Arrrrghhh. I am typing on a tiny laptop and this shit hurts. But onwards, as fashion is pain! (Don’t say that in France, as it means fashion is bread, and fashion HATES CARBS)
Today folks, we’re back on the creating-a-silhouette train. Whoop whoop. In the last exciting episode, we learned about receding colours (dark = smaller, light = bigger) and we’re going to use that knowledge to create a more desirable female shape and look slick and stylish. Not a hot mess.
Imagine I’ve got one of those posters that slides down from the ceiling here:
You can see with our two glamorous assistants, the male has wider shoulders that extend beyond the hips, whilst on the female the ratio is pretty much even. This is a subtle change, but an important one. To even that out, we’ll look to minimise shoulder width, whilst giving the illusion of larger hips.
Making shoulders seem smaller
The male torso is thought of as being an ‘inverted v’ shape, which is, in its nature top heavy. This is not a good look for us, as it makes you looks like a Dorito. With clothes, we need to neutralise this with the opposite shape – a triangle. That is to add a bit of emphasis on the lower half.
(Obviously these shapes are two extremes, we don’t want to look like either of these two…)
As mentioned before, if we use darker colours, this will shrink the area of the shoulders and torso. Long sleeves are dead-useful too, as they can hide the bulk of more muscle mass on the arms.
There are other tricks we can use to shrink the top half. Vertical stripes make the eyes follow the pattern up and down, reducing horizontal width (caution team, a bold print will draw the eye). Plunging necklines will also have a similar effect.
Torso length
Typically, a male torso is slightly longer than a female’s torso. On the latter, the waist will sit a little higher, so if we are wearing a waisted look, we have to adjust where our waistlines are. Highlighting the waistline also separates the torso from lower body (not literally, that’d be horrific) and prevents the torso from looking too long. Due to this, tuck your top into your waistband rather than having it untucked – the latter will elongate the upper half of your body.
It’s in the hips
One of the greatest differences in the male and female body shapes is the shoulder to hip ratio – for men the shoulders are often wider. We can make the shoulders appear smaller, as above, and make the hips seem larger, by applying the opposite principles that we used on the upper body. Using pops of colour, more volume, and eye-catching patterns! A line, pleated, or flared high waisted skirts are all perfect for creating the illusion of having more hips. In addition, fun fabrics such or leather or satin add a textural change which will add more emphasis to the lower body. Unless you are using padding on the hips, avoid pencil or bodycon skirts as they will only make your lower body seem smaller and add to that ‘Dorito effect’.
The Luscious Effect 
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