TBT: Belt Placement Fashion Lab

Early in my training to become a Stylist, I realized that alot of what I had believed was wrong. The reason belts at the waist rarely work for me is that my silhouette is hourglass (X), not figure-eight (8). Actually, dropped waist is a good option for me for a number of reasons. This post is from over seven years ago, but if I still had the pieces, I would consider wearing the look in the first picture. With accessories 😉

Why did it just not work when one friend took her belt off the other night and put it on another friend in the same, low-slung position?

  • Scale: In general, the details (straps and so-forth) worn on the upper body should relate to the scale of the facial features. Details on the lower body relate to apparent body size.
  • Silhouette: My natural silhouette is Type 8 Type X (hourglass). In both the examples where the belt is worn at the waist, the shape has somehow been transformed into more of an I.
  • Frumpiness: Just what accounts for the frumpiness of the belt-at-waist looks? /li>

    Length balancing is the key to dodging the frump factor: 50/50 is boring.

    From the top of the turtleneck to the belt worn at the hip is 2 1/2 “units”, from the bottom of the turtleneck to the hem of the pants is 4. What’s in between, especially with the smaller belt, is accent and can be subtracted from the total. For the belt at the waist looks to work, the top would have to be tucked in.

I think …

8 thoughts on “TBT: Belt Placement Fashion Lab”

  1. Welcome to the blog, Marina! Those are about the best shoes EVER: Pucci sandals with cut-out wedges. Of course, in my idiom they would never work, being backless and green & blue.

    Hey, somebody buy Marina’s shoes!

  2. Rebecca, sometimes blogger eats my comments!

    I do like the wide belt at your waist. I expect I would like it even more there with a pencil skirt that hits just below the knee. Or with a narrower pant. Or with a longer sweater and skinny jeans …

  3. Wendy, I understand about blogger and comments. Thanks for persisting!

    I agree about the wide one at the waist; I am actually warming up to all of them except the wide at the hip.

    Obviously, you are more the embellishment expert than I. I’m so glad you weighed in on this question!

  4. Aw, Rebecca, that was such a nice thing to say.

    I think the wide belt at the hip doesn’t work because there isn’t enough sweater below it. If you find a sweater dress that’s long enough, you might experiment with monochromatic tights and a wide belt?

    I found that a wide belt at the hip works with a baby doll top I have. I’m not altogether sure why, except that it accentuates the fact that there is a shape beneath the top.

  5. I actually ran across a cute sweater dress at the thrift sotre yesterday, but with my figure type … I’m just not sure. I suppose with the magic knickers it would be fine; I’m just too lazy to wear them all the time. (Usually I wear silk “knickers”. 🙂

    So I left it there. I wonder how long it will be before I want a sweater dress enough that I don’t have that hesitation. I sat out the sweater dress thing in the 80s, but I had one in high school that I just loved: it was just below the knee and had a knit-in waist.

  6. Pingback: The Space Between My Peers » Another Belt Fashion Lab: Width AND Placement

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