We never question why a piece of clothing looks great. We are just so happy it does! We do question why it does not, and sometimes it takes a keen eye to understand why?
I help so many women find clothing that fit and looks great. I am sometimes overzealous, passing on my learned wisdom to my captive audience in my store.
Yesterday, a customer, I will name her Cathy, picked out a perfectly nice button-down shirt. It almost worked for her, but why almost? We both saw she could wear the blouse, but would she pull it out of her closet time and time again? Any investment in clothing is not a casual activity anymore. Women want to know they look great in a piece of clothing and will get value from their purchase. It is important to love how it looks on your body so it won’t become a piece you pass over in your closet.
When Cathy came out of the dressing room wearing the shirt, right away I saw the problem. Although the shirt fit, it is short sleeved and she is busty. The sleeve hemline drew the eye straight across her bustline, accentuating her endowment and distorting her shape.
Cathy should not wear a short sleeve.
She could try a ¾ sleeve, cap or tank for the summer weather. Walking out the store with a cut on the bias tank and a pair of crop pants, Cathy looked great. Her figure was balanced and I was so pleased she had a great outfit for the summer she would love to wear.
At the end of the day, I had a lot of fun with another woman trying on dresses. I will call Mary. Even though the dress fit, Mary tried on another size. A look of a garment can be perfect, but a change in size can surprisingly be a better choice.
There are women that know their bodies and grab off the rack and into a bag without a word of concern.
This confidence has nothing to do with her dress size.
It must do with what she likes, what she is comfortable wearing and knowing how to specifically dress her body shape.
Mary found a winning dress and looked great wearing it in the dressing room. This was the end of the day and the end of the week. With the lack of fresh styling vocabulary on my part, I tried to explain one size larger may help with her shape. So, does fit come down to semantics? The dress was ‘resting’ on her tush, not ‘pulling’, just ‘resting’. Was just ‘resting’ fine? Should it be ‘skirting’ ( styling lingo for grazing) the tush? ‘Pulling’ is a major no-no since it red flags the garment isn’t fitting correctly. ‘Resting’ can be perfectly fine whereas ‘skirting’ is better than ‘resting’.
Do we all get it?
By the end of the day, at end of the week, this all can sound like gobble-de-goo! Honestly, it does make a huge difference!
Do you know how to dress your body shape? The language of fitting can be confusing and even funny at times. Once you start to familiarize yourself with your silhouette and understand why one dress looks great and another doesn’t, you’re one your way to styling yourself. You just have to let those words roll off your tongue….‘pulling’ and ‘skirting’ and ‘resting’……