Do you know what your body type is? Are you often left wondering about your body type?
Finding clothes that suit you can seem like a hard task if you’re unaware of your body type or if you don’t really know how to dress your body.
I am pretty much the opposite; I’ve always had an idea of what my body type is and I still somehow managed to dress really badly for my body for most of my life. Its only now that I’m well into adulthood that I realise the key to dressing your body is balance.
Now I’m going to say something that may seem unpopular; body types don’t matter as much as you think they do. It’s all about making clothes work for you instead of trying to make yourself fit into the clothes that only 1 type of body type can wear.
If you grew up in the 2000s, you’ll probably be aware of all of the Pinterest boards that focused on each body type and what clothes you’re allowed and not allowed to wear if you want to flatter your body. I would look at these posts religiously and they always left me more confused than when I started.
So let’s get onto the tips I have discovered for dressing your body!
1 – The first tip is to be critical of the “Body Type Laws” that are in place.
If you’re insistent on finding out your “body type” you need to also realise that you may be in-between 2 body types or you might have been one body type when you were younger and now, you’re another! This is because no human body is going to look the same as someone else’s and our bodies (especially women) are made to change.
We are all so different that it doesn’t really make any sense to try and put every woman in 1 of 5 body types and as we get older our bodies are meant to change depending on what part of life you’re in. I propose thinking of your body as a canvas that you can experiment with and make art! I really do believe that fashion is an art form and the clothes we choose to wear are ways we can express ourselves.
2 – The second tip is remember to Balance!
Its important to think about balancing an outfit rather than thinking about what you’re “allowed and not allowed” to wear. Let me give you an example. My body type is a mixture of an apple and a rectangle based on every quiz I’ve ever taken but the biggest tip I’ve learned is that if I wear something tight on the top (a fitted t-shirt for example) I generally like to wear a skirt with a lot of flounce or I’ll wear some flared jeans. I have larger shoulders than my hips so by adding the shape to the bottom I’m balancing my body features, so it still looks cohesive on my body as a canvas.
Other ways I like to balance outfits is to simply add some “drama” that will take away attention from an area and put a spotlight on another. For example, If you want to add some drama to your top you can use a scarf and tie a bow to your sleeve or if you want to add some to the bottoms you can add belts or scarves as belts and make bows etc just add some interesting factors.
If you think of your body and your clothes in this way, you’ll be able to get much more out of your clothes and it becomes more fun to put an outfit together!
3 – The third tip is to challenge your thought process/mindset.
If you have the mindset where you feel like you can’t wear anything and everything looks bad on you etc, this needs to change. You need to shift that mindset right away; our brains are funny things, and we love nothing more than to be right. So if you’re constantly telling yourself that nothing looks good on you and you can’t find anything to suit you, then that will be your reality, you brain isn’t going to disagree with you! This is why it’s so important to keep an open mind about clothes, at the end of the day they’re just pieces of fibre stitched together, they shouldn’t have so much of an impact on us except to help us express ourselves.
4 – The fourth tip for dressing for your body type is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Find an outfit combination that works and experiment with it until you have reached ultimate satisfaction and you feel confident and hot while wearing it and even when you’re not wearing it! I’ve found that one of my favourite outfit combinations is a midi dress, a pink under-shirt with puffed sleeves and a scarf either around my waist or around my neck. I love to wear outfits like that because it feels very classy to me and I’m really comfortable as well as colourful which is very important to me.
Think about the clothes you love to wear, the ones that really empower you and make you feel like a million bucks! Now analyse the clothing you just thought about, what about it empowers you? Is it the combination of colours that really flatter your skin tone? Does the silhouette flatter your body? Is it the perfect length for you? Once you can pinpoint why you always go back to your trusty clothing you can keep in mind the things that are important to you in clothing and you can recreate it in any way you desire!
The best thing you can do for yourself is to think outside of the box and start wearing the clothes you feel passionate about because passion is a beautiful thing and we should aspire to feel it more in our lives.
