Saturday, January 20, 2007

Fashion Lab: Better Late Than NeverI really should get some


Fashion Lab: Better Late Than Never
I really should get some modeling lessons or something, rather than continually subjecting you wonderful people to these hack photos.

Typically I choose not to focus on the type of advice that picks some "less-than" body part ("I hate my thighs!") and uses "fool-the-eye" techniques to compensate. It's all too confusing. In most cases, learning and employing the basics (line, shape, proportion, scale, and, of course, personal idiom and color) will create a much more integrated, simple, and aesthetically pleasing look.

But an outfit I threw together recently caused me to think about a principle I had previously run across:

To camouflage or draw attention away, surround the feature with something larger or more eye-catching. In these pictures, the "feature" is my thighs and the "something larger or more eye-catching" is the line of the t-shirt hem(s) and the belt buckle.


In which of these pictures do I look most normal to you?

And another question: How would this principle be used if the "feature" being camouflaged was a slight tummy bulge?

On one thing I'm sure we can all agree: Use tunic-length tops with caution! (They never worked for me in the '80s either.)

Rebecca