Case study: Dressing for your body type & colours
Julie Murrell
Style & Confidence Coach → You hate getting dressed and you think to yourself, "I guess I'll just throw this on again"
Dressing for Your Natural Design Pattern
Knowing the ins-and-outs of coordinating an outfit is one thing.
But dressing to compliment your natural design pattern is a whole other bag of worms.
That’s because every individual person has a unique makeup with different body proportions, curves, body composition, pigmentation in their skin, hair & eyes, etc.
And based on these individual differences, there will be different clothing items and clothing combinations that will look more complimentary on you than others.
Continue reading for my complete analysis of this outfit Before & After and ‘Why It Works’ for my client, Nastia’s, natural design pattern so you can apply the logic to your own personal style.
Dressing for Your Body Type
The first thing to clarify here is that there is a BIG difference between your body SHAPE and your body TYPE.
Ultimately, your body TYPE (or composition) becomes important for choosing fabrics and silhouettes that are going to compliment your figure.
In Nastia’s case, her body composition is primarily skin & bone which is sometimes referred to as an ‘ectomorphic’.
You can see in her ‘Before’ photo that her blouse hangs flat from her shoulders without bringing any definition or shape to her figure.
As an ectomorph, Nastia is much better off in pieces that are designed to have volume, shape and definition.
This was executed really well in the ‘After’ photo with the chunkier-knit cardigan that adds volume to Nastia’s upper body without adding bulk. Also note how this cardigan was layered over a fine turtleneck which fits seamlessly underneath.
In addition to the cardigan, Nastia also chose a pant in a stiff faux-leather that puckers which creates volume and shape along the straight lines of Nastia’s lower body.
Wearing Your Best Colour Combinations
Without getting into the weeds of colour analysis, everyone has different qualities of pigmentation in their skin, hair & eyes. Based on this, certain colours that will enhance your natural colouring and others that will drain it.
As you can probably imagine, ideally you want to wear colours that are in harmony with and enhance your natural colouring.?
Why? Because they will make you look healthier, younger, more approachable, more alert & present, etc.
For Nastia, the qualities of her natural colouring are very cool, soft and light.
This means that colours that repeat the qualities of her natural colouring (cool, soft & light), will have most harmony and look best on her.
In both images, Nastia is actually wearing colours that work for her.
BUT-
What about colour combination?
I’m glad you asked!
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What’s interesting to note is the colour combination that Nastia is wearing in the ‘After’ photo: Light grey + light grey.
This is done intentionally.
Remember how I mentioned that one of the qualities of Nastia’s colouring is soft?
Well this applies to colour combination too. Essentially,
In this case, Nastia strategically wore a low contrast colour combination to create harmony with her soft natural colouring.
Bonus: How to Dress for Your Personal Style
Although personal style is not correlated with your natural design pattern, it’s a very big component of Nastia’s Before & After transformation so I would be remiss to not address it.
The first thing to point out here is that Nastia’s workplace had a relatively informal culture leaving her a lot of flexibility to express her personal style while still looking appropriate for the workplace.
With that said, Nastia had found herself in a rut wearing very neutral and conservative styles.
As we began exploring her individual traits and strengths, it became clear that Nastia had a very creative side that was being suppressed.
That’s when we revisited her wardrobe only to find ALL kinds of fun, unique and creative pieces that had never or rarely been worn.
In the ‘After’ photo, you can see Nastia rocking a creative and edgy style that aligns so much better to her personality by creatively combining textures and silhouettes.
As you can see, there are layers to style.
There’s the skill of coordinating clothing.
There’s also the importance of understanding your unique design pattern and the skill of choosing complimentary clothing.
And of course, the art of expressing yourself through your style.
If you would like to learn these skills to execute a more intentional style with confidence, Book a Style Strategy Session and I’ll share the exact system I’ve used for myself and my private image clients to master their image & style.
Julie Murrell
Image Strategist & Career Growth Catalyst for Professional Women
> Outfit artist?
>> Tailoring dressing strategies to your unique design pattern
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P.P.S. If you’d like to speak with me 1-on-1 for personalized guidance on how to create a confident professional image,
Book a Style Strategy Session and I’ll share the exact system I’ve used for myself and my private image clients to master their image & style.