June Fashion Favourites – A Curvy Woman’s Guide To Fashion

I often do monthly favourite fashion posts and I love doing them because I am constantly scouring the high street for things that I want to get my hands on, and it’s nice to be able to share some outfit ideas with you guys! I thought this month I would try something a little different. I have spent a while getting this post together and even drew the pictures (yay me!), so I hope that this post can be interesting, fun and helpful! The summer is practically here so it’s time to bring out the summer fashion, whatever your size or shape! Here is my guide to fashion for curvy women:

Identify your body shape

The first thing you need to do is stand in front of a mirror and work out what kind of body shape you have. Whatever shape or size you are, there is fashion to suit all, so embrace your body and have the confidence to work with it. For curvy women, the most common body shapes are shown below:Curvy image 1Curvy 2Curvaceous/ hourglass
This type of body shape means that your bust and curvy hips and/or bottom are symmetrical whilst having a thinner waist. This type of shape is all round curvy. Key pieces: Low neck-line tops and dresses, fitted and tailored trousers/ jeans, ruches or gathered outfits on areas you want to look smaller. Try to avoid: Ruffles on larger areas, horizontal stripes.

Top-heavy/ heart-shaped
This body shape characteristically looks like a heart because the bust measurement is the most dominant part of the body. You will have a large curvaceous bust area and small hips and often a small bottom. Key pieces: Fitted tops, fitted jeans/ trousers, tailored skirts and dresses. To avoid: Loose tops with flared/ wide-cut trousers.

Pear-shaped/ teardrop
Kim Kardashian is well known for her pear-shaped figure and she rocks it. With this body shape, your hips and/or bottom are the largest part of your body and your bust is smaller in comparison with often narrower shoulders. Key pieces: fitted jeans, a-line skirts, tailored skirts, dresses and trousers. Try to avoid: Pencil skirts, flared trousers/jeans, wide-leg trousers, ‘one-size’ dresses.

Apple-shaped
This body type displays a thicker waist with the tummy feeling fuller or rounder than the rest of the body. Key pieces: shaped t-shirts, un-tailored dresses, flowy dresses, full length cardigans and jackets, tunic-style tops with fitted/ tailored jeans or trousers. Try to avoid: Crop clothing particularly in jackets, tailored dresses, halter/ spagetti-strap tops.

Emerald/ Rectangular
A rectangular or emerald figure is a fairly straight looking figure in the sense that there is a lack of obvious curves and the body shape remains the same throughout. Most types of clothing will suit this body shape, pieces that try to add more definition to the body will work nicely.

Nimi’s fashion tips for this summer

Build a strong wardrobe
Whatever body shape you are, you are able to create a capsule wardrobe, that is, one that contains staple items that don’t go out of fashion such as certain skirts, jeans and tops. Have a comfortable pair of jeans that can be matched with a pretty top as your go-to outfit and for larger figures, it is more flattering to wear more fitted jeans according to your shape. If you have a pear-shaped figure steer away from flared and wide-leg jeans and trousers and stick to more tailored trousers and skirts. That LBD of yours should be tailored and will hug your figure in the right places. V-necks and square-necks will stretch you out and create a slimmer figure whilst polo necks and round necks will make your figure more rounded.

Colours to wear
Many people with larger body sizes are under the impression that they must always wear black to look thinner! This is not the case. Colours suit every body shape, you just have to stylise accordingly! Darker colours do hide features whereas lighter colours may highlight features, but it is all about styling yourself to highlight the areas to want to draw attention to and hide the areas you don’t want to.

Size matters
Any type of large figure hidden in sheets of fabric is going to make that figure look much larger. My tip is to avoid those ‘one-size’ outfits! Be body-conscious but not overly, and show off your best curves with outfits that are tighter in the right places for example, hourglass figures look great in dresses that go tighter at the waist. For apple-shaped figures, too tight clothing is unflattering. Wearing pieces that fit nicely without over-stretching will compliment your figure. I would also suggest investing in shape wear as this is a great way to reduce roundness and make you look a little firmer. They say shape wear takes off 5 pounds whilst still allowing you to breathe normally!

Accessorise!
It is always nice to accessorise an outfit to give it its final oomph! Bigger. bolder jewellery can look really nice on larger women as they can pull it off, whereas on smaller more petite frames, larger accessories may overwhelm them. A bigger bag can make a larger body size seem smaller and ‘equestrian-style’ boots will make calfs looking slimmer and longer.curvy post31.  Dark colours hide whilst light colours highlight, but don’t let this stop you from wearing colours- you just have to know how to wear them! If you like your waist area, then wear a bright belt over a darker coloured dress to highlight your waistline. If you want to hide your bottom half for example, wear darker coloured trousers with a light coloured top.

2.  Generally avoid horizontal stripes on areas that you don’t want to draw attention to. Use colours and pattern to emphasise all your strongest features. In this example, the horizontal stripes work because it draws attention to the bust area which suits that figure shape. Generally though stick to vertical and diagonal stripes on clothing, as you want to look taller and longer rather than wider.

3 & 4.  Big patterns make you look bigger whilst smaller patterns make you look thinner. The difference is incredible in just avoiding large patterns on outfits, mainly dresses. Floral is beautiful, but look for clothing with small floral prints rather than large flowers. A similar thing goes with polka dots!

Being larger in body size does not mean that you can’t look absolutely fabulous. All you need is a few fashion tips and a dose of confidence to appreciate dressing in a way that makes you feel comfortable whilst showing off your best features. Make the most of your curves!

This post has gotten rather lengthy so I’ll leave it there!

Love Nimisha
xoxo

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2 Comments

  1. Annie
    June 17, 2014 / 2:03 pm

    What a great post! Thank you for the tips! x

    • niminotes
      Author
      June 17, 2014 / 2:04 pm

      Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed the post! x

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