The Space Between My Peers: Fashion Lab: Belt Placement

The Space Between My Peers

From the bottom of the fashion food chain ...

Name:
Location: The Great Northwest

I'm a home-schooling, bible-believing SAHM with an annual clothing budget of about $500 American. The Space Between My Peers reveals my secret passion: analysis of the art and science of what to wear.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Fashion Lab: Belt Placement

Why did it just not work when one friend took her belt off the other night and put it on another friend in the same, low-slung position?

I think the key is somewhere in balancing the lengths. Here, from last December, is where I explained how to do length-balancing with pants. If you really want to examine the topic, this post, from last May, links to most of what I've written on the topic.





In these pictures of me, though, I think there are some other things going on:

  • Scale: In general, the details (straps and so-forth) worn on the upper body should relate to the scale of the facial features. Details on the lower body relate to apparent body size. Aside from the fact that the color isn't great, do you like the wide belt on me at all? (Here's another picture of me in the same belt. I'm afraid I've shown myself to be a fashion victim.)
  • Silhouette: My natural shape is Type 8. In both the examples where the belt is worn at the waist, the shape has somehow been transformed into more of an I.
  • Frumpiness: Just what accounts for the frumpiness of the belt-at-waist looks? I've said once before,

    Length balancing is the key to dodging the frump factor: 50/50 is boring.

    From the top of the turtleneck to the belt worn at the hip is 2 1/2 "units", from the bottom of the turtleneck to the hem of the pants is 4. What's in between, especially with the smaller belt, is accent and can be subtracted from the total. For the belt at the waist looks to work, the top would have to be tucked in.

I think ...

5 Comments:

Blogger Rebecca said...

Welcome to the blog, Marina! Those are about the best shoes EVER: Pucci sandals with cut-out wedges. Of course, in my idiom they would never work, being backless and green & blue.

Hey, somebody buy Marina's shoes!

4:15 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Rebecca, sometimes blogger eats my comments!

I do like the wide belt at your waist. I expect I would like it even more there with a pencil skirt that hits just below the knee. Or with a narrower pant. Or with a longer sweater and skinny jeans ...

12:53 PM  
Blogger Rebecca said...

Wendy, I understand about blogger and comments. Thanks for persisting!

I agree about the wide one at the waist; I am actually warming up to all of them except the wide at the hip.

Obviously, you are more the embellishment expert than I. I'm so glad you weighed in on this question!

1:34 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Aw, Rebecca, that was such a nice thing to say.

I think the wide belt at the hip doesn't work because there isn't enough sweater below it. If you find a sweater dress that's long enough, you might experiment with monochromatic tights and a wide belt?

I found that a wide belt at the hip works with a baby doll top I have. I'm not altogether sure why, except that it accentuates the fact that there is a shape beneath the top.

5:01 AM  
Blogger Rebecca said...

I actually ran across a cute sweater dress at the thrift sotre yesterday, but with my figure type ... I'm just not sure. I suppose with the magic knickers it would be fine; I'm just too lazy to wear them all the time. (Usually I wear silk "knickers". :)

So I left it there. I wonder how long it will be before I want a sweater dress enough that I don't have that hesitation. I sat out the sweater dress thing in the 80s, but I had one in high school that I just loved: it was just below the knee and had a knit-in waist.

8:38 AM  

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