How to dress your body shape

Wearing your best colours has a massive impact on feeling more confident in your clothes, but so does knowing your personal style, and dressing you, not an idealised magazine image.

Knowing your body shape is a part of your personal style and can help you understand the shape, length and style of clothes that will work best for you. Here at Kettlewell we believe that body shape is just a part of the overall picture (things like your lifestyle and personality all have at least as much impact on your personal style). Knowing the basic architecture of your body can help you pick your very best styles.

So how can you figure it out? Learning your own body shape can be a surprisingly tricky affair, particularly for women, who are led to criticise everything from boobs to bottoms to face shape to calf size(!) from an incredibly young age. It can be almost impossible to remove all of that baggage and look objectively at your own body.

Our simple flow chart will help to get you started (asking a friend to help you figure out the answers can be a huge help, in order to prevent your own body hang-ups influencing your answers!). Once you know your body shape, click on the appropriate button to view more information about your body shape and the best clothing styles for you. Remember, like the colour quiz, this is intended to get you started on your personal style journey - nothing beats a full personal styling session or a style analysis with a consultant.

Body confidence side note: We at Kettlewell believe that every body is beautiful, and we also don't believe that dressing to 'flatter' yourself (ie look smaller) is in any way a requirement. We do believe that everyone deserves to feel their best every single day, so please do read this article and take the information only insofar as it benefits you - if your unique personal style and confidence has you dressing differently to the classic 'this is what is best for your body shape' advice, we're celebrating that right along with you!

Once you've discovered your body shape, click on the links below to discover more about dressing your body shape, and the best Kettlewell styles for you!