Ha ha! Is it bad that it took me four years to get around to answering this question? Years ago, Janel Messenger asked me about length balancing when the body is seven head-lengths, as opposed to the eight prescribed in the triumph of individual style. Then last year, when I was costuming Carrie the Musical, one of the shorter actors mentioned her proportion challenge. So, it has been on my mind.
Fast forward to these past several months, when I have been exploring my own personal proportions challenge:
Because my hair and skin are close to the same color value, my head length is my actual head length, including my hair.
Here is a little experiment I did concerning body-length proportions. As you can see, the model (wearing Pucci) looks fabulous – and is only seven head-lengths. I
would point out that she has the strong breaks in her outfit at head-lengths, as do I.
I also wonder whether more youthful styles work better with this proportion. Thoughts? After all, children’s heads are longer relative to their bodies.