How to discover your most flattering clothes?
One way to find out your most flattering silhouettes, shapes, materials and fit would be to try every neckline in the world, every type of a dress, all types of trousers, coats, sleeves, shorts, skirts, jewellery, shoes… and order them from most to least flattering and document everything. After you have tried and sorted from most to least flattering every type of a garment under the sun, you may decide to study the most (as well as the least) flattering ones and try to find a common denominator for what flatters you the most (and the least).
This would be one approach to finding your most suitable clothing items. There is one downside to it though. It might take years to implement!
But just for the sake of the argument, what would be the result of this approach? I strongly believe that you would find out that your most flattering clothes, shoes and accessories are the most flattering ones because they complement your bone and flesh structure, your essence as well as your unique combination of yin and yang lines. Because your body and the garments are in a complete harmony.
Now imagine we could find a shortcut between the body geometry and the result of the most flattering garments without having to go through the tedious process of trying every possible design of trousers, necklines, blouses, blazers… on the planet. Imagine someone has done the work of trying every possible item for you. Imagine that someone managed to research and define the correlation between body types and flattering clothes.
You may be familiar with the apple, pear and hourglass shape theories that have expanded to include a number of additional shapes such as the inverted triangle, rectangle and many more. This is a wise approach as it realises the relation between the body geometry and the clothing items.
However, there are flaws to the fruit/shape approaches. Firstly, height is not accounted for. Secondly, people who would fall in the rectangle or hourglass or a pear category would not necessarily look their best in the same kind of clothes. For instance, there are wide and tall rectangles as well as petite and short rectangles and they often don’t profit from the exact same clothing advice. Hourglasses are often defined by their flesh distribution yet how about the bone structure beneath the flesh? Thirdly (and perhaps most importantly), this approach doesn’t consider the face in the analysis nor the unique inherent mix of Yin and Yang features. Fourthly, the hourglass is considered to be the ideal body shape for a woman and the rest of the shapes are seen under that prism, i.e. how much do they differ from the ideal hourglass.
In my opinion, it is the genius of David Kibbe and his approach to yin and yang lines theory that brought our understanding of our bodies and their most flattering garments to the next level. He perfected the understanding of the bone and flesh structure, focused on vertical and horizontal lines, (a)symmetry, yin and yang lines and their unique combinations. He carefully observed and eloquently explained the interplay between your body and your clothes. While I do not claim that his theory is all encompassing and that there are no flaws to it, it compensates for the above listed shortcomings of the fruit/shape approaches.
Therefore, I chose D. Kibbe’s theory, his understanding of body geometry and body types as the cornerstone of my work. Thank you, Mr. Kibbe, for your genius, for being able to see our bodies for what they are and for celebrating each and every unique combination of lines, curves, heights etc. With Kibbe Body Types there is no hierarchy, no ideal shape. There is just the body type you are and the clothes that flatter it (and don’t flatter it). That’s all. No type is better, no type is worse, it is all about the CONTEXT. About maximising your aesthetic impact. About dressing like the star of your life. Why? Because you only live once and the body geometry you were born with is with you for life.
To read more about The Origins and Evolution of the Image Archetypes (Body Types) I work with, just follow the link to one of my earlier articles.