How to Dress For Your Body Type: Oval Edition!
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Fashion friends – can we give it up for more styling content!!! Took a break from blogging as I was focusing on other content, but knew I wanted to get back into providing styling tips and OOTD looks, and this series is something I’ve wanted to do for a year!
Trying to dress for your body type is hard, and everyone doesn’t have the luxury of booking a personal stylist, so I’m hoping with this series that I instill the confidence in you to select items that work, with no second guessing! And to start off – it’s all about the oval body shape, also known as the apple shape or circle/round shape.
What Defines An “Oval” Body Shape?
I am in fact an oval shaped woman, after having my daughter and gaining weight over the course of 10 years. The weight sits in my tummy. For me going from a cheerleader body with a relatively small waist to almost having a potbelly, it was hard for me to embrace in the beginning. But I’ve learned to love my body for what it is, and experiment with what looks the best on me – so you know I’m going to give you the best tips.
Essentially with an oval body shape, your goal is to create dimension and balance – whether it’s creating your own waistline with faux wraps and belts, or wearing things that “slim” the waist area. The reason why I put slim in quotation marks is for two reasons. One – all oval shaped woman are not plus sized, and two – everyone’s goal is not to slim or look skinny, so please take this tip and run with it how you want. As a fellow oval shaped woman, I do not care that my pot belly sticks out sometimes, and I’m the biggest advocate of if you feel good in it, rock it, no matter if it is correct or not.
The Oval-Shaped Color Guide
For my oval-shaped divas, there are four main takeaways when it comes to color, prints, and patterns you should wear. First, dark colors are always a great option if you are trying to disguise or slim the waist area. That includes dark wash denim for pants. Pops of color are also a great option as far as bottoms goes paired with either a minimal patterned top or a solid top to create balance, and prints like verticle stripes, florals, and geometric prints work to help the eye flow, and slim the waist. Specifically for tops:
DOS
DON’TS
Tops for Oval-Shaped Women
Dresses for Oval-Shaped Women
If you follow me on Instagram, then you know I love a good dress with volume and the dramatics (literally have a few in my cart from Never Fully Dressed Now). I think a good mid length/knee dress that’s voluminous with a pair of booties or thigh high boots is my favorite way to dress an oval shaped body. Again – going back to the idea of balance, you want to pick a dress where you can create your own waist line, as well as draw the eye around your whole body. Some other tips are:
DOS
DON’TS
Bottoms for Oval-Shaped Women
High waisted/high rise all the way. That’s it, that’s the tip.
Because the waist is not define, we’re defining it where the top of the jean is with the high rise silhouette. If you were to wear mid or low rise jeans, the waist, or the belly would still overpower and not give you the silhouette you want. And in all honesty – who the hell wears low rise jeans? I don’t care what TikTok says, don’t do it.
Target (Wild Fable), Madewell, AG, Good American, and certain H&M jeans are really good for high waisted jeans.
Outerwear for Oval-Shaped Women
I love a good long line blazer, cardigan, or trench coat – especially one with a waist tie. Why? A couple of reasons. First – you don’t want to wear shorter jackets or cardigans because it’s going to show your ill defined waist more, where as a longer jacket creates balance around your whole body. Second, and more obvious – having a waist belt helps create the waistline you are lacking.
Oval-shaped divas – I want to emphasize again – wear what makes you feel good! These tips should serve as a guide, but ultimately – you decide on what you feel confident in. Experiment, try things on (even if it’s in the comfort of your home), and get to know your body well enough to know what works or what won’t work for you.
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