Yes, the military styling and chic has staying power and is one of the key trends this summer. Double breasted coats, buckles, camouflage prints, safari jacket, vests, and boots are the staples of this trend with strong shoulder shapes and button detailing- but not for everyone is the military look good news. Some will excel in this trend, others have to pick the right pieces that work for their body shape,- size and features. Others have to skip this trend altogether because the structure, detailing or colour simply doesn’t work for them.
Some tips how to wear it:
Military jackets have to sit straight. So, great news for the flat chested women- especially the higher the neckline. Therefore women with a bust should pass on this one. The shoulder details like straps and buttons are great for women with a long neck but bad news for the ones with a short and/or wide neck. It is great for pears, neat hourglasses and lean columns. While apples and inverted triangle should stay away from this trend.
Camouflage trousers or trousers with lots of zippers are fantastic for women who are tall have longs and small calves. These women can deal with all the details and additional volume to that part of the body. While short women, big thighs and big calves should never wear them. Inverted triangle, neat hourglass, lean column, rectangle are best suited to pull these features off. While a pear shouldn’t wear it since it adds more volume to their already bigger lower half and it is too much clutter for an apple though most of them have good legs. Since they have more volume on top they have to opt for “quieter” loose fit on their lower half.
Vests, jackets and coats can be single or double breasted. Double breasted are great for the small busted women while not at all for the ones who have a bigger bust. In general a double breasted jacket is ideal for pears, neat hourglass, lean columns while single breasted for full hourglass, rectangles ( double breasted types will make them look even boxier!) and apple should always avoid any buttoning in their tummy area.
The military trend comes mostly in nude, camouflage, white or blue colours. Clears and cools should opt for the navy and white options instead, while it will work great on the softs and warms. Lights will be quite flexible on any of these colours while the deeps need to ensure that they wear a deeper colour near their face.
When dressing for your shape, colour and occasion you need as well “to dress yourself” from the inside in order to ensure that you feel good about yourself. Both aspects need to be addressed – none can co exist without the other. No clothes or make up will be able to cover up a lack of sleep, a bad diet that is lacking of the right nutrients to make you feel good and look energised. Also it will have the unpleasant side effect to add additional pounds to your shape and mostly when that happens you put it on where you don’t want it. It is not about wearing Size 0, which I do not support, but about feeling good about yourself- no matter the size- with no regrets. Looking and feeling as good from the outside as you feel on the inside can be influenced by the right diet for your shape but also by the right workout for your shape. Every shape has different criteria good and bad therefore it is only logical that when we workout we need to apply different sets of rules to address different parts of the body we like to keep build up, slim down or just keep in shape. Someone who is a for example a. pear- carrying the weight on hips, thighs and calves will need to choose a different regime in diet and work as someone who is e.g. an inverted triangle who have broader shoulders or/and upper body than in comparison to their bottom . So, it is natural that their diet and workout plan has to vary from each other.
Our guide will help you find the perfect regime for your shape choose the right diet for your body shape!
Inverted Triangle
Your build is characterised by:
Straight and squared shoulder line
Little definition between waist and hips
Flat hips and bottom
A bottom half that seems smaller than your top half
Advice
Doing a mixture of cardiovascular and resistance exercises will help. More resistance exercises on your lower body will be necessary, to obtain a balance between lower and upper.
Essential diet tips
Stick to foods that are moderate in unsaturated fat – to avoid piling on the pounds – and high in calcium.
Incorporate a balance of low G.I carbohydrates with lean proteins.
Essential exercise tips
Lower body exercises like squats and lunges.
Upper body toning exercise.
Incorporate moderate to high amounts of cardiovascular exercise
Lean Column
Your build is characterised by:
Narrow shoulders
Flat chest or small bust
Small and non-defined waist
Narrow hips and flat bottom
Advice
An exercise routine should include exercises to enhance gluteus and shoulder muscles. This will help curve out the shape of the body. Also do whole body
Essential diet tips
Make sure you include plenty of lean protein, like fish and turkey; complex carbs, such as wholegrain rice and pasta; and calcium-rich foods, like yoghurt and tofu in your diet.
Avoid carbonated soft drinks and cut down on starchy foods like white rice and potatoes.
Essential exercise tips
No activity is off limits for your shape, but abdominal and back exercises should be high priority.
Three days a week of formal exercise with lots of rest in between is ideal level.
It’s important to exercise intensely and really tax the muscles during each workout in order to achieve good muscle tone.
Rectangle
Your build is characterised by:
Straight shoulder line
Straight hips and bottom
Very little waist definition
Straight ribcage
Advice
Short fast bouts of cardiovascular exercises are recommended. High repetition resistance exercises may help tone and define shoulders, waist and hips.
Essential diet tips
Eat a high protein diet to help muscle development. i.e fish, chicken, eggs and dairy products.
Include RDA (recommended daily allowance) of omega 3 and 6, to help with joint suppleness during extra resistance training.
Essential exercise tips
Upper body cardiovascular exercises will help define shoulders. Boxing training may help this as well as helping definition of the waist.
Compound resistance training will help shape and strengthen of the middle part of the body.
Exercises such as squats, deadlifts and pressing movements will help.
Apple
Your build is characterised by:
Rounded shoulder line
Curved back
Fullness around the middle
Flattish bottom
Advice
Apples shapes should concentrate their exercise regimes on cardio activities to bring the body back to proportion by reducing upper body mass, while core- strengthening exercises will help to trim the waist further.
Essential diet tips
Eat a moderate amount of healthy fats found in grains and oils, as well as lots of fruit and vegetables.
Replace brown-coloured whole grain foods with smaller quantities of white.
Essential exercise tips
Do high reps with low resistance for the upper body and high reps with moderate resistance for the lower body.
Best exercises include step and spinning classes, racquet sports, abdominal crunches, kick-boxing and skipping.
Worst exercises include all upper body exercises that involve using heavy weights.
Pear
Your build is characterised by:
Full hips or thighs
A defined waist
Shoulders that may slope and are narrower than your hips
A top half that appears small
Advice
Doing cardiovascular exercises for quadriceps, hamstrings and gluteus for long durations will help. An example of this could be cycling or running. It would also help to do heavy resistance training on the upper body.
Essential diet tips
Stick to foods that are low in fat – to avoid piling on the pounds – and high in calcium.
Lower your salt intake to reduce water retention and cellulite in problem areas.
Essential exercise tips
Use aerobic activities to slim your lower half and then strengthen the upper body with weights and resistance training.
Best exercises include push-ups, chin-ups, leg lifts, jogging and dancing.
Worst exercises include rollerblading, stepping and high resistance weights.
Neat hourglass
Your build is characterised by:
A defined bust
A defined waist
A neat bottom
Neat hips
Advice
Doing moderate to high intensity cardiovascular exercise will help tone the whole body. Carrying out resistance training at high reps and low weight will also help.
Essential diet tips
Eat lean protein, such as skinless chicken breasts, and lots of leafy green vegetables, like spinach, broccoli and cabbage.
Avoid foods high in sugar and limit your intake of eggs, dairy products and nuts.
Essential exercise tips
Focus on losing weight and inches first with high reps and low resistance exercises, then slowly incorporate weights if you want.
Best exercises for your shape include fast walking and slow jogging with no incline, jumping jacks, swimming for distance and stationary cycling with light resistance.
Worst exercises include step and spin classes, leg presses and thigh machines on high resistance, weighted squats and lunges, and running or rollerblading on incline.
Full Hourglass
Your build is characterised by:
A full bust
A small waist
A rounded bottom
Rounded hips
Advice
To help fat burning do interval training or circuit training. This will help burn excess fat around the body.
Essential diet tips
Eat lean protein, such as skinless chicken breasts, and lots of leafy green vegetables, like spinach, broccoli and cabbage.
Include lots of antioxidants and minerals to help break down fats within the body.
Essential exercise tips
Use interval training and circuit training to help burn fats and tone up the whole body.
Include exercises that help strengthen both lower and upper back.
Include toning exercises like light resistance training for the whole body.
“Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress.”
Coco Chanel
Wearing a bright colour in your dress will enable you to wear it for daytime occasions, but also for evening engagements- you just have to combine the right accessories. Dress these coloured dresses up or down by wearing them with boots, flats or high heels or nude tights, coloured or patterned tights or with chunky necklaces and bracelets, or with hats or scarves or with a faux fur jacket or fancy dress coat. The choice is yours.
These dresses are great to add your signature style, by dressing them up or down or with your individual style and making them your own. Therefore they make great investment buys since you can create so many looks with them for different occasions and make them work as well in different seasons.
Have fun and experiment with colour, but since these dresses come as block colours you need to make sure you wear the right colours for your colouring, body shape and proportion. Colours bring the spotlight on you and the darker the colour the longer you will appear visually- and vis versa. But also bright colours are adding volume while darker shades are more slimming.
Dressing in the right colours is about creating balance and harmony between your own colouring and the colours you wear, in both clothes and make-up. Balance and harmony is achieved by wearing colours that have similar characteristics as our colouring so that the undertone, depth and clarity are in a similar range. It’s an easy way to look good, feel good and co-ordinate your wardrobe. Not only that but wearing the right colours can help you achieve a younger, healthier and groomed look.
Wearing your favourite colour and wearing the right colour for your colouring and body shape might not always be the same thing. Keep also in mind that little changes in your hair such as highlights or lowlights in your hair will affect your dominant colour. This means a colour that may have looked great in the past, now doesn’t work so well because your hair colour has changed or skin matured. So, don’t try to force it and try something new instead – embrace change rather than seeing it negatively. If there are colours that look great on you, but for one reason or another you don’t like the colour on you or at all, then just don’t wear it. As important as it is to wear the right colours, it’s also important to feel comfortable with the colour choice you are wearing.
Also, this the last blog before Christmas. We will be back with more blogs around the New Year! I am wishing you all a merry Christmas and a relaxing and happy time. All the best for the New Year- hopefully you will have a fantastic beginning.
“Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well.”
Vivienne Westwood
You have your outfits for the occasions, but nothing that complements it with a perfect cover up! Masculine meets feminine in this glamorous season, so the focus is on the waist and shoulders. When choosing your cover up you have the choice from capelets to shrugs, cropped jackets, tuxedo, boyfriend jackets to faux – fur jacket.
But before choosing your cover up you have to decide whether it has a certain function to fulfil like covering big arms, tummy or deeper neckline, where it becomes automatically part of your outfit that you won’t take it off. If not, then you are more flexible in your choice, because its function is merely to cover you up when going from A to B.
Plus these cover ups are fantastic tools to bring out your personality, where you can create your own individual look and style. But before choosing know your body shape, so it follows your shape rather adding bulk to the wrong areas and giving an unflattering look.
“The dress must follow the body of a woman, not the body following the shape of the dress”
Hubert de Givenchy
The festive season is imminent and the big questions we all face are what do I wear? Do I have anything to wear? So many engagements to attend, but not enough outfits and dresses to wear. Can I spend all money just on clothes? So, let’s do some black magic and cast a spell on it ” how to create more outfits out of one”.
Top 3 Black Magic Rules:
Think first of your body shape and then of your dress! It is all about virtual balance and something out of balance never looks good or flattering.
Only because you manage to fit into a dress size don’t mistake it for the right fit. Keep the overall look in mind e.g. if you have big thighs and calves don’t even try to go for a mini dress. Choose instead a dress at or above the knee . Only wear it with thick and dark tights only if you don’t opt for a maxi or full length dress.
A sexy look requires that you are comfortable in what you are wearing and you are accentuating what is the most flattering on you. Create a focus point e.g. bust, legs, back, waist, shoulders, arms or bottom.
There are so many fantastic styles out there for everyone’s budget. And it is a great way to express your own style by making the dress your own with your own signature look.
“Know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly”
Epictetus
Dating back to the late 1800s, the capelets developed from the traditional full cape cut off just past the shoulder to accommodate and accentuate women’s waists and hips.
More feminine tastes came to the fore in the early 1900s as sumptuous fabrics such as lace and fur were used so that the design became a more decorative piece.
In the 1920s delicately beaded, sheer capelets become more the trend for a slim, unfussy silhouette. The 1940s and 1950′ were more influenced by fur stoles.
This season all style types of capelets joint forces, so that the fashion landscape for capelets varies from beads to fur to collar to stole to cropped jackets to sequins to cashmere in classic or bright collars.
Capelets are transforming instantly any outfit and can be worn over a turtleneck jumper or blouse or dress. They are a fantastic cover ups for dressy events and festive seasons especially for strapless tops and dresses.
Some words of wisdom here:
Triangles should avoid this fashion trend. It just accentuates their broader shoulders.
Super for Pears to add volume to the top- no matter what you wear.
They work beautifully for apples and full hourglasses, just make sure you don’t add clutter and volume to the bust and keep them cropped rather longer to the waist.
Lean Columns and Rectangle should opt for rounder shapes around the bust line, so that add curves to their body shape.
A fantastic way to cover up bigger arms, but avoid dropped or batman sleeves and make sure they cover you up to your elbow.
Bold shoulders rule this season in tops, blouses, jackets, coats and dresses. The new focus on a well- defined shoulder represents the season’s biggest shift in silhouette. Structured pieces, such as coats and jackets, come with sharp shoulder pads: exaggerated puffs and pagodas emphasise the look on dresses and blouses. We can thank Balmain and Balenciaga for the dress shape, which started this trend last season.
Here are some tips on how to wear it:
Power shoulders need focus! Therefore wear it only with a defined waist. Otherwise your look will lose focus and you will end up looking wide.
Power shoulders need an edge in your look otherwise you will look dated and it loses its cutting edge. Team it up e.g. with tailored pieces, or/ and statement skirt, leggings, tights, biker boots, ankle boots, biker boots, over the knee boots or add sophisticated accessories that underline and compliment the bolder shoulders rather bulking them up.
Power shoulders add width to you look and height, so visually it shortens you. So, the rule is the shorter you are, she smaller your shoulder pads should be and also wear your look tone in tone. Only the tall ones among us can afford bulky shoulders and breaking the colour at the same time by adding colour blocks to their look. So, to be safe wear always a heel with power shoulders.
Power shoulders are a blessing for almost all body shapes, because they create structure, shape and focus to your silhouette.
Rectangle and Columns
Bold shoulders will help them to create the illusion of a waist
Apple and full hourglass
Bold shoulders will give them a more clutter free silhouette and visually ” less round”.
Pear
A must trend for this body shape, because it is balancing effortlessly the lower half.
Neat Houglass
This perfect proportioned silhouette can wear this trend as they like- the only think they have to keep in mind is their height.
Inverted Triangle
This trend is a big no no for this body shape. Inverted Triangle have already broader shoulders and don’t need to enhance it any further. Stay clear of this style trend.
Michaela Jedinak is the founder of Joy of Clothes, the easy way to buy the clothes for you, your body shape and your colouring . She is also the founder of Joy of Colour one of the leading colour and style consultancies click here to read full bio
