Brainstorming on Fitting Trousers
Stephanie asks:
I don’t have a need for work slacks, but I would like some slacks for church. Any tips on fit? I have never worn them. I’m especially thrown by the noticeable lack of back pockets, and I just don’t know what is flattering. I see so many women wearing slacks that fit poorly…Don’t know how to not make that mistake. Right now, if I don’t wear a skirt to church, I wear dark wash jeans, but I’d like to expand my options.
Well, I’ll tell you a couple of things that are not flattering:
- form-fitting, skin-color pants
- visible pocket outlines
- jiggle
Defining what works is a bit more challenging. Let’s face it: women’s bodies are complicated.
Assuming we (at the bottom of the fashion food chain) lack the means, and/or skills, to do custom, here’s brainstorming on trouser fit:
- If your waist and hip measurements correspond to different sizes, go with the larger size and get alterations if necessary. (This is different from the way stretch jeans are normally fit these days.)
- Lining adds to a smooth look. Alternatively, wear magic underwear.
- The benefit of a mid-rise style with a waistband construction is breaking up the area visually. Recently I’ve seen styles with pocket flaps; same idea.
I suspect different styles flatter different figure types. For me, the fast diagonal line created by the slash front pocket is like magic; it almost transforms my figure eight silhouette into a V!
I’d love to hear what works for others.
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Winter Wear to Work
When Duchesse mentioned cashmere sweaters + wool trousers as her winter go-to formula (a formula I love!), the concept lodged in my mind, in the vicinity of a collection of thoughts about architects, engineers, and other technical professionals. Professions Mella DP describes as follows:
That often means having to demonstrate credibility in the executive conference room and on the plant floor on the same day. Dressing in a way that works for both situations is tricky. It’s easier for the guys - most men can wear chinos and a polo shirt and and sturdy shoes and look decent and functional (if a little dull). Most women in a similar outfit would look like an Applebees hostess.
But most women dressed in a cashmere sweater and wool trousers would look conventional and context-appropriate, Mella DP’s words, my opinion. (Hey, I realize not everyone can wear wool. I figure if you’re reading this, you’re smart enough to figure out a wool alternative that works for you. If that’s something you’d like to discuss, we certainly can.) Perhaps it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, any ensemble worn in a business context should be decipherable by both men and women. Much of what is popular for women is simply not understood by the men they work with.
Since we haven’t had any illustrations around here for a long time:
(Ugh! Now I remember why we haven’t had illustrations for so long! This took me all afternoon!)
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Establishing Credibility Visually
Lately I’ve been reading, researching, and meditating on alot of detail concerning appearance and perception. I admit it, alot of these thoughts initiate from comments to me; comments that show that they are unable to see my interior reality. (Perhaps this feeling that nobody gets me is indicative of a mid-life crisis? lol)
At any rate, while there is alot of information here on the blog already, there is still TONS I haven’t figured out. But I’m feeling ambitious, so I’m delving into researching the connection between certain visual elements and specific perceptions. Leave a comment if you have a clue. And I thought I’d begin with something relevant to career women, because I love them too!
Credibility: attitude toward a source of communication held at a particular time by a message receiver. It consists primarily of expertise, trustworthiness, and good will. (Dynamics of Persuasion)
Another source put it slightly differently: Expertise, Trustworthiness, Similarity, and Physical Attractiveness (I suppose the author of a textbook may find physical attractiveness to be too loaded a topic to address it).
Bernie Burson, Image Consultant, in her sidebar on Psychological Dressing, says:
When you receive your personal color palette, you learn that wearing your eye-related color makes you appear sincere and honest and wearing skin tones makes you seem friendly and approachable.
So, if credibility is a three-legged stool consisting of expertise, trustworthiness, and good will; wearing my recommended simple color palette (based on your own coloring) will get you two legs (and physical attractiveness as a bonus). Not enough. Establishing expertise, I suspect, is done through visual cues specific to the industry. Even if the industry is raising children.
What are the visual cues to expertise in your field?
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Unity and Variety
In studying my daughter’s Art Appreciation text (Prebles’ Artforms (9th Edition) (MyArtKit Series)
They are:
- unity and variety
- balance
- emphasis and subordination
- directional forces
- contrast
- repetition and rhythm
- scale and proportion
And, since this is the crazy way I normally think, I immediately wondered if the artists, or whoever it was, who “discovered” these principles were thinking about them as they relate to the nature of God. For example, in number 3, emphasis and subordination, Christ is, in all of life, both the One emphasized and the One who subordinated Himself to the Father.
But, on to something more practical that we can apply to our wardrobes today: Unity and Variety (or unity and diversity, from which we get our word University), also a description of the Trinity. Wearing a coat the color of your hair can create unity, but without some variety it will not be a pleasing composition. Think little old lady: beige coat, beige skin, beige hair.
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To Dye For
In the “lab” this week, I’m dying. In the sense of permanently changing the color of my clothes.
1) I love the fit of these Levis, but I just don’t wear a medium tone except in the summer. They needed to be dark.
Using one bottle of “denim blue”, I simply followed the directions on the box for dying in the washing machine. The color is a bit bright; if there is a “next time”, I will try a different shade.
Now the creative juices are flowing in all sorts of colors! I think I’ll tea-stain some of my white shirts, try kool-aid on a boring blue cashmere sweater …
Have you ever dyed anything?
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Maternity Business Wear
While I favor separates in my personal wardrobe, and suits would be my choice for business wear, dresses could be a more frugal choice for the expecting business woman.
Which of each pair of dresses would be the better choice for the professional?
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Analogous Color Harmonies
Perhaps it was growing up visually in the 1960s, but I have always favored the analogous color harmony. Blue and green, pink and peach, navy and lavender; these are some of my favorites. I love them in homes! While I recognize that monochromatic is a good look for me, it feels boring; when I’m not wearing my typical personal coloring based palette, I gravitate toward colors next to each other on the color wheel.
Last spring, it was navy and grass green. For summer, I combined yellow and coral. As we enter fall, I’m thinking alot about purple, wearing purple and navy to church last week.
What are your favorite color harmonies: monochromatic, analogous, complementary or something more unique? Any new favorite color combos?
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Building a Personal Color Scheme
I’ve been asked a number of times for more detail on building a color strategy based on one’s own personal coloring. Currently my best thoughts are these.
Step 1: choose a frame neutral or two
If you were a man and building a simple, formal business wardrobe from scratch, I’d first advise you to buy a suit in a color which blends with your hair color (Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion
- if you have dark hair, look good in black, and need a business wardrobe - by all means, choose black!
- for me, it’s not quite that simple. The main thing is to choose a flattering color in the right value (light vs dark).
- It’s not necessary to choose a neutral. One young lady I know, with auburn hair and green eyes, uses purple as a wardrobe staple.
Step 2: identify the color range you can choose more freely from
- For many this will be the eye color.
- Alternatively, hemoglobin color is an especially good option for those with brown eyes. This is what I do, using a range from peach to coral pink on the light end to coral as my bright to a burgundy as dark as my eyes.
- With gray eyes and hair, and lips so cool in tone as to be almost purple, I have another friend who could choose a range from lavendar to deeper purple.
Step 3: choose your accent color or neutral
- This could be black or white
- It could be your eye color, if you haven’t already used it.
- Do you have something specific to your idiom that you want to use as an accent, such as a collection of turquoise jewelry?
Beyond these basics, everything is chosen for its ability to blend with your basic skeleton of colors. For additional variety, you could use a different color scheme for each season.
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Fashion Lab: Color Value Placement
Next week I’m going to be talking about how to develop a personal color palette. In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about what I consider the Great Northwest casual uniform: black top, army green pants, slip-on shoes. Or some variant thereof. And how, while I’m not so crazy about the ubiquitous black top, it is a good formula for some. Especially those who are curvier on top.
Which leads me to the general principle of wearing lighter colors where you are smaller and darker colors where you are larger. Let’s play with that using Gap cords, currently $15 off.
(I threw that last set in just for fun, but I’d love to know if you have any thoughts on neutral vs bright also.)
Speaking of cords (or perhaps I should say “speaking of body image“), I normally avoid them simply because they always made me feel fat, but when Spokane Discount had a deal where any pair of brown pants in size 6, 8, or 10 was so cheap it was almost free, I bought a pair of dark brown, trouser style, corduroy Dockers. For $3.
Application principle: aside from monochromatic outfits, I am focusing on darker bottoms with lighter tops. How do you employ color value placement?
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Apparent Body Size
It’s hard to tell how big somebody is just by looking.
In this post with picture, I noted that when I wear these particular jeans a frequent comment is that I look small. To which Maria Palma said it was hard to tell from the picture that I look small. She’s right.
But even in person, looks can be deceiving. I have one friend who is about my size, but somehow she appears to be a larger-scale woman. Presumably her larger scale features and exotic appearance create a greater “presence”, making her seem larger-than-life, so to speak.
So what goes into apparent body size?
- Height
- Width
- Supposedly that’s all. I wonder. That in no way explains why gifts to my two daughters are invariably smalls while mine is medium.
Selecting the everyday purse is the primary reason to identify apparent body size.
What about you, do people tend to guess your size wrong?
