1. Black Side Panels
When ‘The Miracle Dress’ designed by Stella McCartney started making red carpet appearances, it was a fashion sensation. Women began asking where they could buy this dress to get these dramatic body slimming effects. Now the bi-color, side panel styling that go so much attention has been adapted in a variety of ways and is now available at all price points.
The best way to style a dress with side panels is to wear minimal jewelry. The side panel is the dramatic focal point of the outfit; you only need to add earrings and great shoes to make a beautiful style statement. In the example above with Kris Jenner, you can see how adding a necklace was too much. Her necklace created a distraction compared to the other women wearing the same style.
Hourglass and Pear: This style detail further enhances your naturally curvy waist. For hourglass shapes, you can easily wear a tapered skirt. However for pear shapes, the ideal skirt proportion is one that does not taper tightly to the hemline. This will make your hips appear larger and take your body out of balance.
Rectangle and Inverted Triangle: The side panel will carve out curves and beautifully flatter your body.
Here are a few variations of black side panel dresses inspired from the Miracle Dress…
2. Tonal Color
The look of one head to toe tonal color is elegant and elongates your body to make you appear taller and slimmer. It’s the reason we see so many women showing up on red carpets with tonal style.
For evening or dressy events, a tonal pantsuit can easily replace a dress with its elegant, chic style. The best color for a more formal look is shades of white. Even though many women shy away from white in fear of appearing larger, it actually has the opposite effect! With impeccable fit and tailoring, a white suit can give you instant head to toe slimming with savvy sophistication.
Another slimming technique is to wear your pant length to cover your shoes. It elongates the leg line, making your legs look slimmer and giving your overall body more length. It’s a simple slimming style strategy used by celebrities.
You’ll notice how all of these women use this simple Slim Style Strategy! Most of them are 5’6” and under but appear much taller in photographs!
Here is an example of how using tonal color can be slimming or add weight when executed poorly…
Halle Berry, who rarely makes fashion missteps, missed in this one!
Her contrast color top draws attention directly to her middle. This color blocking appears to chop her body in half, making her appear shorter and wider. The shiny fabric adds even more width. When taking photographs, the flash from the camera brightens the shiny fabric and expands the light color even more!
In contrast, Jennifer Aniston’s outfit follows all the right Slim Style Strategies! She kept her colors tonal in all pieces. Her plunging neckline combined with long necklaces lengthens her body, making her appear taller than her 5’5” frame, and slimmer.
Aside from wearing black or white, a colorful tonal look can make a more bold style statement.
Red leads the way as a dramatic color choice to make an entrance!
Tonal shades of brown give the classic look an updated and modern approach.
Tonal shades of blue look fresh and brighten any day.
Adding gold to shades of white adds even more sophistication!
