Dress Styles for Your Body Shape

smock

Smock
This figure-friendly style will cover all manner or lumps and bumps. Once the domain of pregnant women, if you don’t want to look as if you are expecting then “go for a light, fluid fabric that doesn’t add bulk to your shape”, recommends Shop Til You Drop, December 2007 edition in their feature,“Smock Value”.
Balance out this short dress with platform shoes and chunky heels. Older women can still get away with this style if they teem it with leggings or jeans. Avoid frilly, leg-of-mutton type sleeves if you are more mature, to lessen the "baby doll" effect.

Sheath

Sheath
A sheath dress is a variation on the shift, often with a deep V-neckline. It usually has a defined waist and a figure-hugging silhouette. It may have darts or curve slightly inward at the waist and is often in a lightweight fabric such as silk or cotton.
Good for curvy figures, “This short (mid-calf or shorter) dress works well in sleeveless styles on well-toned bodies” says Cynthis Nellis of about.com in “Definition of a Sheath dress.”

Dress Styles for Your Body Shape

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Shift

Shift
This timeless classic is one of the most versatile dress styles. Tailored enough for business and sexy enough for eveningwear. A sophisticated classic black shift is the all time little black dress. Very Audrey Hepburn.
Bigger-busted women should avoid a high neck, and go for a lower, wider neck to break up the line between neck and bust, "preventing them looking like an extension of the chin”, say Trinny and Susannah, in their book What Not To Wear:The Rules (Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated, June 2004)

Maxi

Maxi
A figure-friendly dress-style for all shapes and sizes. Floaty and feminine, covering hips, tums and bums. Avoid volumnous skirts if you are petite and wear a maxi with platform shoes or wedges to lengthen the silhouette.

Mini

Mini
This covers a wide range of styles but basically denotes a short dress, above the knee. 2008 sees a real contrast of styles are both the mini and the maxi vie for a place on the copy-catwalks of the high-street. Pair a mini dress with wedges or flats.
More mature women should balance out the shortness of the dress by wearing it with leggings or pants. Younger ones can wear it with coloured opaque tights, one of the fashion must-haves this season.

Dress Styles for Your Body Shape

Dress Styles for Your Body Shape

Baby Doll to Smock to Wrap Dress, Choose the Right Dress For You!
© Gill Hart

Do you know your trapeze dress from your baby doll? Your mini from your maxi? With so many dress styles to choose from this season, find one that flatters your body type!

With such a wide choice of dress styles in women's fashion it is important to know which is likely to be the most suitable for your shape.
Take advantage of this year's fashion trends to get to know your shift dress from your sheath or your empire-line from your baby doll!

Baby Doll

A baby doll is a shorter version of an empire line, and is in a similar style to a short nightgown or negligee. It is often trimmed with lace, bows, ruffles and ribbons, according to Iamfashion.com’s “Baby Doll or Empire Waist?”
This dress typically has a sweetheart or straight neckline. A scoop neck will counterbalance sleeves and is flattering for bigger-busted women. Due to the short-length, skyscraper legs are a prerequisite to carry off this style well. For those lacking in this department then it is possible to lengthen the leg with high heels and platform shoes.

Empire Line

A very flattering dress for almost any figure as the waistline is raised above the natural waist, which also may fall right below the bust. Good for shorter, petite figures and those with big tums as the empire dress creates the illusion of length and skims the body, camouflaging wide hips or a thick waist.
The baby doll and the empire-line dress are not mutually exclusive, but the empire had a more feminine/mature bust and can also be full-length.The high waist is usually complemented with a deep V-neckline, rather than the more babyish round-neck.

Flapper

Spring and Summer fashion trends of 2008 sees a continued revival of this Great Gatsby classic. Beads, fringes and ruffles give a new twist to the vintage dresses of the 1920s. Figure-friendly for most, as they fall straight, skimming the body. Flapper dresses are sleeveless by tradition, often with drop-waists. Teem it with a flapper headband, red-hot this season.
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Womens Style

Womens Style