Dear ladies and especially dear gentlemen: we have been often talking about how to get dressed for ladies according to body shapes. For men, we mostly spoke about the choice of suits. But this is it: Gentlemen of the 21st are not constantly wearing suits, and also have different body shapes. Let’s discover all their options!
We will see first how to pick clothes according to your body shape, and then the colours to choose according to your face.
There are 5 main body shapes
Rectangle
Your whole upper body is straight, shoulders and hips of same width, torso quite flat. The most common body shape.
Triangle
Falling shoulders narrower than the hips, with a little excess of weight on the belly. This is the “dad style”
Trapeze
Trapeze: large shoulders with a well-developed chest. Your waist and hips are narrower but not disproportionately. This healthy figure is the most desirable for men.
Ovale
With an overweight on the body, the belly is wider than shoulders and hips. The whole body, especially face and stomach, is round. Easy to recognize.
Inverted Triangle
Shoulders and chest is disproportionally larger than the waist and hips, with big muscles. This shape is quite rare, this is the athletic build.
How to choose your clothes?
Just like for women we would choose clothes in order to let them achieve the hour glass body shape, here we will target to get the trapeze one.
You are a rectangle shape
Objective: broader shoulders and a slimmer waist.
Best choices: Blazers, suits having thick shoulders pads will help to broaden your shoulders.
Roll-neck sweaters, large collar shirts, horizontal stripes on the upper torso will have the same effect. Dark colour jeans will give slimmer legs, enlarging shoulders by contrasts.
To Avoid: Large sportwear clothes, you would disappear and add to much on your waist.
Same for double breasted jackets and trousers worn above waist line.
You are a rectangle shape
Objective: emphasize upper body and shoulders.
Best choices: suits is the best option ! Larger shoulders, the jacket will close on your belly, making it smaller, enlarging your chest. Suits have been made because most of men have this body type.
If you’re not a suit guy, you may wear items attracting attention to your shoulders, such as sweaters with patterns, stripes on the upper part etc. Scarves are a good option.
To avoid: As long as you have a larger belly you can’t afford fit cut, polo shirst, roll-neck sweaters etc.
You are Triangle
Objectives: you have the best shape, thus can afford a lot of options
Best choice: Polo shirts, or shirts if folded in trousers, will emphasize your slim waist and wide shoulders. It’s a very dynamic and young look.
Vertical stripes if you want to look even taller, horizontal for a stronger feature. All type of clothes will look good: suits, casual, sportwear etc. Don’t be shy!
To avoid: Anything loose and baggy, which will give a fat impression.
You are ovale
Your Goal: a slimmer silhouette, stretched out.
Best choice: vertical stripes, pinstripes are your ally to lengthen your body. Black is a great choice no matter what you wear, it has a strong slimmering effect.
Just as for triangle, suits will help to open your chest and narrow the impression of your belly. Loose sport wear is also an option for casual moments; it would cover your large shapes.
To Avoid: Belts, you don’t want your belly to hang over them, skin-tights clothes, light colours, horizontal strips. No T-shirt, no polo, no shorts (your belly will look even bigger).
You are inverted triangle
You are like the Trapeze, but with extreme features. Most of the clothes will also look great on you and there is not much item that will make you disgraceful.
The problem will be that with less than 5% of men have your shape, it will be challenging for you to find your size in ready-to-wear. You must consider going to a tailor.
How to choose your colours?
This is simple: the contrast on your clothes should be the same as the contrast on your face.
How to choose your colours?
Face with a strong contrast
Your hair is dark, your skin is fair: you have strong facial contrasts.
Here you need to find clothes having the same contrast intensity. Like a black suit with white shirt.
Face with a medium contrast
Here you can play with different intensity of the same colours.
The choice on the right suits Leonardo better, dark blue on light blue enlighten his face, whilst it disappear on the left.
对比度较低的脸
Lower contrast on the face
Your hair and skin is dark, or both are light? You should wear similar colours.
