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The best dresses for your body type
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No matter what your body type, enhance your figure in a dress that's suited to your shape.
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By Heather Buchan
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Knowing your body is invaluable when it comes to dressing your best. That way, you can enhance your best features, minimize others, and leave home feeling confident and beautiful.
Robin Keeler, fashion director at Yorkdale Mall in Toronto offers the lowdown on various body types and the do's and don'ts for wearing the most figure-flattering dresses.
1. Petite: If you're a woman who is under 5'3" tall, you are considered petite. Generally, petite women also have narrow shoulders, small bone structure and small feet. The challenge for petite women is finding dresses that don't "drown" them.
What to wear: You can elongate your silhouette by wearing dresses with V-necklines as well as vertical lines such as pleats. Robin recommends choosing dresses in solid colours to avoid breaking a visual line, making you look smaller.
What to avoid: Avoid horizontal lines. They cut off the figure, making you appear wider and shorter. Most importantly, Robin advises staying away from "cutesy" dresses that will make you look like a little girl.
2. Tall: Women over 5'8" are considered tall. Unfortunately for women who are self-conscious about their height, there's not much you can do to look shorter and slouching will make you look even taller. Instead, embrace your height -- most of the shorter women would kill to have a few more inches!
What to wear: Play up your height with long lines, knee-high boots, straight skirts and bias-cut dresses. "Tall frames can wear horizontal and diagonal patterns or stripes as well as textured fabrics," says Robin.
What to avoid: Be careful that you don't wear a dress that is too short or too long; it will make your body look out of proportion. The best length of dress for a tall woman is one that falls to the knee or just below the knee and avoid dressing in one colour which increases the vertical line and could make you look like a giant.
3. Pear-shaped: If your lower body is heavier than your upper body, you have a pear-shaped figure. Generally, pear-shaped bodies are characterized by narrow, sloping shoulders, a defined waist and heavier, rounded hips and thighs.
What to wear: "The goal is to create balance between the top and bottom," says Robin. So, choose dresses that have necklines such as boat necks and scoop necks that will draw the eye upwards to your shoulders. A-line dresses will skim over and "smooth" your hips and thighs. Make sure the dress falls slightly below your waistline. Dressing with interesting straps or even strapless dresses will also lift the focus to your shoulders and décolletage.
What to avoid: Tight, short dresses; they will just accentuate your thighs. Also, avoid dresses with raised or empire waists as this can look "maternity" on your figure, says Robin.
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