silhouette advice
Hello people,
I’m currently still in a experimental phase with my style where I’m going through my inspiration, slowly buying things and putting outfits together and it’s going well, I’m loving some outfits I have put together and some not so much
However, one thing that I have been struggling with is identifying the shape/silhouette of my inspo outfits for example I would look at an outfit like this, take it for face value like ‘ oh he’s wearing chinos, boots and a denim jacket ‘ but I also like the shape of the pants and how the jacket is cut then be bummed out I don’t have those exact pieces or in these exact colours
One thing I’ve been trying to do is identify the shape of the outfit but struggle to know if something is straight, wide, tapered etc so rather than saying I don’t have these exact pants, I can go and look for something with similar requirements and not be so focused on the colour and such
Sorry if this doesn’t make sense or just sounds like yapping but if anyone has helpful advice on how to better identify the silhouette of an outfit that would be greatly appreciated 😅
20 Replies
Hi @elijah! For better answers, include:
- Reference pictures
- Budget in numbers
- Specific measurements
- Openness to buying secondhand and/or online
- Location: country/continent is fine
- Timing/urgency
this is a relatable struggle to me but I am kinda unsure what specifically you're asking here. silhouettes have enough component parts that go into them that it's hard to like prescribe ways to think about them other than just kinda like "this is what the shape looks like".
if you're looking for some specific words to know about pants in particular, the things that control the silhouette most strongly (in my eyes anyway) are the shape of the leg (usually described by words like straight, tapered, slim, flared, wide, baggy, balloon, twisted), and also the measurement of the leg opening itself is pretty important. there's also the rise too which affects the proportions of the outfit which may or may not count as silhouette
to use the pic you provided as an example, those pants look to be either straight or maybe even slightly flared (hard to tell) with a leg opening that's like 8" or higher, it ends up with that kinda big straight pant look.
the other element that makes this stuff complicated is that pose can dictate a lot about how clothes look in the pic. like in this pic the pants have some pretty distinctive curves to them but I'm pretty sure that's like entirely because he's crossing his feet in front of eachother
bootcut pant, cropped jacket.
for pants, leg opening or hem is going to be a good clue to what the silhouette looks like, like Joan said.
For tops, theyre usually considered Cropped if they end at or above the belt.
Ig my question is what exactly are you struggling with? Just the terms or when to apply them or?
my most fundamental advice tho is to look at people wearing clothes. #inspiration is a great mix of styles and aesthetic and will give you a ton of silhouettes to examine. Collect your favorites, use your phones image editor to make them greyscale, and look at the shapes only
looking at colors/patterns/textures over shapes is something I have struggled with in the past and still do tbh, and really the way to look at them more is just to force yourself to not let yourself ignore them. if you lock in, you'll pick up the knowledge over time as you just hunt for the words to descride the things you're seeing
yeah sorry sometimes I struggle to put my thoughts into words lol, but that's exactly what I was asking about and I think you both just gave some valuable information and things to look at in terms of identifying these things, like looking at leg opening or the shape of the leg or even where the jacket length is ending and ig to answer your question carrion it was more of the terms aswell
so I can look at inspo in more of an intentional way rather than just going they're wearing chinos or jeans
if that makes sense
it does! It's tough to know what u dont know lmao. It'll come with time and intentionally looking at this shit tho
I'm in a similar boat. Silhouette is a bit more abstract and tough to define than more obvious characteristics (color, etc.) . I think because it's driven by the shape of the garment, but also inherently depends on the shape of the person a bit more (leg vs torso height, body weight, etc). Started paying attention to clothes about a year ago and I feel like I'm "just" starting to readily recognize this concept (and still can't really apply it worth a damn)
I actually think store websites that have decent photos are good for basic learning. E.g. go to Levi's or some other brand that sells the same thing in a million different cuts. Scroll through the pictures and compare. It's not perfect since most people aren't model-shaped, but helped my understanding improve
sorry but youre really really wrong about it depending on the shape of the person. If youre only wearing slim fit shit, sure yeah, but body shape isnt a factor in understanding silhouette as much as youre positioning.
Willy Chavarria is a good example of this even on the runway. Not all of his models are model shaped either. The cut of the garments is what matters.
Runway is a good way to build your understanding of silhouette in general because of how exaggerated it can get. If youre only looking at fintech dudes wearing ocbds and chinos for inspo then yeah stagnation is gonna happen.
I certainly don't think it dictates it, but are you saying there is no impact at all? I dont necessarily mean skinny vs fat, but even if a garment is sized as best it can be for a given individuals, it certainly seems to me that things like shoulder breadth, torso vs leg length can interact with the clothing to influence the silhouette? If truly no....maybe I'm STILL not understanding what you all mean by silhouette...
torso vs leg length is highly modified by garments over the body they’re on so yea i think theres a bit to go
aspects like rise and length modify your perception of those ratios
yeah it would be inaccurate to say the affect is literally 0 but on a practical level the effects can be modified by the rest of the fit so completely that while the effect is not literally none it is effectively none. i think most people in here can attest to the fact that it's very easy to be self critical about how clothes fit on you and your body to an amount of detail so incredibly far past what anyone else is looking at you with and that's usually where this discrepancy comes from.
and in particular where the mentality goes too far is when people create rules on what kinds of garments and styles can be worn based on a person's body shape and traits.
idk if this will help a lot but take these two cases, with the black jacket we see longer length so we see roughly equivalent length in the top block and bottom block, and the straight cut of the jacket lines up close with the pants giving a rectangular frame.
compare that with the teal jacket where we see a cropped length showing us a lot more leg, and the boxier cut gives a lot of room in the shoulders and the body adding a lot of weight in the top block compared to the straight fit of the bottom block
anyone can wear either of those jackets
Which is why overcoats are fun
To clarify what Steve is saying I think, wearing straight-er pants and a wide cropped bomber would certainly look different than on a built man hired by Willy than someone with a wider body frame
I'm not actually sure we are disagreeing on anything here....I certainly didn't say body shape dictates what anyone is allowed to wear. Just that silhouette is a more complicated concept than something like color because of how it inherently depends on how the clothes interact with the body they're on.
I fully agree anyone can wear either of those fits, but wouldn't the silhouette on the right appear more exaggerated if everything was identical but it was a model with proportionately longer legs? Not in a "he can't wear that" sense, but just in a very literal "A and B are not the same" sense? Fully agree there are ways this can be balanced out by other factors, but that was kind of my point....that silhouette is a bit more advanced of a concept and takes some time to grasp.
i think in rare cases (like going super slim as carrion said), body shape should be taken into account when looking at inspo or runway stuff before you take it home to your wardrobe.
i think in the majority of cases, replication of what is happening with a silhouette is something that can pretty generally be reproduced. maybe not to a T, but ideas like a cropped top to let the bottom block appear longer is a tactic that can be generalized. i do not think anyone is at risk of chasing ghosts because that model’s legs are just sooo disproportionately long, if that makes sense. it happens sure, different people look different, tall people look tall, but the things happening in the silhouette can still be absorbed and used within someone’s own wardrobe.
i dont think we are necessarily disagreeing on anything either. we were just expanding on your wording that could be misinterpreted or misleading to someone with less familiarity (especially considering this isnt your thread at the end of the day, we are making points clear to OP more than arguing with you)
talk of ‘dressing for your body’ which dominates so much of online fashion discourse is very nuanced, can be actively harmful, and most of the time just isnt as big of a factor as people may intuitively make it out to be. so when stuff is said that might point in that direction (even if unintentional), i feel its worth expanding on how marginal of an influence it is on a fit’s validity
Gotcha and fair enough. I had assumed your response was a continuation of carrion's response (which very clearly did say this was wrong!). I honestly don't read much in the way of online fashion discourse and hadn't really seen a lot of the "dress for your body" stuff so hadn't really considered that...