How do you make decisions about whether or not you should jump on board a fashion trend or not? For many of us it depends on how you feel about your body, what flatters it and whether or not you are happy to ‘give up’ some elements of figure flattery for the sake of fashion forwardness.
In this video, Jill Chivers of 16 Style Types and I discuss some of the elements of trends and questions to reflect upon before spending your money on the latest thing.
Understand Your Shape
Figuring out how you can make a fashion trend more appealing on your shape, and using your knowledge of scale, proportion and volume will help you take a current trend and tweak it so that it works for you.
Do a quick evaluation on how a trend will sit on your key body points that you want to enhance.
Body shape tells us where to put horizontals, verticals and details as well as some overall silhouettes.
Ask yourself:
Does the trend put a horizontal on my “no go” zone? If it does, am I happy about the negative effect it may have on my body?
If this is not a great look, will I be happy to look back on and be happy that I went with the trend ?
In the video we discuss how you can tweak a fashion trend so that it works for you.
Firstly let’s look at what a trend, fad and classic are:
Fads – 6 months to a year – is extreme in some way (or unflattering on the “average” woman’s body)
Trends – 2-5 years
Classics – 5-10 years – a pretty plain garment with nothing obvious about it in construction or detail – will be some sort of “basic”
Here are Some Trends We Discuss How to Pull Off
Oversize Sweaters
Wear with a slim bottom so that you don’t overwhelm your frame with too much volume.
Cuff a lighter denim with open light coloured shoe or sandal.
Darker denim = ideally a narrow cuff with dark shoes/ankle boots.
Long Blazer/ BoyfriendJackets
If you have short legs, wear them over a column of colour so that you don’t make your legs look even shorter.
When to Just Say No (in the words of Nancy Reagan)
The power of deciding to say ‘no’ to a trend allows you to save your money so that you have cash for when a trend appears that you do love and supports your vision of your best self.
Not sure of your shape and want to know where to put your verticals and horizontals? Download your body shape bible (do the quiz if you don’t know your shape) as this will assist you making decisions about the best design lines and details for any garment.
If you’d like my professional opinion on your shape, this is part of my 7 Steps to Style program which covers everything you’ll ever need to know about choosing clothes to match not only your body shape, but also colouring, lifestyle and most importantly your personality.