Style notes / Fit guide & wardrobe exercise
Body shapes and clothing: a guide to fit, figure and proportion
Explore five familiar shape descriptions, useful fit checks and different outfit silhouettes. Start with comfort and the effect you want.
Clothing fit, body proportions and fabrics explained
A useful wardrobe decision starts with the garment in front of you. Learn what the label describes, how fabric holds its shape and where hems or seams meet your own proportions. These are tools for comfort and preference, not rules for an ideal figure.
Reading route / 01
Start with fit and movement
Body-shape names are optional shorthand, not complete descriptions. Begin with comfort across the shoulders, waist and hips, then test sitting, walking and reaching. Use the guide to explore the outline you enjoy, rather than trying to change your body.
Reading route / 02
Decode fabric and construction
Silk describes a fibre; satin describes a weave. That distinction is more useful than assuming either word tells you everything about weight or drape. Learn to look at the cloth and the construction together, including lining, canvas and the seams that create room.
Style notes / Fabric field guide
Silk versus satin: two labels answering different questions
One names a fibre; the other describes a weave. Learn what a product description tells you—and what it leaves open.
Style notes / Fabric detective
Jacquard or print? Look at how the pattern belongs to the cloth
A visible motif does not tell you how it was made. Learn what to inspect before naming a patterned fabric.
Style notes / Construction questions
What is canvas doing inside a tailored jacket?
The supporting layer is different from the lining. Here is how to ask useful questions without reducing a jacket to one specification.
Style notes / Inside the garment
The lining changes the outfit, even when nobody sees it
Comfort, opacity and movement begin beneath the outer surface. A guide to observing the layer inside.
Style notes / Construction explained
Darts and princess seams: the lines that make room
A flat piece of cloth needs shaping to become a fitted garment. Follow the lines that make that possible.
Style notes / Visual glossary
Pleats, gathers and tucks: three ways to control fullness
The distinction becomes clearer when you look at where excess fabric is organised, fixed or released.
Style notes / Material notebook
Why a tweed can contain more colour than you first see
Use the colour inside a woven cloth to build an outfit, rather than treating the jacket as one flat shade.
Reading route / 03
Compare the places where garments meet
Try trousers with their intended shoes before judging the break. Compare a coat open and closed over the actual skirt beneath it. Small changes at these meeting points can alter the whole outline without replacing the outfit.
Style notes / Fit notebook
Trouser break: why the shoe belongs in the fitting
The small fold above a shoe can change the line of a whole outfit. Judge trouser length with the footwear you intend to wear.
Style notes / Proportion workshop
Coat and skirt hemlines: three relationships worth trying
A skirt does not have to disappear beneath a coat. Decide whether the two lengths should continue, interrupt or frame each other.
Style notes / Accessory guide
Necklace and neckline: choose an echo, a gap or a contrast
You do not need a chart prescribing one necklace for every top. Begin with the space between two lines.
Style notes / Accessory study
A bag changes an outfit’s silhouette before you open it
Think about the bag’s position, depth and structure—not only its colour or size.
Reading route / 04
Make a styling idea your own
A runway look can be a reference for a single choice: texture, repetition, scale or contrast. These exercises begin with existing clothes and let you keep only the parts that work for you.
Style notes / Practical guide
How to style an all-black outfit with texture and shape
Use surface, spacing and proportion to give a single-colour outfit depth.
Style notes / Archive lesson
Two prints, one outfit: find the shared rhythm
An archival Cavalli close-up is the starting point for an exercise in scale, spacing and a quiet border.
Style notes / The weekend project
One garment, five settings: a more useful wardrobe experiment
Test a piece against real situations before calling it versatile. A short experiment can reveal what you actually need from it.
Style notes / Checklist
How to read a runway look: five details beyond the logo
A more useful way to look at a runway image, from the overall line to the smallest interruption.
Style notes / Weekend experiment
How to adapt a runway trend to clothes you already own
A three-step method for turning a catwalk reference into something that feels like your own wardrobe.
Style notes / Visual field guide
How to analyse a runway photograph: three questions to ask
What an old runway image can teach you—and what a single frame cannot prove.
A fitting-room checklist to keep
- Read the fibre label, then look at the weave and lining.
- Move as you would during the day; check for pulling or restricted reach.
- Try the garment with the shoes and layers it will meet.
- Choose by comfort and the silhouette you prefer, rather than a body-shape rule.