The clothes we wear should flatter the shape of our bodies, our skin tone, our hairstyle, compliment our eye colour and match our personality. To have a great wardrobe, it should have a combination of classic pieces and current trends, all personalized to bring out the uniqueness in you.
If you know how to dress for your body shape and which styles to avoid, you can own a personal distinct style. So if you don’t have any idea where to start, then this article will help you!
Identifying Your Body Shape and How To Dress it
Compared to the curves of female bodies that male bodies obviously lack, this doesn’t mean that differences don’t exist. We have probably heard so many times from fashion experts how important the word “fit” is. You may own the most expensive garment but if it doesn’t fit your body right, it will just make you look bad no matter how much money you dropped on it. Remember that a cheap piece will look a million bucks if the fit is perfect.
The secret to this is to identify your body shape and learn how to enhance it. Here are five body types that you might fit in.
Courtesy of Real Men Real Style
- The Inverted Triangle Body Type
- The Rectangle Body Type
- The Triangle Body Type
- The Oval Body Type
- The Trapezoid Body Type
The Inverted Triangle Body Type
This body type is all about balancing proportions. This type is someone who’s into training the upper body, someone who likes to go and train shoulders, back, and chest. Although the attention here is going to be really on your upper body, you need to draw attention towards your lower body as well for a balanced proportions.
What to Do:
- Belt. The belt’s purpose is to break up your outfits. When you wear one, it’s going to draw attention towards the hips, which will take the attention away from your upper body.
- Double-breasted jackets. Consider wearing one to expand your torso. This type of jacket has many detailing going on in the middle of the body. This can also gravitate the attention down and it’s going to widen your torso.
- V-neck jumpers and V-neck T-shirts. You’ll also get the same effect. V-necks will draw the attention down and make your body more proportionate. All of the attention will transfer naturally on your upper body because this is your body type, so make sure that you are wearing things that are going to draw most of the attention down to create a more proportionate figure.
What to Avoid:
- Skinny jeans. Skinny jeans may be sexy, but with this body type, it may not be that flattering to wear one. Try not to wear anything that’s slim-fitting on the leg because this will just grab attention and highlight the obvious imbalance of your body.
- Jackets with extreme shoulder padding. You can opt for something more relaxed like a sports jacket that’s going to be great for you. Avoid those shoulder padding because it’s going to bring more of the focus towards that area.
The Rectangle Body Type
This is probably the least flattering body type among the five. Having a rectangle body shape comes with the same width in terms of the shoulders, hips and the waist. If you think you are one, the key here is about broadening the shoulders. This is the opposite to the first body where you draw the attention up instead. You need to give more focus in widening and broadening your shoulders.
What to Do:
- Jackets with shoulder padding. This time you can wear jackets with plenty of shoulder padding on them. The padding will help broaden the shoulders.
- Jackets or blazers with wide lapels. Wearing these will create more focus up to your shoulders, bringing a greater proportion.
- Layerings. You can wear a button-down shirt underneath a crew-neck sweater to draw the attention upwards.
- Clothes fitting at the waist. Make sure that you are wearing a shirt or a T-shirt or whatever that tapers the upper body. It should be more fitted at the waist and also at the hip area. You can always have any item or piece to be tailored or altered to help you get the right proportions.
What to Avoid:
- Double-breasted jackets. This jacket is just going to draw all of the attention towards your rectangle shape.
- Shapeless clothes and clothes that mirror a rectangle shape. Avoid them at all costs. Go for something more tapered, more fitted for your rectangle body type.
The Triangle Body Type
This body type doesn’t necessarily mean that you are fat or chubby. The triangle shape just puts more weight towards the belly area. Your body comes with a wider hips and waist than your shoulders and chest.
Want some advice? You might want to lessen those heavy drinking of beer, refrain from that cake, and try to get fit. If you are serious about drawing that emphasis away from that belly, then you can start having a healthy lifestyle.
What to Do:
- Vertical stripes. Vertical stripes on your clothing is a nice way to restructure this body type. This will draw the attention upwards especially if you wear it on the upper torso which is going to draw the attention up towards your shoulders rather than your waist.
- Jackets with shoulder padding. This is somehow the same with the last body type. You can wear jackets with plenty of padding on the shoulder area to really broaden that width.
What to Avoid:
- Roll necks and polo shirts. These items will slenderise your neck and shoulder area which is going to accentuate the roundness in your waist.
- Horizontal stripes across the stomach. This will just put greater emphasis on your stomach area, alongside wearing heavily tapered trousers at the bottom that will widen the central area of your body.
The Oval Body Type
This body type is considered as more of a rounded shape. If you think this is your shape, you may want to pay attention on lengthening the torso, broadening your shoulders for a more structured look.
What to Do:
- Vertical stripes/ pinstripes. Wearing clothes with these type of designs won’t only draw the attention up towards your shoulders, they’re also going to lengthen your body.
- Well-fitted trousers. We’re not talking about skinny trousers. Trousers that fit you is something that you need to consider because if you are using trousers that are too long for you, it’s going to pull out a lot of unwanted fabric when it breaks at the shoe that will draw the attention towards that and shorten the length of your legs.
What to Avoid:
- Boots. Some guys prefer to wear boots as this adds a bit of masculinity to an outfit, but for those who have a rounded shape, wearing boots will only shorten your leg length.
- Coloured/ Statement belts. Wearing statement belts grabs more attention towards your rounded shape. Instead, opt for something more classic, a brown leather belt or a black leather belt.
- Double-breasted jackets. This will only accentuate the oval body type that you already have instead of balancing the proportions.
The Trapezoid Body Type
The last body type is the most “body goal” among the 5. A trapezoid body has broad shoulders, broader chest, and a light taper down towards through the hips and through the waist. Men with trapezoid body type are able to walk into any store, buying any shirt that fits them perfectly.
Obviously, this body type doesn’t need to be concerned about the dos and the don’ts. All you have to do is to focus on making sure that your clothing fits you well.
Author Bio:
Ivandrea Ollero is a daytime writer for Northern Menswear, an online streetwear store run from Manchester that provides quality service 24hrs a day and 7 days a week. She is also a content crafter who researches and writes custom content about travel, fashion, finance, business, home improvements, health, and beauty in order to provide helpful information and tips for her readers. Ivandrea graduated from St. Scholastica’s College, Manila, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism in 2016.