This article was written for Annabel & Grace, which is now part of Rest Less.
Body Shapes: How to Style a Column/Apple body shape
We are all such different body shapes and skin tones. This makes it so difficult to produce a fashion collection that suits everyone. You will often find that women of our age will say, “those clothes from …. just do not suit me.” One of the few fashion houses that recognises we are all differing body shapes is Kettlewell Colours. Kettlewell also really embrace colour, offering over 300 shades across their range. This combination means that there is always something to suit each and every one of us.
Grace and I recently travelled to the Kettlewell headquarters in Somerset to chat with Jo, their consultant stylist, about the need to re-evaluate our body shapes at various points in our lives. It is very rare that a woman maintains her 20 year old body throughout her adult life. Sometimes we get stuck in a rut and continue to dress in the style that we loved as a young person, but realistically it is no longer the best shape for us.
As we grow older and go through the menopause our bodies change shape and our metabolism slows. This makes it far easier to gain weight than to lose it. I lost my waist and having been a slim hourglass shape in my twenties, I became a column once I hit 45. I had gained 2 stone in 25 years. Babies and menopause had all contributed to both the weight gain and the change in my body shape.
Having babies is obviously one of the main catalysts for one’s body changing shape. It is often a time when, due to a mother’s focus being entirely on the baby, she may not have as much time to focus on herself. Then suddenly, as the baby becomes less demanding and we have more time, we then have the opportunity to re-evaluate our body shape.
Introducing Amy
Amy, who works for Kettlewell Colours, is one such young woman. She has a baby girl, Florence, who is coming up for 3 and these last three years have been all about her daughter. She has now gone back to work and needs some help from Jo to look at her body shape and help her dress it so that she can feel good about herself again. We are always advocating a bit of ‘Me Time’ to help you feel uplifted. Getting the advice of a professional stylist is a great step in the right direction.
However there is also an excellent app called My Shape Stylist Once you have fed in your body measurements it will then give you the name of your body shape. You also get a few style tips to help you when you next go shopping.
We used this app to determine Amy’s body shape. Amy falls between two body shapes which is unusual. She is a Column/Apple and from the video at the bottom of the post you will see how Jo helped her to find the styles within the Kettlewell range to dress her. Jo had already worked out her colour season. She is a ‘winter’ and so she suits the jewel colours.
Watching Amy evolve as she found her correct body shapes and colour
I was working behind the camera. It was so noticeable that, as Jo found the right style top in a colour that complemented Amy’s dark hair and beautiful eyes, Amy’s whole body language changed. She stood tall and was smiling – she so obviously felt more confident. No-one could fail to notice the difference in her demeanour. It was a joy to watch and it had not taken very much to achieve this transformation. Jo was not dressing her in expensive clothes nor were we giving her a full make-over. It was literally down to shape and colour in the tops that Jo chose.
Fashion collections tend to cater for the classic hourglass shape or the very skinny column. They also use professional models to show their clothes off at their best. This will never change. So we need to find how to dress our body shape. We should highlight the bits that are good and keep the eye away from our less attractive parts.
Kettlewell Colours are the accepted kings of colour. They are also brilliant at producing a large choice of different styles to cater for all our different body shapes.
We must embrace our shape but still make the best of it and it will help us to feel fabulous.
To visit the Kettlewell website click HERE.
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