How to figure out your body type if you have a significant difference from the usual features. For example, I have very, very broad shoulders, a slight waist, medium hips from the front and a protruding bottom. If I do a body calculator, I come out as a pear or a ruler. I am neither.…
Where do you end your tops? Where they end because of how long they are when they come home from the store? Do you pull your tops down to hide your butt? Do you fiddle and adjust the length to find the perfect spot for you? The Horizontal Line Rule Because the hems of most…
If you’ve read my recommendations on how to dress the hourglass shapes – the X Shape and A shape, that have the wider lower hip area, you may have noticed that the instructions are to keep the bottom of your body more boring, plain and free of detail. Details to Avoid Below the Waist for…
How long are your shorts? How long or short should your shorts be? This is a question I’m frequently asked so I thought I should post an answer! Shorts are one of those clothing garments that are often rather tricky for many women past the age of 40 to wear. We may not be particularly…
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…
Recently I’ve been asked to cover the topic of hip dips and how to dress them to make them less obvious. Hip Dips are also known as Violin Hips and are most common on the 8 shape, A shape and X shape bodies (but can come on any body shape). They are an indentation between…
Hi Imogen. I have always heard that tops for skirts should be a bit shorter than tops for pants. My question is, how do you make this work when trying to put a capsule wardrobe together since tops should be able to work with both pants and skirts. I know you can tuck them in,…
How do you feel about your style? Do you feel fabulous, ok or not great? How do you feel about what you wear? Do you own your style? In this (20 minute) video Jill Chivers of Shop Your Wardrobe and I discuss some of our own feelings about these questions and where the answers and…
Say “Aye!” if you are frustrated by shopping because what looks great on a hanger doesn’t look great when you get it into the change rooms and try it on your body? We are led to believe that all women LOVE shopping. That all we want to do is shop til we drop, day after…
There are just so many lists of essentials that “every woman should own” out there on the internet. If you’ve been reading Inside Out Style for a while you’ll realise that I don’t believe in such prescriptive lists. Why not? Well I know from the experience of working with thousands of clients is that we…
Just like with skirts, different shoe styles suit different trouser styles. When you think about how to choose a shoe and heel style to work with your pants, you will want to take into consideration a few aspects. 1. Trouser Shape and Shoe Selection From the widest palazzo pant to your skinny leg pant, there…
How does magic work? We’re smart people, we should be able to see the tricks of a magician? Yet, how often have you seen a magic trick and been perplexed at it how fools your eye? The art of the magician is in illusion and distraction. The magician distracts you away from the trick, at…
Dear Imogen, Thank you so much for creating Inside Out Style. Many of the style blogs I find are designed for models or teens, at least that’s how it seems to me. Most of your articles are for more mature women, with children. And you don’t pretend to have a perfect figure, you teach us…
As I discussed in this post on my Three Rules of Horizontal Lines, line in clothing design creates optical illusions depending on the direction of the line. Verticals lengthen. Partly because they go up and down (giving height) but also because our eyes move along them more quickly than they do on horizontal or curved…
Before you take that garment into the change room, understanding the illusion of line really helps you choose clothes that flatter your figure. Lines are used in clothing design in a number of ways: As part of the silhouette – that’s the outline of the garment In the construction – that’s all the seams that…
Online Busty Retailers Overview- Part II Review by Ms SmartandBusty These busty retailer are more casual, but some of them still produce many items that is suitable for professional office wear. BiuBiu ($-$$) BiuBiu is a Polish company with a single brick and mortar store in Lodz. Sizing: 2 dimensional sizing with the same structure…
Looking for office attire to flatter your big bust? Need to find smart clothes that fit over your bust (would you like to be able to get that jacket buttoned up?). Then look no further. Canadian large busted reader Orsi is sharing her review of some of the online busty retailers to help all…
This weekend’s style challenge is about having fun and experimenting with the scale of your accessories and details. To find out more about choosing scale of details and accessories read these posts: Choosing scale based on personality style How to flatter larger facial features S is for Scale How to choose a necklace How to make…
If you’ve been reading this blog for more than a nanosecond, you’ll know that I truly believe that personality is the most important factor when choosing clothes and accessories. I listed 10 ways personality is more important than body shape here. And you may be aware (but if you’re new, maybe not) that body shape,…
It would be interesting if you had some things about what to do when you are NOT petite or “regular” but are a*TALL Woman* and *long limbed*. For example, you had a blog post recently about getting things tailored that was all about how to make things smaller. You didn’t have anything about what to…
Belts are an accessory that can add interest and detail to your outfit. They can add definition or highlight your waist or hips (depending where you’re wearing them). But they can also draw an unflattering horizontal line (which is broadening as I’ve explained in the illusion of horizontal lines here) if you already have a…
