, your body structure? Everyone is born with a unique mix of traits that combine to create a sea of diversity. The same can be said for the clothes that we select to wear each day, with a range of colours and shapes available to us.
Knowing how to dress to emphasise our best features helps us to feel confident, empowered and happy in our skin. But how many of us actually know how to select clothing to highlight our natural assets?
Dressing to your taste and body shape doesn't need to be difficult. While dressing to the latest trend may be fun, this doesn't always mean that these clothes are comfortable or tailored to our unique body shape. There is no one norm as to what a female body should look like. Trend driven fashion however relies heavily on the belief that 'one shape fits all'.
Understanding your body shape and what garments take you from ordinary to fabulous starts with considering where your body fits across the following categories. It is important to be aware that body shape is determined by your bone structure, proportions and muscle distribution (not by your weight). So, when looking at these categories look at your bone structure beneath your silhouette.
The most common categories are:
- Apple (aka oval or round)
- Pear (aka triangle)
- Athletic (aka inverted triangle)
- Rectangle (aka straight or banana)
- Hourglass
You may be able to work out what category your body fits into by standing in front of a mirror. Or, if you are unsure there are many body shape calculators available that can also help you to work this out with some simple measurements.
Highlighting your natural features is the key to confidence.
- Apple body shapes look fabulous when longer arms and legs are shown,
- Pear body shapes can enjoy highlighting a smaller waist and wearing tops with interesting shapes,
- Athletic (inverted triangle) body shapes can feel amazing by choosing styles that add volume to the hips and legs,
- Rectangle body shapes can play around with the features they wish to highlight to create the desired balance and
- the Hourglass body shape will enjoy highlighting a naturally smaller waist while emphasising curves.
Keep in mind that these are general categories only. Some women will be in between categories, taller or plus size. Knowing your proportions however, will help you to emphasise your unique body features in a way that leaves you feeling amazing each time you walk out the door and ready to take on your day!
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