Dressing for Your Body Type

There's the popular fantasy that there are some women now walking the planet who are blessed with ideal proportions.

That may be "true" in airbrushed fashion shoots or classical paintings, but the fact is nobody in the real world meets the criteria to win the title of "Miss Perfect Body".

However, there are lots of tips and tricks for making it appear that way. All you have to do is accentuate the positive and let the eye of your adoring public do the rest.

Long torso - Tall women's fashions look best well-fitted and with classical Greek goddess lines. If you're tall and slim you can easily create those desireable S-curves by simply adding a belt to whatever dress you're wearing. Not only will it bring attention to your waist, it will create the illusion of a fuller, curvier figure.

Oval or pear shaped - Slim down your silhouette with a top or dress in a dark or muted color featuring a deep V neck to create a vertical slimming effect. Earrings, necklaces and other accessories will also help bring attention up to your head and shoulders. The addition of subtle shoulder pads also helps transform your figure from oval to V shape.

Petite - Tired of other people challenging your stature? In addition to adding a high heel, a classic trick for appearing taller is simply by dressing yourself head to toe in a single color (i.e., tops and jeans) to aquire that long and lean look. Be sure to choose straight legged pants or jeans to accentuate the vertical illusion. When choosing skirts, show off your legs! - and avoid calf-length or ankle-length skirts that make you look shorter than you are.

Also see:

How to buy a swimsuit that flatters your body shape

Best sunglasses to fit your face shape

More tips about dressing for your body type around the Web:

Body Shapes & Goals

Identify Your Body Type

Where do Fashion Trends Come From?

Hot new looks are introduced every year in Paris, New York, Milan and in other world fashion capitals. But who decides what's trendy or not? How does a fashion trend begin?

It's a fascinating question, and the answer is as intriguing and complex as, say, following the stock market. For years trend spotting relied mostly on nitty gritty reporting on what what was happening in bars and nightclubs, in Hollywood, Monte Carlo, or wherever trendsters gathered to see and be seen.

Today, fashion forecasting still includes what's happening on the front lines, but it also encompasses marketing analysis, geographic data, the public mood in general, psychological studies, color forecasting, along with a look at the most popular films, music and books.

Fashion forecasters exist just to provide this information to the industry which, in turn, will pay a hefty price for it - in the hopes that they learn (or relearn) the complicated dance between it and the public they rely on to buy their latest lines.

It's not all robotic. The most successful fashion designers can take the raw data, process it, and reinterpret it to reflect their own creativity and taste. Those who can't usually fall by the wayside. Overall, it all seems like a Big Brother approach to fashion, and it is, kind of.

Behind the cold science, however, the human touch is still very much in vogue throughout the industry which regularly sends out trendspotters into the streets to see what people are actually wearing. And not necessarily in Manhattan or Beverly Hills.

Today, they're everywhere. In fact, they may be checking you out right now - at a mall, a music concert, a street fair or at a train station. So follow your own style.

Who knows? YOU may influencing the next big thing in fashion.

More about fashion trends & forecasting around the Web:

Fashion Trendsetter.com

Fashion Forecasting and Trend Resources

NY Times - Roaming the World, Detecting Fashion

Suggested reading:

The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever, by Teri Agins

Fashion Forecasting by Evelyn L. Brannon

Plus Size Clothing - Trendy to Classic

Is Loud & Outrageous the new black when it comes to plus size fashion?

While women of all ages have been clamoring for hip, stylish fashion in larger sizes for years, the result is that some clothing lines are obviously trying way too hard, especially when selling to teens.

Today, more clothing stores are finally answer the call for clothing in larger sizes, especially for the younger set. But ... will the styles get any better?

The initial response from the fashion industry seems to equate plus-size with airhead. "OK, we'll just go ahead and churn out the broad horizontal stripes, the puffy sleeves and loud prints and the clothes will fly off the shelves!" Yikes. Even skinny girls wouldn't be caught in some of this stuff.

If you want to experiment with the new thick horizontal lines, hothouse paisley prints and raucous colors, of course you're free to throw the rule book out the window.

But once you've got that out of your system, hold close to the traditional plus size do's and don'ts to pull off a classic, big diva look.

These are obvious, but may need repeating:

• Buy the perfect bra. Not for nothing do they call them foundation garments. The perfect bra fit results in clothes that drape just beautifully for a perfect sillouette.

• Wear clothes that fit. Even if you haven't put on weight since you last went shopping, the size you always wear doesn't mean that it matches what manufacturers say is a size 14. Buying a size too tight or too loose-fitting means you've thrown your money away on a look you won't feel comfortable in. Surf around on the Web, but be sure to visit the store TO TRY IT ON.

• Know your body type. Apple shape or hourglass? Long & tall or pear shape? This classic rules of style is one of the most important in discerning what styles flatter YOU.

More about tips on voluptuous plus size fashion around the Web:

Fashion stretches to fit plus-size teens

About.com - Plus Size Fashion

Fashion 411 - Plus Size Fashion