How to Wear Clothes That Make You Look Slimmer

By eHow Fashion, Style & Personal Care Editor

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With a little fashion savvy, you can learn to make your clothes work for you in showing off your best features and minimizing the not-so-flattering ones.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

Men's Casual Tops
Men's Shorts
Sundresses
Women's Casual Tops
Women's Shorts

Step1

Choose clothing all in one color to give yourself a long, lean look.

Step2

Wear black. It gives a look that is especially slimming.

Step3

Try to avoid shapeless clothing. No one is fooled, and loose clothes often make you appear wider or heavier.

Step4

Avoid tight clothing that will emphasize your heavy areas.

Step5

Choose softly tailored pieces that define but don't constrain.

Step6

Steer clear of horizontal stripes, which make you appear wider, but consider vertical stripes, which make you look longer and leaner.

Step7

Wear blocks of color that draw the eye away from less-than-perfect areas. Wear a red shell or royal blue jacket, for example, to draw attention away from your legs.

Step8

Wear shoulder pads and wide necklines to balance wide hips.

Step9

Choose pants that have narrow or tapered legs to hide a large midsection. Flat-front pants and side or back zippers will flatter your figure, while pockets, pleats and tight pants will only draw attention to your midsection.

Tips & Warnings

Stand up straight. Good posture always enhances your look.

Comments

Anonymous said

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on 8/30/2006 Who wears shoulder pads these days? Please ladies, do yourself a favor and throw them out, a woman with shoulder pads is exactly that, a woman with shoulder pads, and everyone can see them. They never sit right and the shape shows through the fabric. And unless you are the one sewing them in the garment, steer clear. A woman is not shaped like a box nor are her shoulders and hips supposed to be the same width, we're not robots.

Baggy clothes bring you down, meaning very grounded, and that is not a good look for someone who is overweight or short.

Wear what flatters your best features and forget about the rest, everything will come together once you concentrate on making the good parts look phenomenal.

Also, comfortable fitting pants or jeans with darts in the front, will only make you look big and frumpy. Next time you are shopping for pants, hold them up in front of you, up high so you can get a good look at the shape of them. What you see is what you get, and if it doesn't look like a flattering form (i.e: cone shaped legs, our legs are not cone shaped) don't get them!

Always look at the garment before trying it on, and see if it even has a human form.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 Shoulder pads aren't always the
best thing if the female already has a large frame. When a woman has a large frame, she will also have broad shoulders.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 Choose a longer jacket or blouse, and wear it untucked.
This gives a leaner look, and draws attention away from
the waistline.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 Try holding in your stomach.
It's an excercise in itself, plus it will help you look slimer because it straightens your posture. If you do it often enough, it will become a habit. It works great for women who can't get rid of their small stomachs.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 I was always told to wear black so that it would make me look slimmer. Then I found it wasn't my color - now I accent it with my color next to my face and I don't look so washed out!

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