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STYLE GUIDE
Dressing for your body type, without the shame
Most body-type advice is a list of things to hide, which is why most people rightly ignore it. The useful version has nothing to do with hiding: it's about proportion — where a garment ends, where it's fitted, where it adds volume — and every body benefits from getting it right.
The vocabulary, quickly
Eight shapes cover most bodies: hourglass (shoulders and hips balanced, waist defined), top and bottom hourglass (curved, with shoulders or hips slightly leading), pear (hips carry more), inverted triangle (shoulders lead), rectangle (fairly straight through), apple (middle carries more, legs lead), and diamond (fuller middle, narrow shoulders and hips). Nobody is a textbook case; you're looking for the nearest neighbour, not a diagnosis.
One principle per shape
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Hourglass family: honour the waist. Belted styles, wrap dresses, fitted knits. Boxy cuts erase your easiest win.
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Pear: draw the eye up and keep bottoms simple — structured shoulders, interesting necklines, darker straight-cut bottoms that lengthen rather than cling.
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Inverted triangle: the reverse — quiet up top, volume and detail below. V-necks soften the shoulder line; wide-leg trousers balance it.
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Rectangle: you can create curve or lean into the line. Peplums and belts do the first; column dresses and longline layers make the second look deliberate and sharp.
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Apple: structure at the shoulder, length through the torso, and your best feature — the legs — on show. Empire lines and open layers skim without tenting.
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Diamond: flow through the middle, definition at the edges: open jackets, vertical lines, sleeves and hems that end at your narrowest points.
The part that matters more than shape
Fit beats category. A rectangle in a beautifully fitted boxy jacket looks better than an hourglass in a badly fitted wrap dress, every time. Where a hem hits — at the widest part of the calf or the narrowest — changes a silhouette more than which silhouette you chose. If the advice above ever conflicts with what makes you stand taller in the mirror, the mirror wins.
PIECES
Pieces that set a proportion, not hide one
Each of these moves the line the guide talks about - the waist, the leg, the shoulder - which is all body-type dressing is.
Womenswear
Menswear
Picks curated by us; photos are representative, not exact product shots, prices are a guide to what the piece typically costs, and each one links to a matching search on Amazon rather than a specific in-stock item. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
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