Vogue figure types

I just received my April issue of Vogue. Typically, I love Vogue, and as an image consultant, I was excited to tear into it. The top teaser on the cover reads Perfect Fit-DRESSING FOR EVERY SHAPE FROM SIZE 0-16. I have to admit, I was sorely disappointed to find their 5 figure types:

1. Tall
2. Pregnant
3. Thin
4. Curvy
5. Short

Tall is not a body type! Of course, very tall women can have some challenges, especially finding pants that are long enough and things that are long enough in the torso and sleeves. The article is disappointing in that they simply profiled a tall woman who spoke of the benefits of being tall, not the challenges.

Pregnant is not a body type! Pregnant is pregnant-as in having a baby! Of course there are challenges, but they're not permenant. The best highlight of the profile is that the model has learned to show off her baby bump and celebrate her temporary figure and baby. She also mentioned that she's learned to appreciate her pre-baby body more and will wear more fitted clothing when she gets her waist back.

Thin is not a body type! Models are Tall and Thin-what most women work for their entire lives. The article hints that the woman featured may think she's too thin. If you've got a very thin body with very few curves, the best advice is to avoid clothing that is super tight. Unfortunately, the article again is giving no real practical advice.

Curvy is a body type! As I mentioned in last week's post, "curvy" is another way of saying hour glass or very full bosom and hips with a very small waist. This featured vintage clothier has learned to dress her body, and mentions that if something is "too tight across the bust or hips, I'll buy the next size up and have it tailored." This is wonderful advice, and I couldn't agree more!

Short is not a body type! Of course, being petite is a reality, but a petite woman can have a curvy figure, an inverted triangle figure, a triangular figure, a too thin figure or one that simply lacks any curves. Again, the woman featured doesn't offer up any advice. She has truly made a bit of a caricature of herself by mostly wearing flats and wearing short shorts with a blazer and oxford style or Converse high top shoes.

Last week, I gave many tips for the curvy woman. In future posts, I'll give ideas for real figure types as well as the challenges listed above. Stay tuned.

How to flatter a curvy, aka hour-glass, figure

The other day when I was pre-shopping for a client, a woman in her late teens or early 20's struck up a conversation with me. (This is precisely why I only charge for two hours of pre-shopping.) The woman was very sweet and proceeded to tell me that she used to wear a size 8. Now she wears a size 18 and just doesn't know how to dress her body anymore.

She had a curvy figure, which is really just a euphemism for an hourglass figure, as you can see below. We've heard for years that the hour glass figure is ideal, but it's simply not true. The challenge that women with hour glass figures deal with is that their waists are much smaller than their hips and bust lines. If you're not dressing correctly, it's easy to look much heavier than your really are.

I gave my new friend a couple of tips and would like to share those and more with everyone today. Looking at the photos of America Ferrara below, the outfit on the left is a don't and the one on the right is a do. It's important to show your waist and never wear boxy, over sized clothes like the cardigan. Tailored, semi-fitted blouses always flatter!

It can be tempting to hide your figure in "schlumpy" over sized hoodies. You're not doing yourself any favors. Clothes should always skim your body. They shouldn't be overly tight, nor should they be overly loose.

V-neck tops are always flattering. Whatever you do, avoid turtlenecks, especially short sleeved ones. They tend to give a "uni-boob" look. There's just too much unbroken fabric. On the same note, avoid high waisted pants like these. You need a little more of your waist showing to balance your figure. (It's undeniable that Jessica Simpson has a great figure. She's just doing everything wrong here!)

Wrap dresses are easy and always flatter a curvy figure. You may need a camisole like the one shown for more modesty. If this dress appears a little dull to you, notice you've got a great neckline to fill in with modern jewelry. Also, the bracelet sleeves call out for a brightly colored bangle or cuff bracelet.

For a dressy dress, something like the one below is perfect. You've got the curves. Show 'em off! This dress is not only gorgeous, and on trend, but the belt will help widen your waist just enough to balance to your figure to make the rest of us jealous.

Halter styles also work for you-with a supportive bra. The deep V is extremely flattering. The cummerbund flatters the waist, and the skirt floats away from the body. What's important is to make sure there aren't gathers below the fitted waist or empire seam and the there is not too much fabric that can pouf out and start people wondering if you're pregnant. Think sleek!

Last but not least is a a top and sweater style to seek out. As I mentioned earlier, wraps are always flattering. You'll notice in the photo below, the sweater wraps just under the bust line, has a deep V-neck, and skims the waist and hips. A cardigan that buttons just below the bust line and worn over a fitted knit top is another updated style that will flatter your curvy, hour-glass figure.

Love Your Shoes

During the Millionaire Mindset workshop the other day, I stressed that you should never buy anything your not head over heels, falling down drunk in love with! This includes shoes. Think about it. We have countless options of what we can wear as women, but to be socially acceptable and appropriate, we have to wear shoes.

The thing that is great about shoes is that no matter how much you eat, your shoe size tends to remain fairly constant. Finding shoes to fit it leaps and bounds easier than finding pants or jeans to fit. And there are a lot of shoes out there, so I recommend instead of just finding shoes that merely fit comfortably, find shoes you LOVE!!

I love all of these shoes (which can all be found at Nordstrom):

Almost everyone can use a basic pair of black pumps. This is a beautifully cut pair that will last for years.

It sometimes seems difficult to decide what shoes to wear with light colored business clothing. Either of these shoes would be absolutely KILLER!

Shoes can be the piece that take a ho-hum, conservative outfit to looking like a million bucks. High quality, red shoes can't be beat for doing just that.

(The shoe on the left is a Cole Hahn and has an air insole-wonderfully comfortable!)

Basic jewelry

With all of springs colorful clothing it's best to downplay your jewelry and accessories. In other words, pair basic metallic and pearl jewelry with bright clothing. Or wear colorful jewelry with neutrals such as black and white.

You'll actually find that metallics are big trends in jewelry at the moment, so now is an especially good time to build or refresh your basic jewelry wardrobe. I'm not much of a "pearl girl", but I've been loving this necklace:

It's modern, yet classic and basic. I personally can't decide on the silver or the gold. I'm not the kind of image consultant that does color consulting and strongly recommends certain colors over another. I know I look better in gold, but I feel gold makes more of a statement than silver. So whichever you choose is a personal decision.

Because the necklace above albeit basic, makes a statement, I like the concept of pairing it with simple, somewhat more casual hoops like either of these.

Another option for an everyday, "go to" necklace is crystal. (Or if you've got the money and are comfortable, go with diamonds.) The necklace below could be worn dressy with a suit and matching crystal earrings.

If wearing the crystal necklace and matching earrings feels too dressy or "matchy," pair it with the plain hoops. The important thing to know is that any of the jewelry pictured can be worn with formal business wear, business casual clothing or even with jeans and a t-shirt.

Etcetera Clothing

Last week, I gave a workshop with a good friend of mine, Patrice Barber, of Taylor Made Wealth Coaching. It was titled The Millionaire Mindset--Look like a Million, Think like a Millionaire. For my portion of the workshop, I shared my Top 10 Professional Shopping tips, and how to create a wardrobe that can make you look like a million bucks. The main premise of the workshop was that if you want to look like a million bucks and become like a millionaire, you have to plan. It doesn't just happen.

If you'd like to find out when the next workshop will be, click here to sign up for my e-Style Tip of the Month. (I'll also have my website remodel done in a couple of months, hopefully. There will be all kinds of great info on it continually!)

One of my tips was to pay attention to quality. You're never going to look like a million bucks by shopping for your clothes at Target. Besides, do you really want someone to recognize your outfit they saw when they were grocery shopping?

On Friday, I went to see the Spring '08 Etcetera collection. I first started buying Etcetera clothing a few years ago. I only buy a couple of pieces at each show, but I can truly say, I love them all! While I try to buy good lines at the stores, it can still sometimes be hit or miss, but my Etcetera clothes have held up absolutely beautifully.

Typically I buy suiting, since I think it's hard to find suits that are classic yet unusual. Since I'd just bought a suit the previous week, I opted for a printed knit top and skirt that can be worn as a dress or separately. It can be worn with a white jacket or sweater. I also bought a contrasting knit top.

I'll say it again. It's expensive, but barring any stains or laundry mishaps, they'll be the kind of things I can wear for years. I know this because they're not only cute and classic, but they're comfortable. I continually hear from my clients that they want clothing that's comfortable. When you find wonderful quality like this, it can be extremely comfortable.

The more times you wear something, the cost per wearing goes down, leading to VALUE. And you also get the intangible aspect of loving your clothes and feeling fantastic wearing them.

No One I know Likes to Shop for Blue Jeans!

Shopping for jeans usually ranks right up there with shopping for bathing suits. As women, most of us hate it! Often times, if we find a pair of jeans we love, perhaps they fit but they don't really flatter. More often than that so many pairs just don't fit. There are so many to choose from it's overwhelming. Finding the perfect pair can take on the feel of a full time job.

Now there's a web site with a tool that can help you find your perfect jeans, www.zafu.com. You simply answer a few easy questions about your body and how you like your jeans to fit, and up come several options. (If you'd like some tips about building a jeans wardrobe, check out my May e-Style Tip, where I've already raved about zafu.com.)

Even as wonderful as Zafu is, there are still a couple of problems. (Don't get me wrong, I love it, but unless you're buying on line, there are a couple of problems.) First, when your jeans come up, they all have a name. When you're shopping in the store, you can't always find the name on the jeans. If you can find a good salesperson, they can often show you the jeans even if the name isn't in plain sight. The other thing is that while Zafu has tons of jeans, they don't have every jean on the face of the earth in their system. Basically, what all of this means is that while you can arm yourself with your Zafu list, you may still have to try on a good number of jeans.

Or in my case, you might rush out the door without consulting your list like I did last Saturday. I had a client in the morning, and having used Zafu to help a client find a pair of jeans, I was inspired and decided to shop for some jeans for myself after I was done with my morning client. Not being a morning person, I didn't even give Zaful a thought before I left the house. However, I was determined to find some jeans that day.

Really, even just answering the Zafu questions can help you be aware of your body type and how to ask a salesperson to help you.

My first stop was Nordstrom. They have a large selection of David Kahn jeans. I have clients and friends who love these jeans, and since there are quite a few styles, I thought surely I could find a pair to fit. Wrong! One thing I've learned is that because I have a short waist and an undefined waist, I need extra low rise jeans. All of the David Kahn's were a hair too high waisted. Next, I tried Kut From the Cloth jeans in a couple of styles and even some good old Calvin Kleins. None of them worked. This wasn't even a fraction of the jeans they had at Nordies, but I was really looking for some kick around jeans and didn't want to spend over $100, so I decided to forge on into the mall.

I was heading down to Macy's since I had a coupon to use and had found some cute jeans for a client there when I saw the Levi's store and went it. The guy there was pretty helpful, and I might have stuck around longer to try a few more pairs, but I was so hungry I thought I was going to pass out! And since Wetzel's Pretzel's, my favorite shopping snack, was right by Macy's, I went back to plan A.

Once nourished albeit a little discouraged, I headed into Macy's. (That is so usually not me. I was kicking myself for forgetting the Zafu list!) As I was passing the Junior department, I thought why not! I've bought a couple of pairs of junior sized jeans in the past, but I thought they were flukes. Nevertheless, I picked up a couple pairs of American Rag jeans and headed up to Missy jeans.

I was dismayed that I couldn't find any "popular priced" jeans in a long length. Do the buyers think that when a woman reaches the age where junior sizes don't fit, she has suddenly gotten shorter? I determined that this must be why I see so many women wearing pants that are too short. I tried on an entire stack of jeans, and they were all too short.

Then I tried on the Juniors. OMG, they were amazing! Actually, extremely comfortable, but hard to believe a little too big. I was about to head back downstairs to find a size down when I decided to take a look at the department that sells Paige, (my favorite,) Seven's, Citizen's of Humanity and the like. These jeans are always long enough. They should be, they're crazy expensive!! At this point I didn't really care about the price. I wanted some jeans!

Then another shock happened! I met the nicest salesperson, Kayla, who offered to find me a fitting room and even went downstairs to find the junior jeans. (I was totally convinced a smaller size wasn't going to work.) The American Rag junior jeans fit and since I was so proud of myself for enduring and finding such a good price ($39), I also treated myself * to a pair of Citizen for Humanity jeans. I believe the style is the Ingrid. (*I had coupons and I don't want to go jeans shopping again for a really long time.)

For what might seem like a lot of rambling, there are several morals to this story.

• Don't leave home for a jean shopping trip without consulting zafu.com.
• Make sure to have a snack when you're hungry and feeling a little down.
• Be open minded.
• Like toilet paper, if you can afford it, buy a couple pairs of jeans at a time and save yourself the hassle of another trip.

"Clinton Makes Fun of Her Fashion Sense

According to an article in US Weekly, Senator Hillary Clinton admits her fashion sense is not nearly as sharp as her political instincts. As an image consultant, I have to agree, but truly, I have so many mixed feelings about this issue.

(Click on the link above to read the article and see several old photos of Clinton where she has made humorous comments about her fashion choices.) Of the coat on the right, she says, "I'm a big believer in recycling--even carpets!"

First, I appreciate the fact that she can make fun of herself. I mean, she's usually pretty dry, as many politicians are, but the fact that she wasn't too threatened to make jokes about her clothes lends a certain charm and "everyday woman" quality to her.

On the other hand, (and you're not going to believe an image consultant is saying this,) it drives me nuts that the media is making any mention of her clothing. Doing a bit of research for this blog post, I Googled "Hillary Clinton, fashion." Quite a few articles came up. I failed to find any articles with the media bashing any of the male candidates. Why is "fashion dissection," limited to women? Hillary Clinton may not win any fashion awards, but other than the above pictured coat, her clothing isn't wretched! The reality is that society is still focused on women's clothing and not men's.

Back to my other hand though, Hillary Clinton is campaigning for the President of the United States! She admits she has poor fashion sense, so why wouldn't she use an image consultant to dress her and show her at her very best at all times? Using a seasoned political image advisor, Hillary could easily manage her image to where it's a non-issue or at the very least, create a buzz about how amazing she looks. Honestly, she has much more important issues to think about than what to wear.