Cleavage Coverage

Plunging necklines are definitely on the Dress Yourself Skinny “Do” list. This style is flatting and makes you look thinner and taller. However, it doesn’t work for business settings or modest sensibilities.

Cleavage coverage can be added to make plunging necklines work for all occasions. The traditional solution is to wear a thin camisole as an under-layer to cover exposed lingerie and skin. The downside to the extra layer – it adds bulk to your torso, a second set of straps to manage and can be uncomfortable in summer months.

The Chickie is a new alternative that gives you the coverage without the bulk. Think of it as an updated version of the “dickie” from the 1970s. It’s a panel of fabric worn over the bra like a tube-top just to cover the décolleté area. It is secured to the bra straps to keep it in place.

Regardless of the underpinning you choose, opt for a color that contrasts with your plunging neckline to retain the dressing skinny benefits. Choose a dark color to minimize the bust area or a light color to make “the girls” more prominent.

What's Your Body Type?

Many fashion magazines and online shopping websites now offer clothing suggestions based on your body type. Once you know how to describe your body using their terminology, a whole new world of flattering choices opens up to you.

The first step in dressing thinner is knowing your body type. The terminology to describe women’s figures used by the fashion industry isn’t always easy to understand. Here’s an explanation of the typical descriptions so you can figure out what body type you have.

Western society has chosen an hourglass as the ideal shape for a woman’s body. That breaks down as shoulders, bust and hips having about the same width and the waist having about 75% of that width. The descriptions of all the other body types are based on comparisons to the hourglass figure.

In Dress Yourself Skinny, figures are broken down into 13 body types that are described in the way women talk about their bodies: big breasts, small breasts, wide shoulders, narrow shoulders, thick waist/tummy, short torso, long torso, wide hips, narrow hips, tall, short, straight figure and skinny. In the rest of the fashion world, women’s body types are divided into 3 or four categories.

Some stylists use the fruits for comparison: apple, pear and banana. Others use geometric polygons: triangles, circles and rectangles.

Apple/Oval/Circle – This woman has a thicker waist and tummy.
Pear/Triangle – This body type has wide hips or narrow shoulders.
Banana/Rectangle – This woman has a straight figure or thicker waist. Her waist, shoulders, bust and hips are all about the same width.
Inverted triangle – This woman has broad shoulders or narrow hips.

Maximize With Crush Prints

Crush prints are garments that are printed after they are made. When the pattern is added to the clothing this way, wrinkled areas in the piece will naturally go unprinted. These variations in printing add to the fun and artsy nature of the clothing.

Crush prints make the garment look like it’s stretching. The print gives the impression that the underlying body part is so big that it’s stretching the clothing to its capacity. This style is perfect for making small body parts look bigger.

If you want to make your breasts look bigger, choose a print with wrinkles in the bust area. Wear the wrinkles across your hips if you want to make your body appear curvier below the waist. This style works well if you want to make a skinny body appear fuller and curvier all over.

The degree of size increase dependes on the degree of contrast between the color of the base fabric and the color of the printing. Dark printing on a light piece will give more maximization than dark printing on dark fabric. Beware, crush prints can make your tummy and entire body look bigger. Avoid styles with wrinkles in areas that are already the “right size” or “too big” for you. Avoid crush prints all together if you feel "too big" all over.

Due to the nature of the printing process, each and every piece is unique. If one doesn't have the wrinkling in the right place for you, another piece in the exact same style may have been printed in a more flattering way. Notice how the wrinkling on this dress makes the bust look saggy. Leave this one on the rack and look for another on in the same style with flattering printing.