How to wear Stripes

Having just told you that stripes are going to be one of this spring’s fashion trend, so lets just quickly address some of the “But I can’t possibly wear stripes! Only stick insects can wear stripes!” objections that always come up any time this subject is introduced. First of all:

Yes, you can wear stripes.

We’ve always been told that horizontal stripes are the least flattering way to go, but don’t believe everything that you hear. I’m a stripes girl through and through (and totally not ashamed to admit that 95 percent of my clothing is some variation of the pattern). I’ve never been much of a rule follower myself, and I think this is the first one all fashion girls should cross off their list. Check out how these outfits styled stripes for Spring and mix some stripes into your wardrobe as the temperature drops!

Wear diagonal stripes, to slim the body and avoid that “convict” look.

I am featuring Kat Randall from a Indignant Corgi Blog. We were thinking alike so thought let’s share our pictures.

Choose the width of stripe that works for you

It’s often said that thin stripes are more slimming than thicker ones, and are thus easier to wear. Be wary of adopting blanket rules like this, because they’re not always true, and in real life, people’s figures are all so different that there really isn’t a “one rule to wear them all”. While it’s true that thin stripes can be more flattering, and are certainly easier to wear, on SOME people, if you carry all your weight on your stomach, for instance, you might actually find that thin stripes will actually emphasis the bump by distorting around it (see below to see a perfect example of stripes highlighting bump), while wide ones will help disguise it. Of course, I can’t tell you which type of stripes will work for you, but if you try a few on, You will know it is not working for you like this skirt wasn’t the right pick for me…

Emphasis the waist

Dress above incorporates bold stripes in a way that DOESN’T draw attention to the “widest part”. This dress is using a fit and flare shape, which helps nip in the waist to slim the body and avoid that “convict” look. The dress above, meanwhile, uses a number of techniques to do the same thing, including emphasis the waist and a flared skirt with a wide band at the hem. If you can’t find an item which does all of this for you, or you can easily replicate the effect by adding a belt or cardigan.

Diagonal lines are incredibly slimming and, like vertical lines, no matter where you place them on your body they will slim that area. As you can see from the box on the right, even though the box is exactly the same size it looks smaller than the box on the left.