If you are one of those fifty plus women who yearns to be a few pounds lighter or several dress sizes smaller, then there are some key fashion tricks you can play in order to give the appearance of looking slimmer.
All it takes is a little know how, and with some clever dressing, you can make yourself look thinner than you really are.
First let’s start with 5 simple tips that anyone can follow:
1. Learn to dress for your body shape
When you know what cuts, fabrics and styles best flatter your figure, this can be life-changing. Wearing the wrong type of clothing for your body shape can actually, in some cases, add on the pounds – wearing the right cuts and fabrics can take them off!
2. Choose your prints and fabrics carefully
Any print with a vertical stripe or diagonal pattern will instantly make you look taller. Horizontal prints will make you look wider, so will prints that are out of proportion to your body. i.e. if your have a small bone structure – narrow wrists etc, then don’t swap it with an oversized print. If you are more heavily built then a small ditsy print will make you look even larger.
A bulky, heavier textured fabric can make you look larger than you are, so can shiny metallic fabrics, which can be very unforgiving, showing all your lumps and bumps.
3. Learn how to wear color correctly
Wearing an outfit in the same color family – i.e. different tones of the same color, top to toe will make you look slimmer. This includes matching your tights to your shoes.
If you are top heavy, wearing a darker color on your top half will make that part of your body seem slimmer. The opposite applies if you want to appear slimmer on your bottom half.
As a general rule dark colors will slim you down, but that doesn't mean having to wear black. Jewel colors such as dark green, ruby red and deep blue are very flattering for the older woman. Blue dark-wash jeans, for example, are far more flattering to legs than a light stonewash pair.
4. Choose your lengths carefully
Dresses and skirts that finish on or just below the knee are more slimming than those which finish at the calf - the fattest part of the leg. Also, 3/4-sleeves on tops and dresses will slim-down arms and cover those dreaded bingo-wings.
5. Choose your shoes carefully
Most women over 50 realise the magic powers of a pair of heels but some may be adverse to wearing them. However, you want to look instantly slimmer for that special occasion, pop on a pair of 3-inch stilettos and hey-presto your body has dropped a dress size, compared to when you are wearing flats. However, if you hate wearing high heels then try a wedge, which is much easier to walk on, or settle for a pair of lower kitten heels, which will still give you some height. If you have a total aversion to heels of any kind then go for a flat shoe with a pointed toe as this will elongate the leg. Beige/nude-colored shoes will make your legs look longer, peep-toed shows will elongate the foot, whilst shoes with ankle straps are a no-no for anyone with thick ankles.
For more in-depth style advice on how to look slimmer, click on the flowing links:
"You can be gorgeous at 20, charming at 40 and irresistible for the rest of your life." Coco Chanel.
