Session 1- Body Shape

Today I will cover body shapes, work out mine and share which styles of clothes are said to suit me. My source of information comes from Trinny and Susannah's Body Shape Bible. This was loaned to me by a friend so it came free and easy. If you want to find out your own (too much info to put in my blog), library's carry this book plus others. Also there's heaps of info on the internet so just SISE (stick in search engine) and voila! Or Viola! as my son says.

Before I begin, I thought it best I mention a bit about diet and exercise. Apparently cheese, wine and chocolate does not cover all your food groups. Adding Jatz would still fail to do it.

To make a drawer run smoothly over it's tracks you can rub it with a bar of soap or a candle. It is the fat content that reduces friction. Sadly this handy trick does not work on bodies. The fat content of my thigh does not help ease my way into a pair of jeans. Sigh. So as I work through covering other things, I will be looking at what I eat and what exercise I do (walking the dogs for 15 mins so they evacuate their bowel is possibly too little exercise). That way, when I am ready to get the right new clothes, I can put them on without popping a button and taking someones eye out.

So body shapes. T & S name 12 (which seems conveniently neat) and it's a great book if you want to see women made over in their shapes. The Shapes are:COLUMN, LOLLIPOP, CORNET(CONE), GOBLET, BRICK, APPLE, VASE, HOURGLASS, CELLO, SKITTLE, PEAR, BELL. (I notice FATTY BOOMBAH, THE BLOB and VENUS OF WILLENDORF are not in the classifications, so that's nice.)

All these names of course are a loose description of a body shape. Looking at the general descriptions I find I am a VASE which is described as Big boobs, Gently curving longer waist, Hips equal boobs, slim thighs and legs. That all sounds pretty good doesn't it? Now, if I were 17 again it would be good and everything would be sitting in the right spot. But of course gravity, children and poor care have taken it's toll. Never the less, I have the basic shape sorted, albeit the shape is a little wobbly, as though drawn by a three year old.

In a nutshell, sharp, tight tailoring is my best look apparently. There's a lot of info on what to wear but as it only helps me I'll name but a few. Straight leg jeans (also called boot-cut), tailored jackets that fasten with one button under the boobs, scoop and square necked tops, high waisted pencil shirts ending just below knee, rounded jewellery and accessories.

This book gives pics of celebs in your shape getting it right and wrong. It also shows you what to avoid with a 12 foot pole. Some of these things are in my wardrobe!

In my opinion T & S write good style books though I don't like some of the things they put their 'victims' in. As a general reference though for shape this is a good book. Now that I know the shape and the style that would look best on me, I am going to work out my colours- stay tuned!