How to Choose an Empire Waist to Suit Your Body Shape An Empire Waist garment has a high cut waist seam that sits directly under the breasts (above your natural waistline). It’s flattering on so many body shapes because it doesn’t require a defined natural waist to work. For petites it works because it raises…
Recently I was having a conversation with someone who asked if leggings were still ‘in’ and if they were too old to wear them. My reply was that they are still around (looking at the Fall 2009 fashion shows they were everywhere on the runway) and are generally more flattering than a lot of the…
Ask your optometrist what your PD is – what’s a PD? It’s your pupillary distance – that is the distance between your two pupils. Why does it matter? Rather than try on 2000 frames and getting completely confused and overwhelmed by choice, your PD may preclude you from some frames. If you look…
Today I’m starting again working with an optometry education company doing a workshop with retail optometry staff to teach them some of the image related aspects of helping their clients choose flattering glasses frames. But before you even start trying on frames, the No. 1 factor that will affect your choice, and what you…
At the AICI conference I got to meet the fabulous image consultant and author Brenda Kinsel who shared these tips with me, so I could share them with you. I asked Brenda for 5 tips to help you improve your wardrobe and image 1. At the change of season, when you swap your wardrobe over…
I was shopping yesterday in Century City, LA with lovely blogger La Belette Rouge and she tried on a version of this top at Banana Republic. It looked great on her, but was about 2.5″ too long and hit at an unflattering point on her hips and made her looked proportionally unbalanced and a…
Here I am in LA, that’s me with Snoopy at Knotts Berry Farm yesterday, anyway, I spent some time at a local shopping centre today – The Block at Orange, near where I’m staying. Of course I don’t know all the shops and brands, so I wander into shops. The quickest way for me…
Here is my challenge, I’m packing to fly to LA to attend the AICI (Association of Image Consultants International) annual conference. What should I wear? The dress code is: Business attire is appropriate for daytime conference programs and evening events. May temperatures range from an average high of 81ºF/27ºC to an average low of 54ºF/12ºC.…
When economic times are tough, what can we do to save on our wardrobe? Here are 4 easy to follow budget fashion tips for the Recessionista Fashonista. 1. Alter You can make a garment fit properly with alterations. I spend a lot of time in wardrobes pinning garments, adding darts when it’s too boxy, taking…
Is it me or the clothes? Women, notoriously blame their bodies when it doesn’t flatter them or fit them, but in fact, if you look closely at the design of the garment, you will soon realise that it is not your body (which is perfect) that is wrong, instead, it’s a badly designed garment. How…
Why is it that when we are in a shop and we ‘must‘ buy a new piece of clothing, do we love it so much then that we are compelled to part with our hard earned money (or even worse, spend on credit), yet when we get it home, add it to the wardrobe and…
Karen asked me to give some advice on tucking – who should and who shouldn’t. Basically, if you are short through the waist (and especially if you have a medium to large bust), don’t tuck, it will make you look even shorter through the waist. This applies to H shapes, O shapes and…
Following on my series on Body Proportions – today we’re looking at the dressing challenges of those with a shorter body and longer legs. Not sure of your proportions? Then watch the video here on how to measure them. If you have a shorter body and longer legs, you may often have slimmer legs and…
Discover How to Flatter the Longer Torso Shorter Legs Proportional Body Further, from my general explanation of body proportions, and the other two common body proportions – Long legs, Short Body, and Balanced with a Short Mid-Body, let’s look specifically at some of the common issues for the longer body, shorter leg. You can figure out…
I was just over at Cosmo’s blog reading some back posts, and she mentioned she’ d moved and not unpacked some boxes of clothes for months. She was wondering, if she hadn’t missed the clothes, should she just chuck it all out? With that in mind, here is my quick, 3 questions to ask yourself…
Not only do we have body shapes (which can also be called our Horizontal Body Shape) we also have to take into consideration our Body Proportions (or Vertical Body Shape). Proportions are important as they tell us where to end our clothes, such as hems on skirts, hems on tops and jackets. Should you end…
Do you find shopping stressful, and wonder why other women love doing it? Often, as our lives get busier, and our body shapes change, we find shopping gets harder and harder, and less and less enjoyable. One of my clients said to me one day as she was in the change room “Imogen, you make…
Many of you have asked me to share with you some celebrities who have similar body shapes to yours (so you can get some style inspiration). Now in Hollywood ‘very thin’ is common due to the pressures put on celebrities so there is less variety in body shapes. But here are some celebrities who…
What is the difference between an 8 shape and an X shape? Well they both have defined waists, and their hips and shoulders are both fairly proportioned, (though sometimes you can have an 8 shape that has narrower shoulders, more like the A shape, but their hips are a different shape to a traditional A/pear).…
This is a question that I’d love your feedback on. If you could have the perfect shopping experience what would it be? When you do go shopping in your non-fantasy world, what frustrates you most? For me it’s that you tend to find when there is a big fashion trend, that it’s everywhere…
Given that there is no standard sizing, we all have garments in our wardrobes that range between 2-4 sizes (or at least have found when trying clothes on that in some stores we are one size and in another we are apparently ‘larger’ or ‘smaller’), so why are we so hung up on that number…
