Today’s culture is fascinated with tricks to lose weight fast. Celebrity diets, from Beyonce’s master cleanse to Jennifer Anniston’s baby food regime, claim to shed pounds quickly and healthily, but more often than not, regular people end up feeling unsatisfied — both in their hunger levels and body measurements.
However, there is one tried-and-true way you can look thinner by dinner: dress right. Figure-flattering clothes aren’t hard to find, but you do need to know what to look for. Here are our six best tricks to dressing yourself skinny.
1. Don’t Skimp on Undergarments
Even though you won’t see them when you complete your outfit, your undergarments are undeniably the most important elements of your wardrobe. Like a structure’s foundation must be appropriate for the building that will go on top — a skyscraper’s foundation will have a different configuration than a one-story home — you must consciously construct your undergarments to suit your outfit for the day. You should visit a boutique lingerie shop to learn your true measurements and be fitted with bras and panties that won’t create ugly lines beneath your clothes. Here are the essential undergarments and their purposes:
- Boy shorts. With the right fabric, boy shorts can hide panty-lines in tight-fitting pants and skirts as well as thongs while providing full coverage and ample comfort.
- Briefs. Though they’ve recently taken the unflattering nickname “granny panties,” briefs are incredibly comfortable in high-waisted pants.
- Hipsters. These are what you likely imagine when thinking of underwear; they are suitable for any low-rise pants, but lines may show through thinner fabrics.
- Bikinis. Bikini bottoms offer little coverage, which means they work under nearly any garment.
- Thongs. Lacking butt coverage, the thong rarely creates any unattractive lines underneath tight clothes, which makes it perfect for form-fitting dresses, skirts, and pants.
Shapewear is another fundamental undergarment tool, as there are plenty of low-cost elastic bodysuit options that instantly firm up and slim trouble areas. However, you should avoid wearing shapewear at all times, as the constriction can be bad for your circulation. Instead, reserve shapewear for special occasions.
2. Experiment With Small Prints
Big, bold patterns may be eye-catching, but after they draw onlookers’ eyes to your clothes, they make your body look big and bold, as well. If big prints make you look bigger, the opposite must be true as well. Small, tight prints, like delicate florals or soft geometrics, tend to create the allusion of a daintier body. Fortunately, tight patterns have been fashionable for some time, and it seems that many women’s clothing designers are keen on keeping them around, so you should have plenty of opportunity to experiment with clothing with small prints.
3. Think Monochrome
The more you can do to create a streamlined silhouette, the more pounds your outfit will help you lose. Blocking your body into different segments with tops and bottoms of different hues draws attention to a chunkier frame. Instead, head-to-toe monochrome, especially in neutral tones like black, white, and gray, makes you look long and lean.
If you simply cannot tolerate a colorless ensemble, you should consider adding bright accents with accessories: handbags, shoes, bracelets, scarves, earrings, and more. You can also experiment going monochrome with non-neutral colors, but this may be too daring for style novices.
4. Avoid Creating Lumps and Bulges
The biggest fashion faux-pas for any figure is a bumpy silhouette. The body should have smooth curves and flat lines, not lumps and bulges. Most often, unsightly bumps appear due to ill-fitting clothing, which means even slender bodies can become lumpy with the wrong pieces. You should avoid low-rise jeans and tight-fitting crop-tops for the best results.
5. Cover Up Arms
It seems that every woman except First Lady Michelle Obama has some issue with the look of her arms. No matter how many close-grip pushups and overhead extensions you do, you are likely self-conscious about some loose skin that wiggles around your triceps. If you sympathize, you should avoid short sleeves and cap sleeves, which can accentuate trouble areas around the arms. Long sleeves, especially those that end mid-forearm, are incredibly flattering, as are billowing sleeves that don’t hug the arms tight.
6. Wear Heels
Longer legs make the body look leaner overall, so you should strive to grow your stems with a pair of killer heels. If you are striving for the monochrome style, you should look for shoes in black or nude (or the color of your chosen outfit). However, no matter what, you should avoid heels with ankle straps; the strap cuts your leg short and can create a bulge that feels as uncomfortable as it looks.
