glamorous women Archives - Modern Retro Woman

How to Visually Overcome Prominent Hips

November 1, 2016 By Dr. Julie-Ann 1 Comment

Waist-slimming lines are generally flattering to your figure, but if your upper hips are pronounced to a marked degree, you should avoid lines that slenderize the waist without breaking into the upper hip area as well. ~Emmi Cotten, Clothes Make Magic, 1949

Dear Friends,

We are continuing with Only Wear Beautiful Clothes™ lessons with our mentor Emmi Cotten. In our last lesson, Miss Cotten had us analyze the building blocks of our figures. She reminded us that the building blocks are more important than our weight or the sizes we wear. Now, it is time to start identifying the best style choices for our figure types. In this post, we will look at the Type 1 Figure using Ms. Cotten’s original illustrations. I also worked some photo editing magic and created line drawings to make her recommendations easier to see.

The Type 1 Figure: Square Hip and Average Proportions

A woman with a Type 1 figure has a square or prominent hipline and medium (average) proportions. While square hiplines are not problematic in and of themselves, there are ways to reduce their visual prominence and make the figure appear more balanced.

Upper Torso Optical Illusions for a Prominent Hipline

One of the main differences between modern and vintage clothing is in the armhole area and shoulder area. Vintage garments have higher and tighter armholes. Modern garments have a great deal more wearing and design ease (the difference between your body measurements and the garments finished measurements) which can cause a lot of fitting issues. It is much more difficult to find a garment that fits correctly in the shoulder and armhole area. Really, poor fit across the shoulder and in the armhole area can ruin the look of an otherwise gorgeous garment.

Say “Yes” to These Style Features

Angular and crisp shoulder details that provide balance with the hips (Illustration #8)
Gradual widening out from the waist to the underarm (Illustration #3). What about garments with dolman sleeves that are popular right now? You can wear them but you have to be careful about where the bottom of the armhole begins/hits you. Compare Illustration #9 with #11A. Number 9 works because of the gradual increase and the sleeve doesn’t begin just above the hip like it does in #11A.
Short fitted coats should end at or just above the lower hips (Illustration #3)

Avoid These Style Features

Clothing with rounded shoulder lines. This “rule” is especially true if you have wide and heavy hips because the roundness of the shoulders will mimic and accentuate the hips in an unflattering way. When we look at Illustrations #1 and #2, the hips look bulkier in #2 because of the rounded shoulders. Additionally, the optical illusion created by the raglan-style sleeves of #2 make the shoulders seem narrower and the hips wider than #1, even though the size has not changed.
Boxy garments, such as a Chanel-style jacket, will make you look heavier (See Illustration #11). Even if the garment is fitted, as in Illustration #7, the straight up and down illusion will emphasize the hips.

Waistline Optical Illusions for a Prominent Hipline

(If you also checked Figure Types 7, 8, 9, follow the recommendations for those types when we get there)

Garments without belts and waistline seams (such as a princess line sheath) are an excellent choice for you, if you have a Type 1 figure. Waistlines that dip in center front and back are ideal, too.

Say “Yes” to These Style Features

A wide belt if you are slender and do not have a high waist. If you are high waisted, the belt throws off the balance of the garment so that the waist will seem heavier than it is.
Raised waistlines–without a belt–are good (see Illustration #10) because they separate the mass of your prominent hips with the upper torso. Just be careful not to overemphasize a large bosom if you have one.

Avoid These Style Features

Gathered waists can be problematic for you, if you have a Type 1 figure. In Illustration #5, the heavy gathers create bulk above and below the waist. Also note that the amount of gathers takes away from the gradual widening from waist to shoulder. When wearing a garment with a gathered waist, make sure it is only slightly gathered and that the desired waist to shoulder line is retained (Illustration #6). Also, notice how the width of the belt in the two illustrations makes a difference. The narrow belt in #5 gets lost in the bulk whereas the wide belt in #6 emphasizes the waist.

Optical Illusions for Your Square Hips

The shape of your skirt matters when you have prominent hips. The good news is that the skirts described below look stunning on you and only “meh” on your counterparts with medium or triangular hiplines.

Say “Yes” to These Style Features

Vertical or diagonal lines (like in Illustrations 1, 3, 3A, 8, and 9) are the most graceful and minimize hip width.
The most flattering skirt design for you follows your hip line at least to the bottom of your hip, as in Illustration #12. Look for skirts that hang straight from the hips, such as a modified pencil skirt, or begin to flare no higher than the knee, such as a trumpet skirt (Illustrations #9 and #10).

Avoid These Style Features

Horizontal lines that cut across the widest part of your hips–especially if there is a color, pattern, or design change–are your worst nightmare (see Illustration #2A).
Flared skirts, such as shown in Illustration 11, leave the contour of your body at your upper hips.

To Summarize

Look for garments that avoid cutting you visually in half, follow the contours of your hips while gradually widening from the waist to the shoulders. And make sure those shoulders are crisp!

Do you have a Type 1 figure? Share your wardrobe victories (and horror stories, too) with us in the comment section!

Until next time,

Dr. Julie-Ann

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Is Your Outfit Fighting Your Figure?

June 7, 2016 By Dr. Julie-Ann 4 Comments

Seeing is believing; but when you look at lines, seeing is deceiving…Optical illusions do not confine themselves to such things as squares and top hats; they can happen to you. They do happen, in fact, when the lines of your clothes mingle with those of your figure and when hat and coiffure shapes come in contact with your face. They can happen for better as well as for worse, and our concern…is to make sure in your case, the lines of clothes contrive to fool the eye in a way that shows your figure at its best. ~Emmi Cotton, Clothes Make Magic, 1949.

Dear Friends,

I have an hourglass figure. No matter how much I weigh, my waist is usually about 10″ smaller than my bust and hips. If I wear a “boxy” style top, I look about 10 pounds heavier than I am…and it is all because of optical illusion created by the line of the top. Conversely, garments that are too tight can break up the line of an otherwise flattering garment. Our “what to wear” mentor, Miss Cotton, tells us that we can give a nod to fashion but we must honor the best lines (optical illusion) for our figure within the fashion trends.

We will examine the best lines for the different figure types in future lessons, but today Miss Cotton wants us to look at optical illusions:

OpticalIllusionsRedLines — Figure 2: The two red lines are straight; the bulge you see isn’t really there.

lineswitharrowsopticalillusion — Figure 4: The red line and blue lines are the exact same length

tophatillusion — Figure 5: The top hat seems taller than its brim is wide but its height is the same as the width of the brim.

We can use the line of a garment to create optical illusions. For instance, the reason we love those 1940’s suits and dresses so much is because they created an optical illusion of smaller waists (even without girdles) by subtly extending/emphasizing the shoulders . In fact, I learned while earning my custom clothing certificate that better quality clothing will often use shoulder padding or shaping to help with the line of a garment.

hollywoodvine194402 — By extending the shoulders just a little bit, this woman’s waist appears smaller. (Hollywood and Vine, 1944)

When The Mister is teaching his figure sculpting class, one of the things he emphasizes is the use of lines that force a viewers eyes to move around the figure to the best advantage. In Michelangelo’s “Pieta,” our eyes are forced around the sculpture by the draping of the fabric and the angle of Christ’s body. Even Mary’s hand helps create an illusion of an extended line at the bent knee.

In much the same way, we will be learning how to use optical illusion to create lines that flatter our figures.

Miss Cotton ends this lesson with two points she wants us to remember:

There are two things I want you to keep in mind…The first is that without good posture no figure can look its best, nor can the most becoming of clothes work efficiently for figure flattery. Cultivate good posture, if you don’t have it; it costs nothing but effort, but the lack of it costs dearly in loss of beauty, poise, and vitality. The second thing to remember is this: if you are overweight or have a figure imperfection, don’t wait until you’ve lost ten pounds or remedied the defect to wear more becoming clothes; start improving your figure now, the line way. It will help you accomplish your objective in half the time, because the better your figure seems to be, the better you are going to want to make it.

How have you used optical illusion to your advantage when choosing garments?

To your flattering Technicolor life!

Dr. Julie-Ann

How Are You Physically Interacting with the World Around You?

January 17, 2016 By Dr. Julie-Ann 3 Comments

In my “magical pony land,” I glide through life–always so graceful that people are entranced by my effortless elegance. Alas, as much as I’d like to move like Audrey Hepburn, the truth is very different. I have a feeling that I currently galumph my way through life.

Working at a university with about 20,000 students, I have a chance to engage in some serious people watching as I walk around campus. It is quite intriguing to see the different ways students and professors walk. Some trudge, some walk briskly, some stroll, and some are so focused on their cell phones that they are unaware of the people they are about to run into. I can’t help but make guesses about them based on how they are walking.

Last week, I asked you to become aware of the food you eat. This week, the focus is on how you physically interact with the world. Do you hold your head high or do you slouch and keep your eyes cast down as you walk? Or, are your eyes glued to your phone as you walk into oncoming traffic? How do you sit when you work? Do you hunch over your keyboard? What is your body language while you in meetings? What about at home?

As before, no judgment is allowed. You are simply trying to establish your baseline so that you can see what behaviors need to be changed down the line.

Do you glide with effortless grace or do you currently galumph your way through life? How do you physically interact with the world around you?

All images courtesy of Kristine on Flickr: Light blue suit; Dark blue suit; Man and woman with dog

Mid-Century Home Ec Teachers vs. Modern French Chic Advice

July 11, 2015 By Dr. Julie-Ann 4 Comments

MidCentury Advice ModernRetroWoman.com — Woman with apron source; Kangol advertisement source

The other day I started laughing out loud. And it wasn’t because of the serious medication I’ve been on to help me recover from my shoulder/arm injury. When I wasn’t sleeping these past couple of weeks, I was reading one of my favorite genres: Advice books. Now, as you know, I have quite a collection of mid-century advice books. But it seems like there has been a proliferation of books and blogs in the past few years advising women on how they can be more like those perfectly chic French women.

My laugh out loud moment happened as I was reading Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris by Jennifer L. Scott* (a fun little book based upon her popular blog). As I was reading it, I was struck by the fact that what Ms. Scott and other authors are writing about are the same things that Home Ec teachers were teaching in the mid-century (at least, the textbooks and advice books I have from that time period say the same things):

Make mealtimes special
Eat lots of fruits and vegetables
Go for quality, not quantity
Spend money wisely
Always look your best
Good grooming matters
Create a capsule wardrobe instead of being a victim to fashion fads
And so on and so forth…

[Tweet “We dismiss advice from 1950s Home Ec teachers but devour that same advice from chic French women. “]

Now, I think it is great that the advice has proven to be timeless. But I have to laugh because I know I’m not the only one who has been asked for advice only to have it ignored or dismissed but when someone else gave the exact same advice, the person excitedly shares how much the advice helped her (it happens to me at work all.the.time *laugh*).

Our culture is quick to dismiss the advice of the mid-century Home Ec teachers as being old-fashioned and restrictive while embracing that same transformative advice from those chic French women.

But, in the end, in doesn’t matter who is giving the advice, does it? The only thing that matters is that the advice it helping women become the kind of person they want to be.

*This is an affiliate link. If you click on the link and decide to buy the book, Amazon will pay me a small referral fee. Thank you for supporting ModernRetroWoman.com!