The Reasonably Prudent Law Student

All right, guys, back to the daily grind. Or something like it. See, I’ll be in the upper peninsula of Michigan for most of today, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, visiting my BFF Amanda. But the posts will keep coming because of a wonderful thing called automatic/scheduled posting. Yay, WordPress! Yay, Hootsuite!

Anyway, so, pretend-back-to-the-grind. We’ve discussed several ways to dress 10 lbs slimmer: boot cut jeans, lengthening looks, structured clothes, and now we’re on to accentuating the waist. We’ve looked at the first three looks in terms of outfits in regular sizes, petite sizes, plus sizes, and those appropriate for Muslim women. And this one is going to be no different.

Today’s outfit is for regular sizes, and looks at how to show off that fabulous waist. There are lots of ways to achieve this, the most obvious of which is belts. If you’re belting anything, make sure the belt sits at the narrowest part of your waist. ALSO: If you are petite, go with a skinny belt and not a wide one. If you are taller and fuller, go with a wider statement belt, by all means.

You can also achieve this by banded clothing, or clothing that is strategically color blocked to draw attention to the narrowest part of your waist. Also, you can play around with the length of your clothing and let that do the work for you in terms of showing off that trim waist. Wrap dresses are also great because their drape and structure cause the seams to often converge at the waist in a very flattering, slimming way.

I hope I’m not confusing anyone. Let me make it even simpler: let’s think of a celebrity influence to help us visualize the look we want. Conjure up images of Scarlet Johanson or Jessica Simpson when she’s actually dressed by a stylist and not left to her own insane devices. THAT is what we’re going for.

Check out what Scarlett’s doing here. She’s got the brightly colored top and the black bottom, which I’ve talked about before in my Plus Sized Professional posts. Doing this is a great way to emphasize your top half if you’re bottom heavy, and slim down those hips and that waist. That’s exactly what this outfit accomplishes, plus that ribbon functions much like a belt and really nips her in at the waist, creating a beautiful hourglass silhouette.

In related news, I just discovered that my waist is 4″ smaller than Scarlett’s and 1″ larger than Megan Fox’s. I don’t know why this matters. It shouldn’t. But considering I just had to google “Scarlett Johanson waist,” yeah, that explains it.

In other related news, I have always loved all of her Mango ads. Pretty pictures of a pretty girl in pretty clothes. They don’t really make me want to buy the clothes, but I appreciate the campaign and the pictures and the designs.

So, today, regular sizes, yes? Tomorrow, petite, Sunday is our Plus Sized Pro day, and Monday will be our Modern Muslimah day, inshaAllah. Oh, that will be challenging, as we’re not technically supposed to show off our waists. So it’ll be kind of hard to come up with something that fulfills both objectives. Oh, well, whatever, that’s FUTURE Hoomster’s problem. Let that psychopath deal with it. Puh. Hate that chick.

Here’s what Present Hoomster threw together:

Tulip Wrap Tunic ………. $39.99
Grey Trousers ………. $15
LifeStride Sharona Pump in Red Shiny ………. $34.37
Metallic Bead Knot Necklace in Purple ………. $5.80

Let’s talk about this, in order to come to a better understanding of our own tortured souls.

Or, you know, because that’s just my format: Lead in, crazy, extraneous picture, transition, outfit picture, outfit links, explanation, crazy, ‘there we have it.’

OH NO MY TRADE SECRETS I GAVE THEM AWAY.

:-|

Anyway.

I picked this printed wrap top. Wrap dresses are so predictable, right? Especially for me, since it’s been established that I love them? So I went with a wrap tunic top. It pulls in at the waist and it has a little sash-tie thing going on, and I just love how it creates that narrow, pinched in waist that will create a great hourglass shape.

I paired it with grey trousers because that felt best with the red and purple tones (even though you can match it with black, too, obviously), and you guys know how much I like purple and wine-colored shoes. These are technically red, but they’re a rich, dark red, not a tacky bright red. And they’re adorable. Plus, they’ve got a stacked heel, so they’re not too sexy or too uncomfortable for running around the office.

And, because the wrap top creates a nice pocket of space at your neck, I picked a nice necklace in purple. I purposely chose something long and dangly to draw the eye down to the ground (not necessarily down to your sweater puppies), because, as we discussed in the earlier 5 Ways section, long, dangly necklaces also help lengthen to give you a long, lean look.

I’ve got more wrap tops than I can count, just because I love them, but I usually wear coordinating tank tops underneath them just to make sure the sweater puppies stay in the kennel, otherwise both Mama Hoomster and the LawSkoolBFF would be scandalized. Neither one of them likes to be reminded that I’m a girl. It’s just easier that way.

:-P

HAH. I stopped knowing what I was talking about like 8 sentences ago.

Anyway, there we have it, a pretty waist-cinching look to help you look 10 lbs slimmer!