Proportion Pointers

As a Personal Wardrobe Stylist working with women to achieve their best personal style, there is one thing I hear from pretty much every women I have ever worked with..."Clothes just don't fit my body shape properly."

I hate to break it to all of you, but there are clothes that fit your body. You just have to know what you are looking for - and much of that depends on what you want to accentuate and what you want to downplay. Here, some of the most common complaints I hear about and how to deal with them.

Minimize your bum: Go for a lower waist pant to make the bum look smaller, make sure you always have back pockets that are in proportion to your bottom (too small pockets will make your bum look bigger in comparison), make sure the yoke of your pants dips to a v-shape and doesn't cut straight across.

Downplaying fuller hips and thighs: Always choose boot cut pants to balance out your lower half, avoid skirts (or shorts) that hit you are the fullest part of your thigh.

Adding shape to your narrow hips: Go for pants with side pockets (like cargos) to add fullness to the thigh area, go for a straight or skinny pant to make your hips look curvier.

Playing down broad shoulders: Wear V-necks to draw the eye down away from the shoulder, go for unstructured jackets and tops to soften your shoulder line, go for dark coloured tops which will always minimize.

Adding volume to your chest: Go for tops with ruffles, patterns, horizontal stripes, pockets on the chest to add more volume to the area.

Downplaying a large chest: V neck and scoop neck tops will help bring the eye down and minimize your chest, wrap tops will do the same thing and at the same time draw attention to your waist.

Disguising a belly: Go for tops and dresses with empire waistlines or ruching along the midsection, never tuck in your tops, go for flat front pants to avoid any excess bulk around your midsection