Dressing for Effect

Fashion is one of the funnest ways to celebrate where you are in life. I love the emotional comfort it can bring. Expressing aura in a very noticeable way. When I wear clothes that make me feel pretty. I noticed that so much of unlearning my relationship with clothes had to do with effect. Both on my body and what I felt it was saying about me.

The messages fashion sends is always somehow less literal than we might think. The projection that society has put on an outfit may influence its situational use. But, fashion becomes magic when nail the effect.

Most importantly, dress in a way that makes you feel good. There’s nothing wrong with feeling good about how you look. We dismiss the idea of vanity being a negative trait in this house!

Find Your Silhouette

We’ve talked before about body types and on the adjacent end there is silhouettes. Changing your body type is naturally impossible. Your silhouette however? Completely fair game. There's plenty with silhouettes to play with! Lengths, structure, and of course, fit.

Start Using Different Lengths in Clothes

Different lengths let you play around with the proportions of your body. I haven’t been the same person since I discovered high waisted — well high waisted anything! Being 5 feet, most clothing is too long. Both literally and figuratively. To combat this, high waisted creates the 🪄illusion 🪄 that I actually have different areas of my body. Not just a little rack drowning in fabric.

Incorporate Structure to Fashion

Structure for some reason on the surface feel more intimidating. The point of structure in fashion is to create angles that draw interest or create a new shape. Sometimes, both. I love the idea of using structure for balancing out natural body shapes.

Stiffer fabrics are great for this. Things like denim, and linen. Even higher counts of cotton. These fabrics are usually more forgiving for anchoring, then laying where it lands. With this structure you can conceal more of the areas you might not be as confident in.

The Most Important Part of Fashion is the Fit

I’ve noticed that the way something fits, directly influences whether I feel like I could pull off a style or not. I love when reviews have a toggle or description that includes whether something runs big or small. Because it sets the expectation off the jump. That there’s going to be some adjustments. To get the right, neutral fit.

By neutral, I mean pieces that aren’t aiming to create any effect. Only fitting in a way that’s comfortable to move in. When you put it on it just feels comfortable. Almost like setting the blank canvas. The neutral fit is meant to give a jumping off point. You’ll know whether to be looser or form fitting from there.

How to Find Your Size Range

Having a range of sizes will always trump having everything in the same size. A range gives you more flexibility and lets you explore different fashion aesthetics. The only true measuring system that plays a part is, your actual measurements. Use body measurements to give your mind something to focus on! Fashion at its core is not a numbers game. A size range will always give you wiggle room to achieve multiple effects with one piece. Especially when you combine it with generally fashion fussing. The tuck and untuck dance 💃.

Body Fluctuations

Getting your ranges down takes the underlying pressure off of your body’s fluctuations. You never want something to be too form fitter or loose. Finding the goldilocks zone on both of ends of the spectrum depends solely on trial and error. But, when you do it’s one of the biggest releases. Not only of emotional pressure. But being open to the idea that you can look different and it’s not a something that should carry so much with it moving forward. Reply to this email if you’ve had your size range “aha” moment yet!

Your period should also be heavily considered in your closet. Besides avoiding white to avoid heart ache (we’ve all been there🥹). The natural bloat will make things fit wonky. That’s okay. Your mind is going to try and trick you. That’s why we count on our neutral fits!

Using Body Measurements for Fashion

Please, understand. The way that my measurements have come through in a way that’s better than traditional sizing!!! It also gives my brain a number to focus on when shopping that won’t fluctuate between stores. It is a godsend when online shopping too! Consider your measurements and desired effect. You will have a winner almost every time!

Playing with Every Fashion Aesthetic

Speaking of aesthetics. Start with your current closets. Pair pieces that feel like they won’t work together. Tuck or untuck. Mess around with your outfit. More often than not what happens is we learn our go to aesthetic. What we’re naturally drawn to. Then, it’s off to Pinterest to type in a fashion aesthetic plus your body type.

Outfit Idea Hack

The craziest thing happened when I went to my closet and paired things that I swore up and down that didn’t make sense to me. Somehow, in their own way the worked. It was a somewhere between two aesthetics that I really enjoyed. It made me feel different in my own skin. I almost didn’t recognize my own pieces!

Tucking Your Clothes

The value of tucking or untucking is completely underrated. It does a lot of sass for an outfit to tuck and relax an outfit when untucking. It also plays into working your shape. Creating new silhouettes that celebrate your relationship with your body so far. Plus, it’s so fun to play with things like a half tuck. Pinterest and Instagram have some great hacks for knotting, tucking and cuffing clothes.

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