Floral Dress, Green Pants, and TIPS!

Don't worry - the floral dress and green pants were NOT being worn together. I know you were all wracked with concern about that, so I hope I've eased your worries.

Wednesday I wore this floral dress from Target (wait for it) maternity section:

It's made of a light jersey material that is pretty much indescribably comfortable. There are many times I thank God that I'm a girl instead of a boy, and wearing jersey dresses is one of those times because oh my goodness it's like wearing t-shirt sheets to work.

In spite of the "maternity" fact of this dress, it is actually cut to be extremely flattering on most female body types. Although I chose to wear a wide black belt with this dress, the way it is actually designed is to be tied with a bow at the narrowest part of the waist, which accentuates that nice narrow middle. EVEN IF you feel that your waist isn't particularly narrow by nature, a dress that cinches in like this one will make you look narrow. Which brings me to TIP #1:

Look for pieces/items that accentuate the narrowest part of your waist to flatter your figure the most.

The v-neck cut of the dress is also flattering. Ladies, do you know why we're supposed to wear v-necks? V-necks elongate the look of your neck, which slims your neck and face. Wearing turtlenecks (basically the complete antithesis of v-necks) erases your neck completely and makes the face look chunkier - almost like it's pushing any excess skin up into your face. Pretty unappealing, which brings us to TIP #2:

Look for v-neck shirts, blouses, and dresses to elongate the neck line and slim the face.

On me, this dress hits at the perfect spot, right at/above the knee. If this exact same dress (same size and everything) were worn by someone 5'5" or so, however, it would hit at a terrible spot - at the middle or top of the calf. This is NOT a great place to hit the leg, as it "stumpifies" the entire frame. (Note: "stumpify" and all forms of it copyright Miss Doyle. It is not technically an English word, but it works. I am a Language-Arts Professional, so I'm allowed to make up words.) And on that note, let's look at the green pants I wore today:

I hear you all shouting at your screens. "But Miss Doyle! You just said that clothes should NOT hit the calf! Now you're contradicting yourself!" Yes, yes I am. And here's why I can do that: Because I am tall, and I have very long legs. One of the things I get to do is wear these kinds of cropped pants without being "stumpified," because proportionally speaking, I have a lot more to work with than someone with shorter legs.

For those of you shorter gals out there, you've got to be looking for pieces that hit slightly above the knee, but definitely no lower than the knee... OR pieces that run all the way to your feet/shoes. Ankle pants, mid-calf skirts, etc. are all bad options for you. If this makes you sad, just wait, because in future posts I will talk about stuff you get to wear that we tall folk do not. (*sniffle* for us; hooray! for you)

So, TIP #3:

Find pieces that hit you at the right places for your body type, whatever that is.

I love this top because of the velvet pleats that add a little spice to an otherwise plain black button-down top. Because of that, I didn't feel a need to add any necklace to the top. The cropped pants are a very recent New York and Company purchase from their new fall line, and if you look at the picture on the NY&C site and zoom in, you can see the small black weave pattern against the bright emerald green. I added the black heels to continue the long line of my leg in spite of the cropped pant, and I think it worked great.

By the end of the day I had rolled my sleeves, which I think still worked great with the overall look, but I was definitely wishing I'd worn a belt. First, I think it would have made the waistline a little more visually interesting, but mostly, the pants got looser through the day and by lunch I was already constantly yanking them back up to where they were supposed to ride. (No low riding here, thankyouverymuch.)

So, let's review our tips from today...

1. Look for pieces/items that accentuate the narrowest part of your waist to flatter your figure the most.
2. Look for v-neck shirts, blouses, and dresses to elongate the neck line and slim the face.
3. Find pieces that hit you at the right places for your body type, whatever that is.

Hope something in here was interesting and/or helpful to you today! If so, let me know in the comments!


Get the look for yourself:
Dress - Target, available here.
Belt - Target; similar here.
Shoes - Payless; similar here.
Necklace - Target, available here.
Shirt - Express; similar here.
Pants - New York and Company, available here.
Shoes - Cathy Jean; similar here.