Best and worst dress for your body shape: what works for every shape

While there are more similarities than differences between the body shapes, most techniques work for some but not all shapes. However, the suggestions I’m covering in this post work for every shape. Here are the “best” and “worst” dress (and more!) for your body shape (for every shape!).

This is a sample from Holly’s Guide to Dressing for Your Body Shape with Care and Confidence. It includes suggestions that work for every body type and is the first part in “Building outfits for your body shape.” We go piece by piece through an outfit (necklines, shoulders, sleeves, chest, waist, hips, hemlines, etc) with shape specific suggestions for each piece. From there we continue on to putting together your whole outfit silhouette. But first, here are the best and worst dress options for your body shape.

Building Outfits for Your Body Shape For Every Body…

Many outfit components have distinct suggestions for each shape. Some have suggestions that work for a few shapes. But there are a few things that hold true for every shape. We’ll cover that last category first.

Here are a couple things that generally work well for every body shape and a couple things that should be styled with extra care.

We’ll dive deeper into each later in the book but for now an overview…

Best dress for your body shape: options that work for every shape

These are some style options that work for every body shape.

V necks and scoop necks. These help create a vertical line that draws attention to your face. They don’t need to be particularly deep to be impactful. (More on this in Necklines.)
Defined waist. An outfit with a defined waist works on every body shape – the primary difference is where you decide to delineate the waist of your outfit. (More on this in Waists.)
Wrap dresses and tops. They combine a number of pretty universally flattering elements – V or scoop neckline, defined waist, and as a dress they have a triangular shaped skirt. Just keep an eye on the details and how dense the fabric is.
Fit and flare silhouettes. Like wrap dresses they also combine a number of elements that work for every body shape – V or scoop neckline, defined waist, and a triangular shaped skirt. (See the “A Note on ‘Universally Flattering’” section for more.)

A note of nuance: just because V necks or wrap dresses / tops or fit and flare silhouettes work on every body shape, doesn’t mean every specific garment will work on every individual body. If you try on a wrap dress (or whatever) and it doesn’t work for you, that’s on the dress – it’s simply not the right dress for you. (Again, we go more in depth a little later, including what could be causing this, and how to handle it.)

Another thing that can happen: just because these work for every body shape doesn’t mean they work for your personal style. Prioritize dressing your body in your style.

Worst dress for your body shape: options that work for every shape

These are some things that tend to be more difficult to style no matter your body shape.

Super skinny pants. We’ll get more into the shape of the lower half of your outfit in “Below the Torso” but for the moment super skinny pants and leggings create a very narrow base for the silhouette of your outfit. This makes balancing the silhouette of your outfit trickier.
Oversized and boxy tops. The key watch outs here are: intention, proportions, the lines of your outfit and (as always) silhouette. Also we tend to throw on something oversized when we want to hide but it tends not to work because we’re focusing on the part of our outfit we don’t want people to look at instead of the part that we do. (Want to do oversized with care, read this post.)
Empire waist blouses and tops. Again, we’ll get into this more in the section on waists, but basically an empire waist can unintentionally create two visual “waists” in your outfit which can be confusing in an outfit.

A few style reminders:

Just because these pieces are tricky to style from a design perspective doesn’t mean it can’t be done. They just need a little more care and finesse.

It also doesn’t mean they can’t be on trend. All of these can and have been very on trend at times. Trends are not always visually appealing from a design, silhouette, or body shapes perspective. (Trends are also not always stylish, but that’s for a different guide.)

These can also all fit within your personal style and work spectacularly well for you, your body, your closet, and your shape, even though (in general) they call for caution.

And remember (and I will say this until you are more than sick of it) if a design is effective, it is good design – regardless of how many design rules or conventions it breaks.

With that said, let’s get to building your outfit!

To keep reading, pick up your copy of Holly’s Guide to Dressing for Your Body Shape with Care and Confidence here.

More about Holly’s Guide to Dressing for Your Body Shape with Care and Confidence

In this brand new self-paced guide, we’ll tackle dressing for your body shape from the perspective of: your body is not a problem to be fixed. Start expecting your clothes to do the work instead.

We’re distinguishing between the shape of your body and the shape of your outfit. We’re altering your clothing, not the shape of your body. And we’re clarifying the goal of your outfit, and using design principles to achieve them.

This 141+ page PDF is available to download immediately after purchase and contains:

What the body shapes are
What body shapes are used for…
3 ways body shapes fail us and how to handle them
Layers of Shaping: Skeleton vs Tissue vs Clothes
Silhouettes: Building Out, Sucking In, or Smoothing Over
Lines In Your Outfit: horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and darting
2 ways to find your body shape with care
Building outfits for your body shape – piece by piece – necklines to hemlines and everything in between
Specific styling suggestions for every shape
Building your outfit shape below the torso
Using Shapes as the Building Blocks for Your Silhouette