Closet Smarts: Flatter Your Figure with the Clothes You Already Have

Closet Smarts: Flatter Your Figure with the Clothes You Already Have by Emily Neill          Paperback Book:   192 pages         

Emily Neill has written a very informative book on finding one’s best personal style of clothing that fits best, looks best, colors that work best, you name it.    She first introduces the reader to about 9 – 11 different body types so you can see which one is closest to your own.   From there the book is divided into two sections – section one from waist to shoulder,  section two from waist to feet.    Neill tells the reader to consider two inverted triangles with points meeting in the middle at your waist as your top and bottom.    She says what everyone wants to do is balance their bodies with the clothes they wear.   She talks about thin women should wear wider straps on their shoulders to draw attention away from their narrow shoulders and to wear lighter fabrics so as not to overwhelm their bodies with too much material making the thin person look like they are lost in their clothes or that the clothes are way too big for them.   For larger people (hello!) she says NEVER wear pleats, and especially don’t wear any kind of darts nor pleats around your belly area.    No biased skirts, either instead she suggests A-line and pencil skirts which smooth over the hips and hide bulges, saddlebags and pooches.  Also voluptuous ladies, while it does every body shape good to draw attention to their decolletage  (chest, neck, shoulders upper back areas) think upper torso here and Emily Neill says to show all you got!   Exposing these bits of skin draws the eye up so those downtown areas you might not be so proud of seem to disappear.    She shares so many fashion tricks that can make you look thin or make you look more filled out.   She shows photo examples of live ladies wearing the fashion dos and don’ts of which she speaks.    It is really helpful to see what she is talking about when she tells the reader where you need a top’s length to come down to how everyone looks good in empire waists.    She talks about hour glass figures and how to bring out the best in them, how to dress if you are overly tall.  She goes from what she calls Skinny Minnies to Amazons with Apples and Pears in between.    She shoes how to use your clothes to round your shoulders or disguise that feature if they are too round.    She shows where you want the length of your dress to hit if you have bony ankles and calves and also on the other end of that spectrum  if you have cankles (due to weight or swelling issues your calves and ankles have no definition you are the same size from your knee to your foot.     She is not a fan of the fashion idea of locking people into their fashion color palette being related to seasons and thinks women should step out into colors they would normallynever wear now and then just to expand their horizons and try something new.   She promises not being afraid to try something new or out of your comfort zone will bring more interest to your look and kill the myth that a woman can only wear a certain color shade and never cross the line into unknown color territory.   She admonishes her readers to “live a little!”   I found the examples of where jackets, shirts, blouses, sweaters should cut across your body helpful.   She talks about how wearing bigger, longer tops is not conducive to looking smaller or if you already are small they do not help you to look more filled out.   She is NOT a fan of caridgans which she thinks are boring nor is she a fan of big bulky sweaters and she loathes turtlenecks.  She shows how different pant cuts can even out a body’s balance and take an outfit from rectangular to perfection.   She recommends wearing heels at all times because the make the legs look tighter and giving height to an outfit always improves it she says.   Even wearing pants with a tiny heel on your shoe or boot improves the look and gives the outfit a dressier classier feel.   So much good fashion sense to be found here.   I highly recommend it to anyone interested in clothes and shoes,  anyone interested in improving their look, anyone who would like to know how to shop for clothing items that will look good on their body.   I highly recommend this to females of any age.   You are never too young nor too old to learn how to dress well.    Really good advice given here delivered in a fun and friendly way as though she were right there in the room with you.    And her biggest recommendation if for all of us to get a floor length mirror so we can really see what we look like from head to toe before we leave the house.   Good book.  

 - Shirley J.