Style and Fashion | PinkFemme

Veronica and I met for coffee the other morning and she was stressing about choosing a personal style that would work the best for her new femme lifestyle. I reassured her that this was something that even cis women got wrong more often than not. So I invited her back to my studio so that we could take four basic measurements and calculate her body shape. This is so that we could eliminate the style options that would definitely not work for her at all. How to dress to your femme body shape? Take your measurements and learn your basic body shape. Your size or weight is irrelevant. Inverted Triangle: Fitted Jackets with a nipped-in waist and flared bottom. Rectangle: Skirts with volume-increasing details like ruffles, bows, pleats, pockets or embellishments. Triangle: Fit-and-flare dresses Hourglass: Anything that is fitted around the waist and bosoms. So often I hear girls saying that I can’t wear that outfit because I am not thin enough. In all likelihood, the girl would not be able to wear the particular style no matter how much weight she lost in her next crash diet. To a large extent, it is your bone structure that determines your basic body shape. If your body shape is an inverted triangle or a rectangle dieting will just make you a smaller version of that same body shape. Instead of trying to diet yourself into an outfit that will never flatter your body shape, understand what tricks clothing designers use to flatter your body shape. At Pink Femme, we are all about helping you to be the best and most feminine version of you. The Four Basic Shapes For the sake of simplicity, we’ll look at the four basic femme shapes when it comes to femme fashion design and styling. In truth, each of the four basic femme shapes can be divided into 12 categories. After that you have the overlap between combinations of multiple categories and the outcomes get very complicated, very quickly. If you have aspirations of being a stylist and learning all the details about the 48 different femme body shape categories, then check out Bradley Bayou’s superb book The Science of Sexy (available on Amazon). Bayou’s system uses maths and the ratios between measurements combined with the measurement ratios that designers use when creating different outfits. What we will do here is teach you how to calculate which of the four basic shapes you are. Those shapes being: triangle, rectangle, inverted triangle, and hourglass. Once we know your basic femme shape, your best choice of styling options becomes so much easier. Our goal is to be femme, so there is no point in wasting time, money, and tears over clothes that were never designed for the body shape that you are in real life. What’s more, this knowledge will enable you to understand why an outfit works or doesn’t work on every woman you meet. Pretty soon girls will invite you along on shopping trips as you will know enough to help them style themselves sexy beyond the cliché of, “does this dress make my butt look fat.” Taking Your Measurements It is time to get out that measuring tape and get your honest, real measurements. You will get the most accurate measurements if you stand and have someone take the measurements for you. It does not matter whether you take your measurements in inches of centimeters. The percentage ratio between the measurements is what counts. Shoulders: Measure from the tip of one shoulder all the way around you. The measuring tape must be high enough that it almost slips off. I find this measurement impossible to do on my own. Every time I move my arms to take the measurement, the tape slips off my shoulders. Bust: Pull the tape taut across the fullest part of your bust and around your back. Although the tape is taut, don’t pull the tape so taut that it digs into you or start to squash your breasts. After all, how will you put on a top where you squashed yourself while taking the measurement? This is a measurement I can get right myself, although I need to check in the mirror that I have the tape horizontal all the way around and not sagged at the back. Waist: Measure around the smallest part of your natural waist, just above your belly button. This is a measurement I can manage on my own. Again, I check in a mirror to ensure that my measuring tape stays horizontal all the way around. Hips: Start at one hip, just below your hip bone and wrap the tape measure around the largest part of your butt. Again I use a mirror to ensure that I keep the tape horizontal. An extra point that I should mention is that I never do this measurement after a gym workout or run as my glute muscles are usually quite pumped up. Now that you have your measurements, you will use those numbers to calculate your body shape. Most body shape calculators only use your bust measurement in their calculations. That is counterproductive for girls in transition that have not had top surgery. You will likely see that the ratios using your shoulder measurement will give you different body shape to those using your bust line. Usually, that is a shift from a rectangle body shape with your bust measurement to an inverted triangle body shape. This is a key reason why so many girls in transition often wear outfits that are not ideal for their body shape. For the vast majority of girls, your body shape as dictated by your shoulder measurement will give you an indication of what will work best almost all of the time. However, there may be a handful of outfits that will look stunning on you that are dictated by your body shape based on your bust measurement. So next time you go shopping be sure to try on some of those as well. The goal of this process is not for me to dictate what you must wear. It is rather to give you an indication of what has the biggest probability of looking good on you and flattering your unique body shape. As a girl in transition, you will be trying to narrow the experience gap on other girls that have many years of discovering their personal style based on trial and error. So, let’s get stuck into calculating your body shape so that you can get a clearer idea of what will look good on you. The Inverted Triangle The inverted triangle is when your shoulders or bust line is larger than your hips. In terms of numbers, you are looking at a difference of 5% or more. This is calculated by dividing your shoulder or bust measurement by your hip measurement. You are an inverted triangle if your shoulder or bust measurement is more than 5% bigger than your hip measurement. For example, if your shoulders (or bust) measure 36 inches and your hips measure 34.25 inches or smaller that will give a ratio of 1.05 or bigger. You are in good celebrity company as an inverted triangle with Cate Blanchet and Halle Berry. If you look at how they are styled you will see a theme of looks good on both of them. The signature piece that will always look great: Fitted jackets with a nipped-in waist and flared bottom. Why: The defined waist and flare over your hips will create the illusion of lower-body curves and help balance out your shoulders. The Rectangle You have a rectangle body shape if your shoulders, bust line and hips are around the same size, with no defined waistline. Confirm this by checking your numbers. You are a rectangle if your waist is less than 25% smaller than your shoulder or bust (waist measurement divided by shoulders or bust) and your shoulder, bust, and hip measurements are within 5% of each other. You do this out by looking at your shoulder, bust and hip measurements. Call the largest of the three measurements t (it will usually be your shoulders) and the other two measurements y and z. Multiply t by 0.95. If y and z are greater than the result of t times 0.95, then your shoulder, bust, and hips are within 5% of each other. Then you take the same measurement t above and multiply that by 0.75. If your waist measurement is larger than t times 0.75, then your waist is less than 25% smaller than your bust or shoulders. For example, you are a rectangle if your shoulders are 36 inches and your waist is 27 inches or more. Celebrities with rectangle body shapes are Kate Hudson, Mindy Kaling and The Duchess of Cambridge. The item that always flatters a rectangle body shape: Skirts with volume-increasing details like ruffles, bows, pleats, pockets or embellishments. Why: They fill out your hips and balance your upper body. The Triangle The triangle is when your hips are wider than your shoulders. This is sometimes, and rather unflatteringly, referred to as pear-shaped. Double check this by checking your numbers. You are a triangle (also known as a pear shape) if your hips are more than 5% bigger than your shoulders or bust (hip measurement divided by shoulders or bust). The easy way to do this is taking the larger of your shoulder or bust measurement and multiply by 1.05. If your hip measurement is bigger than this number you have calculated then you are a triangle. For example, you are a triangle if your shoulders are 36 inches and your hips are 37.75 inches or larger. Some celebrities with triangle body shapes are Sienna Miller and Jennifer Lopez. The item that always looks great on a triangle body shape: Fit-and-flare dresses. Why: They show off how little you are on top and are roomier from the waist down for your curvier bottom half so the silhouette always fits perfectly. Hourglass You have an hourglass body shape if your shoulders and hips are around the same size, with a very defined waistline. Confirm this by checking your measurements. You are an hourglass if your waist is at least 25% smaller than your shoulder or bust (waist measurement divided by shoulders and bust) and your waist is at least 25% smaller than your hips (waist measurement divided by hips) and your shoulder and hip measurements are within 5% of each other. Find this out by looking at your hips and shoulder measurements. Call the larger of the two measurements t and the smaller one y. Multiply t by 0.95. If y is greater than the result of t multiplied by 0.95, then your hips and shoulders are within 5% of each other. For example, you are an hourglass if your shoulders and hips measure 36 inches and your waist is 27 inches or smaller. Some celebrities with hourglass body shapes are Priyanka Chopra, Ashley Graham, and Tracee Ellis Ross. The item that always looks great on an hourglass body shape: Anything fitted around the waist and bosoms. Why: They accentuate your waist and enhance your hourglass figure.