How to DRESS for your BODY TYPE (PART 2) | Look sophisticated, no matter your shape

Welcome back to my youtube channel, my name is Katja Benita and this is the second part of the short body shape series. In the first part i went into detail how you can accentuate your body best if you have a triangle, inverted triangle or rectangle body shape. In this video i will explain the golden rules for the remaining body shapes oval, neat hourglass and full hourglass. If you haven't watched the first video yet, i invite you to do so now as i will give some general insights and tips first. The link to the first part is in the description or you can simply click here. As a short reminder, while many ladies want to have the perfect body, such a general shape simply does not exist. And this is totally fine, while there is nothing like the perfect body, there is a perfect body for each individual body shape. In the following i will provide you with simple tips and tricks any woman can use to improve her appearance, regardless of her size or shape. This is why it's so important to understand your basic shape. So let's start with the oval body shape, which is very similar to a rectangle body as the body tends to look straight. Here the difference is that an oval body shape has fullness around the stomach area and mostly the entire middle part, which means full bust, waist and hips. The shoulder line is rounded and sloping and the bottom is flatter, curving down to the hips, which creates this oval shape. Moreover your legs and arms are wonderfully shaped and comparatively narrow. As an example we have Drew Barrymore, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Oprah. As an oval, proportionally you have a flat bottom and hips. Your problem area is your central torso. Here you have two strategies to balance out your body. The first one is to highlight your best parts, which are usually the bust and legs. This helps to take the attention away from the midsection. So wherever possible use accessories to draw the eye to the area above your bust and below your hips. The aim is to give the impression of a slightly longer body and to achieve this the clothes you wear should hang from the shoulders. The clothing line needs to be straight and fabric soft to avoid any unnecessary volume or bulkiness. This will give the impression of an elongated body. The best way to draw the attention away from your central area is by using lots of accessories above the bust or below the hip line. Try wearing a nice necklace or a scarf in a lovely color that suits you. When it comes to colors and patterns you should go for muted and subtle patterns as anything too bold will overpower. Avoid stiff fabrics, pockets, gathered waistlines or any other details over the tummy area. Sharp angular details such as lapels, vibrant and romantic patterns over the torso as well as small details on your garments like small buttons and pockets. Make sure that none of your garments finishes at the fullest point of your torso. The second strategy is to define the waist. Clothes that make the midsection narrower help to achieve a more proportional body shape. This can be achieved through belts for instance in a darker color. So when it comes to tops, low and wide necklines are perfect. Especially a v-neckline is very fitting. You can also wear a scoop, sweetheart or square neckline. In contrast the worst necklines are high and narrow ones that hide your chest and visually narrow your shoulders. I think one of the most elegant and most flattering shirts would be a drape blouse as this perfectly highlights all the assets, looks very sophisticated and draws the attention away from your waistline. When it comes to jackets you should either wear the ones with a drapey style that are more on the minimalistic side as this will elongate the figure and only skims over the torso or jackets that are in general simple as the figure will be elongated. A-line coats also look very nice on you. For pants choose low or mid-rise pants. You can definitely wear slim or skinny pants as well as wider and more flared pants. The only thing that is really important here is that there is nothing that adds heaviness to the torso region like pleats or ruching. I would even recommend you side fastening trousers as you can avoid any extra bulk around the tummy area. Moving on to skirts you can go for a-line trumpet skirts or flaring styles. There are plenty of options. It is only important that they hit right above the knee at the knee or at the calf as this will disguise the wider midsection. Anything that is too short would only highlight your midsection. Moreover stay away from tiered or ruffled skirts as this will make your bottom appear too heavy. The right dress for you are for example a-line dresses and empire line or bias cut styles as they take the attention away from the mid part. Moreover wrap dresses work fine as well. In addition dresses with a drapery at the bust or shoulder level work very well as it attracts the high. It can even be an asymmetric dress. And last but not least the peplum shaped dress which immediately gives the illusion of a waist. Now we continue with the two hourglass shapes differentiating between a neat and a full hourglass. If you are a neat hourglass you most likely wear the same size for your top and bottom. This body shape is the most balanced one as your top half is in proportion to the bottom half. They have a clearly defined waist, bust and a neat bottom. As a reference we have Megan Fox and Jessica Biel. The good thing about being a neat hourglass is that your body is very balanced which means you can wear most types of patterns and clothing as your clothes don't need to even out your shape and can simply follow your natural curves. You should show your body by wearing clothes that define your waist, enhance your bust and highlight your hips and bottom. The only thing to avoid is clothes that hide your body line. Otherwise you risk looking an extra three to four kilos heavier than you actually are. So avoid anything that is boxy, baggy, has no shaping, is cut straight and in general too much layering. A very similar shape is the full hourglass. This is the most feminine body shape as it has full curves in all the right places. If you are a full hourglass you normally wear a slightly larger top for your bust, you have a small waist and a rounded bottom. Again the width of your shoulders is approximately the width of your hips. An example might be Marilyn Monroe, Sofia Vergara or Scarlett Johansson. As a full hourglass it is important to accentuate your curves rather than covering them up. Choose clothes that are fluid and shaped, clothes that follow your body line instead of straight and constricting clothing. One thing that you need to be very careful about are your chosen fabrics. It is important to avoid heavy and stiff materials otherwise you will end up wearing tops and jackets that are way too big as they can't accommodate your curves. Very similar to the neat hourglass is that you should avoid boxy baggy clothes that have no shaping, too much layering as well as double breasted jackets and front opening shirts and blouses are also not very flattering. Moreover you should avoid geometric patterns like stripes and checks as the lines will not lie straight over your curve. So generally speaking the strategy of an hourglass figure is to follow the natural silhouette and to define the waist as this brings out the body's balance proportions. So for tops you can wear anything like oval, off-shoulder, scoop, v-neck etc except for wide and high necklines. Especially turtlenecks should be avoided as this adds too much volume to your upper area. Moreover avoid loose and wide sleeves. It's better to wear more fitted clothing to highlight your waist. The same goes for jackets. They should be fitted to accentuate the silhouette rather than straight and boxy. Other than that you can wear basically everything that is form-fitted and simple. A belted coat works fine, one with a princess cut, a line or even a trench. When it comes to trousers keep them on the slimmer side and avoid any pleats, embellishments or pockets. Here the most important part is that they are mid or high rise. Avoid low rise jeans as they tend to make the hips look wider and the legs shorter. With skirts it's very similar. It should be high-waisted to highlight the small waist. The best hemline is knee length or longer since these skirts will hug the hips and hang off them naturally. You could try full skirts, pencil skirts, tulip or a-line skirts. Moving on to dresses you can wear a beautiful mermaid dress, wrap dresses, peplum dresses or bias dresses are also very nice. Basically everything that both balances your upper and lower part while highlighting your waist. And at the end especially as an hourglass shape I can highly recommend you to tailor your clothes as they will look so much better on you and you will be able to show off your beautiful curves and your small waist even more. So these were the six basic body shapes. They are essential knowledge in order to choose garments, patterns, colors and styles to look elegantly chic. What suits your best friend doesn't necessarily suit you because we all have different body shapes. With this knowledge you can build a wardrobe that suits your body shape best. You can find the look that not only covers your problem areas but one that complements your whole body as it adds balance and curves to your figure. I hope you enjoyed this short video series. If so I would love to get a thumbs up and a comment. You can subscribe to my channel for further helpful videos on your elegance journey. That's it for today. See you in my next video.