Dressing to Camouflage Changing Body Proportions: Fashion Tips

I watched my wife recover from abdominal surgery to remove active Crohn’s. After the surgery, like most recuperating patients needing to heal, she was told to eat and not stop. She recovered but there were consequences. Her whole concept of what to wear changed.

Body Proportion Changes After Surgery

Like most women, she didn’t start with the ideal body type, so after the surgery her so-called figure flaws were accentuated. The new weight gain resulted in a bust-size increase and a thicker waist. However, she was not disheartened. As a trained wardrobe and color consultant she knew that, while her clothing personality was the difficult and traditional ‘classic’, there were fashion strategies to help her camouflage her body-proportion changes.

Bodies That Matter

The following scenarios incorporate three of these tips. They will help to enhance the outer appearance of everyone’s special body that matters so much to them. After all, these bodies are the only ones we have. The tips will also help to protect and enhance those personal and fragile body images, those inner perceptions of physical appearance – of size and shape – that all of us possess.

Optical Illusions of Perfection: Lengthen the Figure

If the possible figure flaws you need to camouflage are a large bust, a short torso, a short neck, or a thick waist, consider the following garment features useful in creating the illusion of perfection:

• Wide Shoulders/pads
• V-shaped neck
• Vertical stripes
• Dark colors

Summary:

A coat dress is the ideal garment to dissimulate or disguise all sorts of figure imperfections. Accentuate with wide shoulders and a V-shaped neck which is accentuated by two contrasting stripes. This tends to lengthen the figure.

Optical Illusions of Perfection: Hiding Weight

If the possible figure flaws you need to camouflage are a large bust, large or flabby arms, or a thick waist, consider the following garment features useful in creating the illusion of perfection:

• Wide shoulders/pads
• Blouson top
• Raglan sleeves

Summary:

To hide a large bust and a thick waist, choose blouson tops. Raglan sleeves help disguise large or flabby arms. For instance, wear a cotton and polyester mix with clip buttons and raglan sleeves.

Optical Illusions of Perfection: Slimming of the Hips

It’s quite possible your figure flaws are large hips and narrow shoulders. Consider camouflaging them with wide shoulders/pads, dark colors and long jackets.

Summary:

If nature has been generous when it comes to hips, wear jackets and shirts with wide shoulders as well as colorful prints and eye-catching accessories. If your shoulders are narrow, wear shoulder pads as they will make your figure appear squarer. Large hips will appear slimmer by wearing skirts and slacks cut from light fabric in dark colors. Avoid stiff and heavy fabrics.

For instance, wear an ensemble which includes a belted rayon and polyester dress with a contrasting top, fancy buttons, straight skirt to the knee, and a three-quarter length jacket in a hounds-tooth check with a patch pocket and a decorative hanky.