What is your body type? Do you find it helpful to follow the dressing guidelines for your type, or do you think it's too restrictive to follow these rules when you'd rather wear whatever the heck you want? I'm in the middle of these two opinions. At the blogger conference I attended a couple of weekends ago, I was lucky to have a little style consultation with Reachel Bagley of Cardigan Empire. She confirmed what I had already suspected- I have a "lower figure" body type, aka pear shape, aka a thigh gap is impossible for me (it's not a goal of mine to have gap between my thighs, by the way).
When I first saw this photo from the conference, it was like seeing my thighs for the first time, hahaha. I usually don't take photos posing like this, and when I'm looking into a mirror, it's never at this angle. Yo, my thighs are thick. And I've got a biggish butt, too. I knew these things, but I didn't realize that my legs looked like that in skinny jeans. Looking now, it may just look a bit accentuated because I've got my shirt tucked into my pants (a look that I've been experimenting with jeans lately, to Ryan's dismay).
I used to love makeover shows like What Not to Wear (okay, I still do), but when I realized just how unfair it seemed, I started to perceive it differently. Example- an "apple" shaped woman is given strict rules about what to shop for, while a "celery" girl is allowed many more clothing options. Okay, I realize that they're giving these two women separate rules in order to make they're clothes more flattering, but it just seems so unfair sometimes. In a particular episode, they makeover a long, lean, cool, artist, and they basically tell her that she could pull off anything with her body type. They give her cool/funky clothes that they would never give to a pear or apple, and that just made me kinda mad! Don't get me wrong, I love to see the transformations at the end! But there are just some things that I don't agree with in that show.
If I were to always dress to flatter the shape of my body and dress to make myself appear taller/longer (I'm 5'1"), I'd never wear skinny jeans, flared jeans, capri pants, turtle necks, high collared shirts, skirts past my knees, shoes with ankle straps, boots, anything oversized, anything too tight, the list goes on. HOW DEPRESSING IS THAT?
I'm glad I had that little style consultation. I found out that I'm a deep winter (ooh!) so I now know which colors are my best friends, and that my signature style is modern/boho. I respect Reachel Bagley's profession and I'm positive that she has helped a lot of women (and men) with their wardrobes. Plus she's a sweetheart and makes you feel like a babe.
But I'm still going to gladly break fashion rules.
In the words of my friend Megan, "You can pry my skinny jeans out of my cold, dead hands."
Photos taken by Let Me See You Sparkle Photography
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