Dress Your Body Shape

If you don't have a waist, it's crucial that you don't draw attention to this fact and 'bypass' the waist, drawing no attention - no belts or detail around the waist area. You want to keep your clothes fitted to give you the illusion of a waist, but not stop the eye at this point. Your tops need to be at least hip length if not a little longer. Boxy clothes will make you look boxy, so avoid them. Never tuck in tops as it shortens and widens your already shorter upper body.

For the long waisted gals out there, play up your waist. Wear belts, tuck in tops, draw attention to your narrowest point. Again, make sure your clothes aren't boxy as this will make you look all together wider as will lose your asset. You will need to keep your tops and jackets no longer than an inch below your hip bone or it will draw attention to your widest point and make you look wider.

Now the difference between an 8 and an X is whether or not you have the shelf hip (you've got that shelf that your baby sits so easily on), where your widest point is the top part of your bottom (not your lower hip area), so you're an 8. If your hip slides away and the widest point when you look in the mirror is the top of your thighs, then you're an X or Hourglass shape. The difference in dressing these two shapes lies below the waist - they both can belt and tuck, but the 8 needs to wear straight skirts and trousers, whilst the X is most flattered by A lines and bootlegs.

You may have the high hip of the 8 body, but the narrow shoulders of the A body - if so, draw attention up to the face with pattern and detail above the waist, and keep your bottom half dressed like the 8 shape, clean, smooth and straight lines with no fuss or flounce.

For all those V shapes, balance your broad shoulders with some flare in your trousers and skirts. On the top half, halter-necks, raglan, dolman and batwing sleeves all work well for you. This is the typical coathanger shape of many models.

However, there is more to dressing your body than just your shape - this is your body proportion, which relates to the length of your legs vs the length of your body, and this will be the topic of another article.

Until then, dress with style and flair.