Before-After Nordstrom Photo Shoot: Kate

Personal stylist Margo Passadore and I took 8 women of various ages, shapes and color harmonies to Nordstrom in downtown Portland for a “Before and After” photo shoot (overview here). Here’s our first client’s story:

About Kate, a vivacious Patrician Winter

Kate’s lifestyle is both sporty (yoga, hiking, etc) and dressy (she’s a professional musician). The Patrician Winter palette is one of the coolest color palettes of the six different Winter types. Some Winters, like Cher or George Clooney, have much warmer skin tones, but what they all have in common is the high contrast between their skin tones and hair, and their ability to pull off strong color, including black and white. Kate is curvaceous— more like a figure 8 than hourglass shape because her hips are relatively high.

Before-After #1

On the left (yoga togs) what doesn’t work:

• Although the blue is close to a color on her palette, it’s a little strong for going to the gym where she may not be wearing the makeup to carry it off.
• The sleeve hems create a visual line across her bust making it seem wider and larger. At least the top has a V-neck to give her face some space
• The shirt is too long, emphasizing the width of her hips and visually shortening her legs.
• Fitted cropped pants also emphasize her hip size
• The black shoes are too heavy-looking and create another line to shorten her legs.

On the right, what works…

• The color of the top is one of her dramatic colors, suitable for a performance
• Boat necks are flattering for everyone except those whose shoulders and bust line are wider than their hips (inverted triangle shape)
• The necklace adds sparkle and drama
• The top ends several inches above her hipline, making her legs look longer, and the sleeves are short enough that they don’t creative a visual line at the hip.
• The straight slacks add length and better proportions. If they’d been fitted all the way down her hips would have looked wider. (If these were her slacks, we’d shorten them so they didn’t buckle at the foot.)

Before-After #2

On the left, what doesn’t work:

• It’s total dorkitude! (Not her fault; we chose the outfit on purpose to make her look bad)
• The shirt is made of a rough gray herringbone pattern (hard to discern in photo) that looks dead on a high-contrast Winter
• Pockets across the bust only help women with small busts.
• The shirt’s boxy shape completely hides her lovely figure; the too-long length makes her tummy seem endless and shortens her legs. The lack of sleeves and the high round neck only emphasize the boxiness.
• The cropped pants are too flowy with the shapeless top, they further shorten her legs, and they end at an unflattering point on her calves.
• The shoes are too heavy and dark. One more horizontal attention-getter to chop her up.

In the middle, what works:

• The blouse is silk, a fabric loved by most Winters (who tend toward sleek elegance) in a simple high contrast pattern (black and her pale skin tone).
• The sleeves have a slight angle to them and are shortened to avoid drawing a line across her chest
• Tucking the blouse into a black and silver belt draws attention to her waist and adds length to her legs
• The straight-legged slacks, as in the top photo, are more flattering and lengthening
• The shoes are a non-distracting neutral off-white, which add lightness in the summer and work with almost everything.

On the far right, two simple things that didn’t work:

• No belt=no waist
• Sleeves were not shortened or angled (alterations are your friend!)

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