This coming Spring and Summer stripes are making a comeback but many of you feel, like a red lipstick, stripes is not for everyone, right? Wrong..
In order to wear stripes you must understand how your body is shaped and dress it to compensate the bigger or smaller half.
There are four typical body shapes:
Apple: Is generally a body type that is top heavy with a smaller lower half. And more times than not, people with this body type are usually round. It used to be known as the inverted triangle.
When you have this body type, you want to focus on the lower half to make it balance out the top. Your goal is to create an hourglass figure. In case of the apple body type, you want to wear horizontal stripes on the lower half to create the illusion of being bigger on the bottom.
You also want to wear a chunkier heel which will create the illusion of fuller legs.
Example:
Flute or Banana: Generally describes someone whose body has no distinctive curves or shape. The person tends to be square shaped or as we call it ‘straight up and down.’
With this shape you have to create curves using belted waist, horizontal stripes on the top half and bottom half.
Example:
Pear: Refers to body types where the shoulder plane is more narrow than the hip plane. These people tend to be fuller in the hips and thicker on the bottom with a much narrower top half.
This body type takes horizontal stripes on the top to create the illusion of a wider top half or vertical stripes on the bottom to elongate the body and create the illusion of a more narrow bottom half. You can also wear darker bottoms to create a narrower bottom half.
Example:
Hourglass: The figure that is said to be the perfect form for a woman. This shape describes a woman with the shoulder and hip plane being the same length horizontally with a pronounced narrow waist creating the illusion of an hourglass.
This is the shape that you are trying to create when correcting the other body types above. With this type you can do no wrong. The only thing I would suggest is to make sure that the stripes are going the same direction throughout the entire ensemble: Accentuate and exaggerate this figure. Belt the waist, wear deep V to accentuate your bust and a wear a fitted blazer that nips in the waist.
Example:
