Styling Tips for Layering
Mules | Jeans (32x30) | Striped Shirt (xl) | Navy Ribbed sweater (xl)| Utility Jacket (xl) | similar jacket in more colors | Hoops
Let’s talk layers, girlfriend. It’s truly an art form, especially when you’re a curvy gal. To me, it’s all about balancing my proportions out. Fun fact: before I discovered blogging, I wanted to become an image consultant. During my brief stint of researching what that entailed, I learned the “ABC’s of styling” and they’ve stuck with me. I think they’re helpful, especially when talking about layers!
Accentuate: In one (or 25+) ways or another, you’ve got it going on! When it comes to accentuating certain parts of your body, it’s your time to shine! Accentuating the areas you love can be done in a number of ways, depending on what you’d like to show off. For me, it’s my legs and my waist. It’s usually best to focus on one or two favorite parts of your body per outfit. It’s all about drawing attention to a particular area or feature which can be done as obviously or as subtly as you like.
Balance: This is all about creating an outfit / look that highlights your favorite parts of you while strategically showing off your figure. For example, if I wear tight skinny jeans, I like to wear a looser / flowy top. If I’m wearing looser bottoms, I’ll wear more of a fitted or structured top. Balance is based on your personal preference so for me, too much tight / too much loose makes me uncomfortable.
Camouflage: Whether or not it’s justified, I’m pretty sure we can all agree there are parts of our body we’d like to conceal. This goes back to balancing! I don’t particularly love clothes that accentuate my stomach area so I opt for mid/high rise pants and dresses that accentuate my waist. Accentuate the positive, camouflage the not-so-favorite area, leaving you with one balanced look. See what I did there? Easy as A-B-C.
Back to layers!
Here are four tips I’ve learned:
Stick with a cohesive color scheme. In the outfit above, I chose to focus on the blues as my neutral palette and have the jacket and printed shoes coordinate as a pop of color. Even though I’m mixing two patterns in the striped shirt and printed shoes, it works because neither is too bold/ competing for attention.
Whenever I layer, I like to have my base layer(s) thin. If I have a bulky or chunky sweater, I’ll add a more tailored jacket on top. If your outer layer is the bulkiest (see below), have the items underneath be more fitted/tailored. In order to not overwhelm my frame, I try to stick to one bulky item per outfit.
similar jacket, similar turtleneck, faux leather leggings (XL- use caralyn10 for a discount), boots, hoops
3. Proportion is important with layering. You’ll want to make sure you’re aware of the lengths of your layers. See how my striped shirt (first photo above) is the longest? It works nicely underneath the slim fit sweater and jacket — which accentuates my waist! (ABC- are you still with me?)
4. Lastly, have fun and be open minded! Layering takes some trial and error. To be honest, I had a completely different outfit planned to showcase layering within this post but once I tried it on, it didn’t work and that is okay! Try experimenting with different patterns you already have in your wardrobe (stripes, animal print or gingham for example). There are unlimited combinations that you can create and it’s a great way to get excited about your wardrobe again to wear things in new ways!
JACKET (XL) | SIMILAR STYLE | LEOPARD SHIRT (XL) | JEANS (31R) | SNEAKERS | NECKLACE | EARRINGS | EAR CUFF
I hope this post was helpful! It definitely got me thinking about new ways to work my wardrobe. Feel free to leave any questions or suggestions below! As always, thanks for reading and allowing me to be your go-to gal. xx CMK
