Excited to bring you another Plain to Polished post today!  In this series we break down style by looking at plain outfits and talking about SIMPLE ways to make them polished. Today’s focus is on fit. If you’re wondering, “How do I look better in clothes?” fit is one of the most important things to pay attention to!

In my online style membership, the PMT Style Club, we talk about how important fit is and then take the time to walk through how different garments should fit because it truly makes or breaks your outfits!

Fit is so, so, so important for making your outfits look good.  Stacy and Clinton from What Not to Wear used to say all the time, “If you don’t have fit, you don’t have style.”  The way items fit you can totally change how an outfit looks, causing you to go from plain or frumpy to polished and put together, just by choosing things that fit better.

And before thoughts like, “But…I don’t know which clothes flatter my body shape!” get the better of you, put those aside.  We’re not even there yet.  I’m not referring to knowing which silhouettes and cuts fit your body shape, though that’s extremely important, too.  (And if you want that, search it on Pinterest or consider joining the PMT Style Club, where I walk you through and coach you on dressing your body shape and sooooo much more!)  I’m talking about one step before that–how those clothes we each deem as “great for your body shape” actually FIT.

It’s not going to be as helpful to know which clothes flatter your body type if you buy ones that don’t fit you well.  For example, you can determine that bootcut jeans are best for your body shape, but if you buy bootcut jeans that don’t fit well, your outfit will still be missing the mark.  So back up a step, and let’s first talk about fit and how it affects your outfits.

How Fit Makes You Look Better In Clothes – Example 1:

This outfit is a blouse with bootcut jeans.  The blouse actually fits me well, but it kind of does not appear so here because the jeans–they SORT OF fit.  In fact, I used to love these jeans once upon a time.  I got compliments in them ALL THE TIME!  But, after doing FASTer Way to Fat Loss, these jeans aren’t working well for me anymore.  And while they were once compliment-magnets for me, they have now become my “what not to wear” example purely because they no longer fit me well.

I tried to use a front-tuck to define my waist, but with jeans that only sort of fit, this outfit looks OKAY at best.  It’s not the worst ever, but it’s not an outfit that would cause me to do a double-take in a GOOD way and think, “Oh, I wish I could dress like that person!”  You know what I mean?

So, let’s trade the jeans for something better:

BAM!  What a difference!  This pair of jeans fits me much better and transforms the overall look from “just okay” to polished and put together.  Just by wearing better fitting jeans!  Here’s a side-by-side look:

Isn’t it amazing what better-fitting clothing can do?  Magical!

It isn’t so much the cut or style of denim that made the difference, it’s how they fit. Meaning, it isn’t about whether or not skinny jeans or bootcut jeans are most flattering on my body.  Like I said earlier, you can determine that bootcut jeans work best for your body, but if you buy bootcut jeans that don’t fit well, your outfit will still not quite work.  In both of these examples I’m using bootcut jeans, and one is a little sloppier, or okay at best, while the other is more polished. The difference is primarily due to how the jeans fit me.  One just fits way, way better!

How Fit Makes You Look Better In Clothes – Example 2:

Here’s another example.

In this first outfit, I’m trying wide leg pants. They technically “fit” in the sense that I can get them on my body without an issue. However, if you drill down the nuances of various fit points and get picky, you can make even bigger transformations to look better in clothes!

These pants are fighting with my hips, and I don’t feel great in them. I feel kinda frumpy, honestly. If I didn’t know any better or didn’t have a lot of experience with how better-fitting clothes look on me, I would have settled on this pair simply because I could get them on my body. But I would also be thinking, “My hips are so wide, and I just don’t look good in wide leg pants.”

Instead, I have adopted a mindset that if clothes don’t look good on your body, the problem is not you, the problem is the clothes. So instead of blaming my hips for being the problem and completely writing off wide leg pants or settling for a pair I don’t feel great in, I blame the clothes and say, “This pair of pants is not right for me. I’m gonna move on and look for something better…”

…to something like this:

This second pair of pants is similar to the first, but there are nuanced differences in a handful of fit points. I’ll detail them below.

So often, we settle for clothing that fits “okay.”  Don’t do it!  Do a little more work to find clothes that fit you well.  I get it, shopping is tiring.  But, friends, it is not worth it to settle!  Do the work of finding clothes that fit properly because you will look — and FEEL — soooo much better in your clothes.  I’d rather you have a few pieces in your closet that fit you well and make you feel fantastic than a billion pieces that don’t fit well and make you feel blah.

So, what can you do about it?

1. Try multiple sizes. Sometimes you might try a size down, which might seem CRAZY because you’ve never tried that size before. Or you might try a size up, which might feel like a blow to your ego. Remember, the number on the tag is just a number. And really, it’s just a reference point. All brands vary in sizes a little, and even within brands the sizing varies. So, don’t give much weight to the number or letter, and just find the size that looks best on you.

2. Take items to the tailor to get them to fit you. I walk my members through taking items to the tailor in the PMT Style Club, and it has been an enormous game-changer for students!

3. Ask a friend for feedback on sizing. Sometimes you just need a second opinion!

4. Join the PMT Style Club. I have to throw this in there because we work SO MUCH with women on nailing their fit points. Sometimes you can’t see these nuances on your own, or you don’t even know what nuances to look for. That’s where we help! You get access to trained stylists to help you identify exactly what’s not working and what fit points will improve it. Plus all of the other in-depth style resources that will help you figure out your personal style and save time shopping and putting together outfits! Click here to learn more about the PMT Style Club and see everything you get as a member!

See more Plain to Polished posts HERE.

 

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