Wardrobe stylist and image consultant Christina Santelli says: "Finding the pieces that fit you is really about trial and error. Some people think they can't wear certain things because of their body type, so they never try them on.

As a stylist, I love encouraging my clients to be open to something they wouldn't have considered before, and they're often pleasantly surprised.

To dress for an apple body type, where your top half is wider than your bottom, wear flared or wide pants instead of straight-leg or skinny jeans to help balance out your figure. If you have a pear body type, where your lower half is bigger than your upper body, wear straight-leg pants and tops that accentuate your shoulders.

If you have an hourglass body type, wear clothes that cinch at your waist and stick with fitted clothing over loose, shapeless pieces. To learn how to dress for other body types, keep reading!

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Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue. wikiHow Account. No account yet? Create an account. wikiHow is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Categories Personal Care and Style Fashion Body Type and Fashion Dressing for Your Body Shape Tips and Tricks for Dressing Every Body Shape.

Download Article Flatter your figure with these simple styling tips. Written by Kalee Hewlett Edited by Devin McSween Last Updated: March 2, Fact Checked. Apple shaped bodies, flaunt your legs in flared pants and elongate your torso with V-shaped necklines.

Pear shaped bodies, flatter your gorgeous curves with straight leg pants and structured, shoulder-enhancing tops. Straight shaped bodies, show off your amazing arms and legs with ruffled tops, skinny jeans, and figure-hugging skirts.

Hourglass figures, emphasize your cinched-in waist with figure-hugging silhouettes, A-line dresses, and V-shaped necklines. Part 1. All rights reserved.

wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U. and international copyright laws. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc. Measure your bust, waist, and hips to determine your body type. The first step in understanding your body shape is to look at how your bust, waist, and hips fit together on your body.

Your chest might be bigger than your waist and hips, or your hips might be your largest feature. Just get out a measuring tape and place it around the fullest portion of your bust, smallest area on your waist, and widest part of your hips to find out.

There is no such thing as a "good" or "bad" body type. All bodies are unique and beautiful in their own ways.

Knowing your body type is just a general guideline to help you dress to look and feel your best. Even model's bodies fall into one of these categories. This body shape is often called the inverted triangle and described as "top-heavy.

Women with this body shape typically have thinner legs, arms, and hips. All you need to do is look at yourself in the mirror to see if you are an apple body type.

If you naturally have a smaller bust, weight often gathers around your midriff. This is the opposite of an apple body type, being more bottom-heavy than top-heavy. Women with a pear shaped body usually have a defined waist, full hips, and narrow, sloping shoulders.

Your body is likely more curvy than straight, with a fuller behind and more muscular legs. If your hips, waist, and bust are equal, you may have a straight body.

Instead, your silhouette is fairly straight looking without a noticeable curve around your waist area. Your rib cage defines most of your shape, as there is no waist definition to add curves. You can still have a rectangular body shape if you have a curvy bottom or a wide chest with a little bit of extra weight around the midriff.

If you have this body type, your hips and bust are very proportional with almost equal measurements. Bone structure shapes your body, but weight can alter your proportions.

However, losing excess weight by eating healthy and exercising , or consuming more calories to gain weight, can help modify your body proportions. Certain body types are predisposed to gain or lose weight in certain areas. For example, women with hourglass figures tend to gain and lose weight in the bust and hips, but not the waist.

But, an apple shaped woman tends to gain weight in her hips and not in her bust. Adding cardio and resistance training to your workout can help tone your body. Knowing where you tend to retain and lose fat also helps you create a solid exercise plan. In fact, when a designer selects models for shows, they pick ones that show off their clothes best.

During the Victorian period, hourglass bodies were celebrated, with many women wearing corsets to get the look. In the s, straight body types came into vogue.

Many women wore girdles to flatten their chests! An African-American woman may be praised for her hourglass figure, while a Japanese woman is celebrated for her straight body type. Genetics also play a large role in your body shape. Look at other women in your family to see a common trend. If the women in your family tend to have the same body type, chances are you do too.

Remember, it is not just your mother's family that determines your shape, but your father's as well! Part 2. To dress an apple shaped body , highlight your torso and legs.

Direct attention away from your midriff and go with shirts and dresses that accentuate your neck, chest, and lower half. Follow your bodyline and keep details on the top and lower third of your body. With this body type, it is great to wear shirts, blouses, or dresses with slight V-neck shapes.

Choose flared pants over straight-leg or skinny jeans to balance out your wider shoulders and heavier upper body. Wearing bottoms just below your hip bone also helps draw attention away from your midriff.

Dresses and belts that cinch in at your waist can highlight your midsection. If this is an area you want to show-off, go for it! Otherwise, avoid these styles to draw less attention to this area.

If there are features on your body that you want to diminish, wear dark colors like black and navy blue. Wearing tops that drape over your curves can also draw attention away from areas you want to cover.

Christina Santelli Professional Stylist. The trick to dressing a pear body type is wearing anything that adds to your shoulder and bust area.

This adds focus to your upper body, evening out the proportions between your top and bottom half. Choose shirts and dresses that have ruffles, pleats, and ties at the top to draw focus to your top half. Boat neck, scoop neck, and sweetheart necklines also emphasize your shoulders.

Shoulder pads will always do the trick, too! Wear straight-leg or slightly flared pants with heels. These styles help balance out your more bottom-heavy shape. Wearing a well-fitting bra can also enhance your bust and bring balance to your shape. Pants or tights that narrow your legs, like skinny and very flared jeans, can emphasize your bottom half even more.

If you want to create more balance in your figure, avoid these styles. If you want to hide your bottom half, doing glute exercises and cardio might shrink butt fat.

If you want to emphasize it, add weights to your workouts and increase your protein intake to grow your booty. Wear voluminous tops and skinny jeans if you have a straight body type. To dress a rectangular body shape , choose clothes that highlight your arms and legs.

By wearing bold, patterned tops and figure-hugging jeans, you also break up your silhouette and help create curves along your body. Go for shirts and dresses with ruffles and frills to add texture, volume, and femininity to your figure.

A dress with a lot of embellishment at the bust can give weight to the area and make it look a bit bigger. Make the most of your great legs by wearing miniskirts with bright tights. Or, throw on skinny jeans. These figure-hugging styles help add more shape and curve to your body.

To pinch in your waist and exaggerate your curves, wear belts with your dresses and skirts. Putting on shapewear can also create curves to help balance out your more angular features. Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources.

Develop and improve services. Use limited data to select content. List of Partners vendors. Forget the fashion rules you've been told. That's simple: Break the rules, because dressing for your body shape should never be an exact formula you feel like you have to follow.

In fact, there are alternative tips you can use to confidently rock your desired aesthetic while showing off your best features. Ahead, we spoke to two stylists and a fashion psychologist about the body shape dressing myth and how to take a more modern, celebratory approach to your style.

Meet the Expert. Dressing for your body type is the idea of styling yourself by focusing on the proportions of your bust, waist, and hips, then using clothes to highlight or minimize these features. Body shape dressing does aim to recognize bodies at almost any size, but some people don't fit into any of those shapes or may fit multiple, plus bodies change over time.

Personal stylist and sustainable fashion educator Lakyn Carlton says that despite the body shape dressing narratives out there, your sense of style doesn't need to be defined by your body type. Fashion psychologist and author Dr.

Stylist and creative consultant Carly Landig sees the value in certain body shape dressing principles, though she agrees that they shouldn't be the be-all, end-all. The number of clothing options these days is overwhelming with the accelerated trend cycles and the new-ness nature of social media.

Having general best practices can help guide us in the direction of our own self-exploration of what works best for ourselves. If you do want to follow body shape dressing, it's okay to pick and choose which tips you find helpful—and ignore the ones that feel limiting. One season you may have plenty of options, while the next season you may be stuck with nothing.

Basically, knowing how to choose clothes that highlight your body in a way you like isn't a problem in theory, but the idea of hard-and-fast "rules" based on societal standards is.

Karen says that part of the reason people still follow body shape dressing is because of cognitive fatigue : "The reason why we stay stuck is that people do like to categorize things. It helps them create organization," she says. You can get to the solution faster. Carlton also believes that this idea of limiting choices is a reason the myth has lasted so long.

Since dressing solely based on your body type can be limiting and unfulfilling, Carlton recommends focusing on the garment itself rather than just our bodies. Landig and Karen concur, saying that an intentional approach focused on self-expression and confidence will help you to find your best style—read on for more in-depth tips.

Carlton says that the first step to finding your style is deciding what you like. She suggests creating Pinterest boards, through which you may discover that you prefer a certain color palette, particular necklace styles , or a specific outfit combination.

Then, the next step is experimenting with those looks and seeing how to bring them into your wardrobe. While it's only natural to want to dress in a way that makes us feel good in our bodies, you should take an approach that's more about emphasizing what you love about yourself than fitting to certain societal ideals or rules.

We innately know our bodies best and what we feel the best in, and we should listen to that regardless of the current trend or shape. In her book, Dress Your Best Life, Karen writes about a morning exercise to do before you get out of bed.

She says to think about how you would like to express yourself that day, from the mood you want to be in to what look would increase your dopamine levels and allow you to face the world.