Introduction

This month we are focusing on proportions. It will a be chance for you to understand why a skirt that looks great on you, looks slightly odd on your friend, and yet you are the same dress size, weight or height.

If you look at the picture of the six women in white, they all weigh exactly the same and yet their proportions are different.

If you picked six women of the same height then they are still likely to have different proportions. Even for the same height and weight, they are likely to be differences because of factors such as body shape, ethnicity, age and bone structure.

So I will explain the principles of body proportions so you have a basic model to compare your proportions against, to help you determine whether you have longs legs or a short waist, for example. Once you know what your horizontal proportions are, then you can use them to make decisions about how to wear your clothes and accessories to flatter, or emphasize your proportions.

We are going to learn more about balance points, and find the ideal place to have a necklace and hemlines too.

There will be stylist tips and tricks for you to use to manipulate your clothing to make a proportion of your body look longer or shorter.

The workbook exercises are designed so you can experiment with clothes in your own wardrobe to explore these concepts, and then you can post the outcome when you have reached your conclusion.

None of us are built like Barbie, thank goodness, and she couldn't be alive in reality because there isn't enough room in her torso for her vital organs and her feet are so small she would fall over!

Even she has had a makeover to show a more realistic proportions in her body. And indeed I think it is the difference between us that makes our beauty unique.

As Francis Bacon (1561-1626 Essay of Beauty) said:

“There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in proportions.”

Here is an overview of what we will tackle:

Advanced Proportions Workbook with weekly challenges

Continue with Vertical Body Proportions >>