Flatter your personality

NOT your body type

Mar 23, 2025

Our new thrift store blazers which are definitely giving personality - if not TV anchor and weather reporter vibes.

One of the first lessons in my stylist certification class was about body types - what they were, how to flatter them, and how to camouflage them. I remember the instructor standing in front of the class, telling us how to measure for the different types, and explicitly sharing examples of what each body shape should and should never wear.

I carried these instructions through the first half of my career as a stylist - touting: “Get rid of this!” “Never wear that!” like it was my job. I had graphics that stated things like: “Avoid wearing stripes or high neck shirts up top if you’re heavy chested” and “Wear skinny pants and only dark colors if you’re bigger on the bottom.” I get why I adhered to and promoted these standards - avoiding certain shapes of clothing based on your body type can minimize and make smaller certain parts of your body, creating a visually balanced outfit. It technically works.

It just seems like a very un-fun way to go about getting dressed.

From Style Lab week 4 - the one where we talk all things bodies and bust some style myths.

In Week 4 of Style Lab, I introduce you to one of my Structure of Style Principles which states:

You can wear whatever you want, wherever you want, as long as it‘s balanced.

Another way of saying this is: Any body can wear any shape.

We spend time talking about and identifying the 5 specific body shapes because it is fundamentally important for you to know how to measure yourself and get baseline data, especially if this is a newer concept. Once you understand body type and how different shapes of clothing interact with your body, you start to understand proportions and visual balance.

In others words, you gotta know the rules to break the rules.

One of my favorite real client photos. Taking her measurements and understanding that her body type is bigger on the top (not by much even, which is where her body shape comes in- she has broader shoulders as well, so visually, she’s more top heavy) gets us to Step 1 - understanding she needs a little more interest on her bottom half to naturally balance the measurements. Step 2 in this process would be to wear prints on the bottom *and* top and vary sleeve lengths or add jewelry until each side (top and bottom) felt balanced. But isn’t it crazy how just a simple swatch of the pattern made her body appear more balanced and less like an upside down triangle? If I were to style her today, I might even suggest that she pair the red top in the upper L with the wide leg pants in the bottom R photos - prints on prints just like she likes, but in shapes that create balance. Buy what you like and balance it later vs. not buying something you love because it’s an old school rule of flattering.

An analogy

In this portion of my career as a stylist, the old school way of talking about body types reminds me of another restriction based talk: budgeting vs. conscious spending. In budgeting, you approach money from a set point based on what you have and limit what you can spend. In conscious spending, you approach money from a set point based on what you have, and create a plan on how you want to spend that set point. Feel the difference?

Sure, you can argue that it’s a little bit of semantics, but I would much rather take the semantic option that leaves me feeling free and fun than the one that leaves me feeling down and limited.

Last week we talked about No BBQ Blazers.

That’s my mantra for not settling for an item of clothing that just gets the job done. I want special. I want to crave it. I want it to be fun.

No BBQ Blazers

Sydney Bass

Mar 16

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In the same way, I don’t want to focus on buying pieces because they only “flatter my body type.” That would leave my with limited options of only black or navy pants to “minimize” my bottom half. Sound so boring and drab!

What does sound like fun is focusing on adding clothes that flatter my personality and flatter my lifestyle. I heard Laurel talk about this on her IG stories and it’s such a good reversal of the traditional personal style approach which is: flatter your body type at all costs. So compare the two - which version leaves you feeling a little more upbeat and excited?

For me, when I think of items that flatter my personality, I think of:

vintage sequined shirts that are so over the top I can’t help but smile at them
an array of jackets in all types of fabrics and sizes: corduroy, denim, long, short
unique accessories like my vintage belt buckle collection, signature big hoops, or lots of rings

When I think of items that flatter my lifestyle, I think of:

clothes that I can wear outside, on walks, to acupuncture and dressed up a bit
buying comfortable pants and ignoring this insane trend of low rise skinny jeans that is somehow back
high rise jeans with a bit of stretch
clodhopper boots that I can wear doing chicken chores or around the city doing errands

It’s way more fun to think of clothes as an extension and augmentation of ME instead of using clothes to hide ME.

The next time you’re considering an item, worry less about if it works for your body type - ask instead if it flatters your personality. You can always balance a piece of clothing. You can’t stuff yourself down forever in the name of body flattery. Or…. you can. But that doesn’t sound like a fun way of getting dressed.

Vogue [ish]

No BBQ Blazers

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