A Silhouette for All Seasons
Proper Dress Shapes Keep the Stars in Line
There are seven classic dress silhouettes. Everything else is just a modification of these basic shapes.
— Kallah Maguire, founder of the Emerald Scarab
Every Hollywood starlet has her go-to get-ready-for-the-red-carpet routine: spa treatment, manicure and pedicure, hair and makeup. Of all the preparations, the most important element is the selection of a dress silhouette that accentuates every asset and camouflages little flaws — lest photographs taken by the paparazzi capture the actress looking less than her best. She does not make such decisions alone. It takes a village of fashion-savvy personal stylists and clothing designers to find just the right dress.
Seven Classic Silhouettes
When outfitting stars, Los Angeles-based personal stylist Kallah Maguire — founder of the Emerald Scarab (emeraldscarab.com), a personal shopping service — searches for the best two or three silhouettes to match her client’s body type.
“There are seven classic dress silhouettes,” said Maguire, whose clients include "Mad Men" actress Jessica Paré. “Everything else is just a modification of these basic shapes. You can have a classic mermaid shape, but a million different fabrics and lengths and textures. You can have a train bustle or a slit up the side. There are endless possibilities of how you can portray it and that’s the number one thing: to keep the look fresh. And nobody on the planet looks good in only one silhouette."
The princess silhouette is fitted at top and flares out at bottom. The empire is defined by a waistline just below the bust. The mermaid is fitted to the knees, from which it flares out dramatically. The ball gown has a fitted bodice and voluminous skirt. The waistline of the "Basque waistline" angles down in a V. The ballerina's voluminous skirt falls to the mid-calf. A sheath dress hugs the body tightly from the bust down and is sometimes known as a "column."
Maguire considers all seven styles, then decides which cut will most flatter her client.
“With Jessica, she’s very curvy, very itty bitty, and fit and trim with a little waist,” Maguire said. “She’s got a wonderful figure to work with. When I dressed her for the (2011) Emmys, we knew we were going to do something floor-length, but we also wanted to show off her curves and highlight what’s best for her. We were like, ‘OK, she’s going to be photographed with Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss,’ so we wanted her to look incredible. We decided to take this opportunity to showcase her.”
From among several dresses that Maguire recommended, Paré picked a strapless sequin-and-feather column with a sexy sweetheart neckline that showed off her every curve.
Whatever Floats Your Boatneck
One look that’s top-notch on almost any woman is the shoulder-to-shoulder boatneck neckline, says celebrity stylist Bernard Jacobs, president of Katy Duds, an image and fashion consulting firm in West Hollywood, California.
“A boatneck opens a woman up to show just a little bit of cleavage,” said Jacobs, who works closely with Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Toni Braxton and "The Young and the Restless" star Melanie Thomas Scott. “It’s a great fit for everybody," he said, "especially a woman who has broad shoulders, because you can kind of pull it down to one side. And if you have a long neck, it nicely shows off that feature as well.”
For Scott, Jacobs generally sticks with the same silhouette: a simple but sophisticated v-neck wrap dress in a stretch jersey material.
“I know what works for her, so I just do variations on color and fabrics,” Jacobs said. “Wrap dresses with long sleeves by Diane von Furstenberg or Roberto Cavalli look really great on her. For me, it's all about color and fit.”
Fins
The mermaid shape was spotted many times on the red carpet during early 2012. Schools of A-list starlets — "Modern Family" star Sofia Vergara and Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon among them — were seen decked out in gowns with glamorous fishtail bottoms.
“I like drama to the bottom of any kind of gown,” Jacobs said. “On Reese Witherspoon, it looks absolutely great. It fits her to a 't,' tapering to the body gently, and you get that volume at the bottom with the big fishy tail going around the back, which makes her look even taller.”
But not every starlet, no matter how drop-dead gorgeous she may be, is fit for the sleek fishy style.
“It’s a shape that looks best on curvier women,” said Grasie Mercedes, Los Angeles-based fashion and style contributor to HelloGiggles.com and editor of Stylemegrasie.com. “You need to have that Jessica Rabbit-type body to pull it off. If you’re too big and wide, it can be really overwhelming, but on the opposite end, if you’re skinny and don’t have womanly curves, it falls flat. On certain people, like Diane Lane, who wore the look at this year’s Golden Globes, it looks amazing.”
- Photo Credit Jason Merritt/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images Getty Images
