4 Figure Camouflage Rules To Make 2021 Your Most Confident Year Yet

Don’t let little flaws get in the way of total confidence!  Here are some great wardrobe rules to make 2021 your most confident year yet.

 Rule 1: Never Replicate a Shape or Line You Don’t Like.

Have a pointy chin?  Avoid V-necks.  Have a very round face?  Avoid rounded jewel necklines, large round earrings or short necklaces that create a round circle.

Or maybe you have a long thin face?  Then, you should avoid long necklaces that produce an elongated line.  It works all over the face and body!  For example, with thin legs, avoid skirts with thin, vertical stripes.

This rule is so simple, but we often miss just how much replicating a line or shape that we don’t like actually emphasizes that very line or shape on our body or face.

Here’s an example of a round face.  The left has a round sweater collar that replicates the round face.  The right has a v-neck that does not.  In which picture does this young woman have a thinner face?

 

Here’s a similar example with a square jawline.  On the left, the shirt replicates the squareness.  The right shows a v-neck jacket.  Which one helps to put the face in better proportion?

Rule 2: Light colors stand out (look larger) and dark colors recede (look smaller).

This basic premise can enable you to change the appearance of your body’s shape and size. Most women are larger on the bottom than on the top, so wearing a dark color below and a lighter color on top can balance out the figure.

Doing the reverse or wearing white or patterned pants, would make one look larger on the bottom.

This rule is quite easy to master and especially easy to apply as our body shapes don’t tend to change much over time.  If you have always been top heavy, you will want to emphasize darker colors on top to balance things out.  If you’re like most women, however, you can pull of all kinds of brighter and lighter colors on top and use darker colors to “shrink” the lower body if you desire.

Rule 3:  A solid sweep of color elongates the body and slims it.

When you wear one color from head to toe, the eye tends to take in the color in a sweep (without any distractions) and easily rests its gaze on the face (which, as you’ve heard me say, should always be the focus).

You will look taller and thinner wearing a single-colored pantsuit, for example, than with black pants and white blouse. The sweeping effect is lost when the body is cut in half with multiple colors. You can then look shorter and heavier.  So, if you want to create a long, thinning effect, include the same color in a connected way even if it’s just pants and a shell of the same color under a cardigan or jacket.

Also, it isn’t necessary to stick to black to look slimmer. Other colors can be nearly as effective. Just remember though: dark colors are the most slimming of all.

Here’s a comparison.  On the left you see a single sweep of color and on the right, the shape is divided into two colors. Which one looks more slim?

If you love colors like I do, you can still get much of the same benefit by including colors in the shell under jackets/cardigans or using colors in accents or trim like this:

Rule 4: Large patterns suggest that you are larger, but small patterns do not always suggest that you are smaller.

Simply put, large prints or patterns make you look larger.  The trends for larger flowers, geometric shapes, and various designs can come and go, but they always do one thing: expand us.

Why does it work that way? When our eyes look at things that look busy or have patterns, they send a message to our brain that says something like, “That’s a lot going on there!”  The brain, being the efficient genius it is then assumes that must be pretty big.

The larger the patterns, the more this is likely to seem “large” to our brain, but unless the pattern is very tiny and conservative, even smaller patterns can have the same effect just by the sheer business of it all.  So, beware too many patterns, especially in parts you want to “shrink”.

I hope you enjoy these little camouflage secrets.  We live in an imperfect world with imperfect availability to exercise and take care of ourselves, imperfect food supply, and crazy obsessions with body image.  Instead of going into the extremes of just letting it all hang out, why not take a balanced approach.  Love your body, get as healthy as you can, and use some visual tricks to feel as confident as possible without ever feeling like you have to “be perfect”!

Questions or suggestions? I’m always happy to hear from you and I’m always happy to help. Email me at: tatyana@TheImageArchitect.com I also invite you to leave a comment at the end of my article.

Sending you much love for a New Year!