Did you know your body shape has NOTHING to do with your dress size? Yes that’s right – NOTHING!  Whether you are a size 6 or a size 16 your silhouette will remain the same? “You mean if I lost two stone my shape would remain the same?” you cry.  “How can that possibly be??”

Well – here’s the thing – your silhouette is determined by the shape of your hip bone, and this in turn determines where you “go in” (your slimmest parts) and where you “go out” (your widest parts).

Despite any weight loss or gain, your hip bone does not change, so your narrow bit’s will always be narrow, and your wider bits will always be those that you consider your “problem area”.

My golly, I wish I’d know this when I was 17 (and right up to when I was 34, and finally learnt about my body shape).  My dress size has varied over the years from a size 6 to a large size 14.  My top half and torso were always slim, but I had chunky thighs.

Image Guru: Claire Bunton

So I would try and diet to make them slimmer – but of course, because of my body shape, while my thighs might have gone down a dress size, so also did my torso – therefore still having the same “problem” of being bottom heavy. It was a real light bulb moment learning that this would always be the case, so instead of trying to constantly change it (to no avail), I, instead, learnt how to DRESS FOR MY BODY SHAPE By understanding your body shape (silhouette), it becomes a lot easier to do this.

You then only purchase clothes that are the same shape as your body.  Makes so much sense when you put it that way doesn’t it?? In all aspects of my Style Coaching programmes, like always goes with like.

So, with regard to your body shape, if YOU “go in” at a certain part of your body – your clothes need to go in at that part too. AND …. Often if you try to cover up a certain area, more often than not you are adding bulk of material to an already wide part – thus making it appear larger. So, let’s take this body shape – known as SHAPED (in old money this might also be known as Hourglass) – as an example:

Shaped Silhouette Bodies

As you can see from the picture in her underwear, this lady has wide hips. In turn this leads her to having a very narrow waist. She will always hold weight on her hips, bottom and thighs. So, from the clothed picture you can see she is drawing attention to her narrow waist by her clothes going in where she does and having a skirt that flows over her widest part. Often ladies with this body shape will try and hide their bottom by wearing a baggy cardigan that covers their derrière.

But THIS IS NOT the way to go. 

The baggy cardigan will hang from her shoulders to her hips.  She will therefore be having huge amounts of excess material covering her waist (her NARROWEST) part.  Making her look the width of her hips on her torso too!!!! Here are the other two body shapes.  Which one of the three are you??  Can you now see which shape clothes flatter you the most?

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