A Lesson in Silhouette for Men and Women

Very recently here at The Very Small Closet, I shared with you how silhouettes in fashion tend to change slowly, but once they've changed, the new look becomes pervasive.

At first, a new trend sticks out. It might look really odd, and often it has the effect of making someone look disproportionate. This is because our eye is accustomed to traveling over the lines of an outfit in a certain way. (This is true for anything, by the way: cars, buildings, even people's faces.) Introduce a new silhouette, and our eye gets "stuck" on the differences. A great example of this is the low-rise jean. High-rise pants were supposed to give you the illusion of longer legs. The lower rise, when introduced, had the effect of making everyone's legs look shorter. At first. As the trend took over and the silhouette changed, it was the new look which had figure-enhancing benefits. Essentially, the focal point of the silhouette shifted from waist to hips. For women, an hourglass figure has always been the goal: but now instead of defining a small waist, the lower rise defined the hips...which then made the waist look smaller by comparison.

Even though a new trend may have completely taken over, it still can take some time before the older look becomes "dated." But once it is, you can absolutely see how silhouette defines an era in fashion.

Check out this video for a good example of what I am talking about. See if you can spot the changes in silhouette...among other things....:

Next time I will talk a bit about how to recognize a quality garment. See you then...same blog time...same blog channel....

For more adventures in Wardrobe Planning, join me at my website!