Karen's Style Sucess

“I have got my confidence back”

Karen's Style Sucess

“I have got my confidence back”

Background:

Karen was 48, married with teenage children. She had recently achieved a significant goal by losing over 2 stone, and although thrilled with this achievement, she struggled to dress her changed shape. What she needed was insight, guidance and practical tools.

Challenge: “Dressing the Figure of 8”

One of her Karen’s major challenges was dressing to suit her poroportions, which almost seemed unmatched to her.

Karen was following guidelines for a ‘Neat Hourglass’, and while these would work well on her top half, they would not apply to her bottom half.

Solution:

With my guidance, Karen realised that these challenges were a result of her body shape – a ‘figure of eight’ – which follows a curved upper body shape, but is straight on the bottom half, meaning different guidelines apply to the top and bottom half of the body.

Figure of 8 Guidelines

• Fitted pieces will work best on the top half - look for shaping like curved seams, and fabric with movement that is not stiff, and can sit close to the body

• Always try to define your waist - things like wrap tops, ruching, and belting at the waist

• 'Open up' the neck area to lenghten & slim your overall shape - things like deep V necks, and button down shirts & blouses

• Aim to 'flow through' the challenging tummy area - tops that are fitted across the bust, and then flow over the tummy

• Try adding width at the hips to create balance - things like peplum tops, hip pockets, or low-slung contoured belts

• Keep the silhouette on the bottom half neat & tapered - Choose slim leg trousers and skirts that taper inward at the knees.

The Next Step - Identifying Karen’s Style Personality

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Tuning into your own preferences in style - i.e., developing your style personality, develops trust & confidence in your own clothing choices.

Karen's intake information had lots of evidence of a Natural Style Personality.

But during the course of our sessions, as often happens, it became clear she also had a Secondary Style Personality.

Creative Style Personality

There was a strong ‘Creative’ element to her Style Personality, which was something she wasn’t fully conscious of prior to our sessions, yet which made complete sense to her and ‘felt right’, or felt ‘just like her’.

The Result:

When Karen goes shopping, she now has a game plan – she can identify firstly what works for her body shape and then what pieces suit her Natural/Creative style personality.