Spring Florals

Posted by Jalisa on May 02, 2014 under Casual

Why hello!

It's beginning to look a lot like...spring! YES! Finally. After an intense and long winter, spring is finally showing herself, although a bit flirty. One day the sun is shining bright, the next it's chilly, cloudy, and rainy, but at least it's not snowing! I wore this look yesterday while enjoying the beautiful day with my hubster, at our favorite spot, a nice, quite, and tranquil park we discovered this past fall. It's so gorgeous there in the fall; we can't wait to see how the trees and flowers bloom this month. We spent much of the day there, eating lunch and just relaxing, a very rare occurrence if I may add. We're both extremely busy, but we've been making it a habit to stop the thinking and planning at least once a week and enjoy the beautiful and splendid creation that's found outdoors, regardless of the season, and it's rather therapeutic.

The look I was going for was more of a relaxed boho feel, since it was beautiful out and I wanted to somehow reflect that in my outfit. I purchased this dress from Marshall's a few weeks ago for around 12 bucks and it's so comfy. The only thing is that it's a bit short and when I walk it rides up a little, so I added a natural waist belt to help prevent it from going up and it ended up looking great with the overall look.

I want to mention that now that we're seeing a lot of florals and spring patterns, you do want to keep your overall shape in mind when selecting where to place the pattern and how to style it to pull it off successfully. If you want to wear a floral printed dress, like the one I'm wearing here, if you're an apple shape, try to avoid larger florals around your bust and stomach area. If the florals are all the same size throughout the dress, then go for something similar to the one I'm wearing here, since it'll give a slimming effect to the upper body. To add some visual "weight" to your otherwise thinner legs, wear combat boots or chunkier heels to prevent from appearing too skinny in your leg area.

If you're a pear shape, you can either select a dress that has larger florals in the bust area and smaller on the bottom, or one that offers small florals throughout the entire dress, which again, provides for a slimming effect. Since you have the tendency to have narrow shoulders and a smaller bust, go for a dress that has sleeves that hit 2-3 inches below your shoulder. Since the pattern is the same throughout the dress, the eye will create a visual widening effect where the sleeves are across your chest to the other arm, making you appear wider ;)

If you're either an hourglass or rectangular shape, either larger or smaller patterns will work great, just make sure you belt the dress around the waist line, especially if you're rectangular, because with this shape, if you wear a complete patterned look, you could appear as just one whole body piece (does that make sense?), instead of having an upper and lower half. Which brings me to my next point, height.

If you're petite, these kind of dresses are great for you because they, as previously mentioned, make you appear as one long being. If you're a rectangular shape AND are petite, I would still suggest belting, you just need to put more thought into your belt placement. If you have a short torso, then place the belt where your belly button is, to add some visual length to this area. If you have a long torso, place the belt right under your rib cage, where your natural waistline is, to help shorten it a bit. If you have shorter legs, then don't wear boots like the one's I'm wearing here, because it'll only cut off more visual inches. Instead, go for pumps or even oxfords (for a similar feel to what I'm wearing), which hit around the ankle.