How to choose a Wedding Dress for your Figure

Let’s face it, we come in all different shapes and sizes – everyone is different. Irrespective of your figure you can still choose a dress that either highlights or accentuates certain points whilst downplaying other points.

Choosing a Wedding dress can be an exciting time but at the same time for some, it’s a time where a great deal of stress and anxiety can be experienced. Especially when we considered that the ideal dress style we fantasied about or desired doesn’t quite fit, or the dress style didn’t suit as imagined or even worse - that the recent weight gained over the last few months is now showing. Is your gym membership up-to-date?

Tips and Tricks for choosing a Wedding Dress

We hope to share some tips on how to choose that perfect wedding dress based on your body figure, based on your tallness and curvatures. Let us know if you have other tips to share as we would love to hear your ideas.

Pear or Triangular Shaped Body

A pear shaped, or triangular shaped body means your shoulders will be thinner than your hips. If you fit into this category, then there is plenty of options and tips that you can consider:

The Do’s:

•    You want to enhance your neckline and hide your hips.
•    A deep or v-necklines and strapless tops work extremely well. This will flatter your shoulders and accentuate your bust.
•    A sweetheart neckline helps to highlight your neckline.
•    If you can, consider having cinched waists and diagonally draped bodices to help draw the attention away from your hips.
•    Also, an A-line skirt that has a strong flare is a good trick to help add volume by decreasing the perceived size of your hips

The Don’ts:

•    You would want to avoid high neck styles that obscures your neckline and full skirts which make your hips look wider.
•    Additionally, pleating and mermaid silhouettes are not suitable because they make your hips look larger and draw the attention to your bottom.

An Example:

A good example of a dress to use for a pear shaped or triangular body shape is illustrated below:

(click for more photos)

Apple Shaped Body:

If you fit in to the category of an apple-shaped body, then you’re in luck as we do have some tips to share. An apple-shaped body means you are full in the waist, yet your arms and legs are perceived to be thin.

The Do’s:

•    Having a deep V-necklines create a vertical line that detracts attention away from the widest part of your waist.
•    If you can try to choose a high waistline dress as it will flow into the skirt helping to provide an elongated figure. This helps disguise the apple-shaped figure.
•    Also, flared skirts that styles into an A-shape figure will shift away the weight at your waist.

The Don’ts:

•    You want to avoid any trumpet style dress as it will accentuate the widest part of your body. This creates a visual feeling of disproportion or unbalanced look – something you would want to avoid.

An Example:

A good example of a dress to use for an apple body shape is illustrated below:

(click for more photos)

Hourglass Shaped Body:

If you have an hourglass shaped body, then this basically means you have a rectangular shaped body or to explain more simply – you have the same width hips and shoulders with a more pronounced waist.

The Do’s:

•    Dresses with a low-cut neckline will expose more of your neckline and is appropriate for the hourglass body shape.
•    Try to find a low drop waist dress or a dress with gathered ruffles / pleats as this will accentuate your curves and show off your figure.
•    In addition, mermaid style or trumpet style skirt dresses work well on hourglass figures by providing a more pleasing figure to the eye.

The Don’ts:

•    Avoid empire and ball gowns style dresses as this disproportion your figure.
•    Try to avoid straight cut or tubular dresses as they tend to accentuate the rectangular body shape and too loose for your waist.    
•    Any gathers or pleats in the skirt surrounding your hips can look disproportionate unless it is as covered above – you have a low drop waist dress.

An Example:

A good example of a dress to use for an hourglass body shape is illustrated below:

(click for more photos)

Slim or Petite Shaped Body:

If you have a slim or petite shaped body, then we have some tips to help you show off your figure.

The Do’s:

•    Look for dresses that fit your height as this helps by not making your legs appear too short.
•    Try to choose trumpet, sheath, column or narrow A-line style dresses as this is best suited for your figure

The Don’ts:

•    Avoid highly decorated embellishments and drop waists and calf-length (skirts that come to half way of your knees) styles as they will make your legs look shorter.
•    Try to avoid ballgowns or mermaid style dresses as they tend to overwhelm or overpower your body figure.

An Example:

A good example of a dress to use for a slim or petite body shape is illustrated below:

 (click for more photos)

For those who are Taller

Let’s face it, those in this category may either be subconscious of our giant status or proud of the extra height that high-heeled shoes isn’t required. Some tips to consider are:

The Do’s:

•    Consider choosing sheath or mermaid style dresses.
•    Strapless dresses that draws the attention to your neckline and shoulders are ideal.
•    Depending your arm, body and leg lengths you need to focus on ensuring the sleeves and skirts are at the right lengths to complement your body proportions.

The Don’ts:

•    Considering your height, you definitely want to avoid empire style dresses as this will tend to further accentuate and emphasis your height.

An Example:

A good example of a dress to use for those who are taller is illustrated below:

(click for more photos)

If you’re Plus-Sized

For those who fit in this category we’ve some tips for you.

The Do’s:

•    Try to pick an empire style dress. If you can – choose a dress that gives a flowing effect over your body to provide more definition to your waist and help flatten your curves.

The Don’ts:

•    Avoid pleating and stripes (depending on the style) as that will visually create more weight to your perceived figure.
•    Also avoid all ballgown or oversized dresses that do not fit well. Once again, this will visually create more weight to your perceived figure.

An Example:

A good example of a dress to use for plus-sized body shape is illustrated below:

(click for more photos)

If you’re Busty (have large Bust)

For those with large bust we suggest you consider:

The Do’s:

•    Try to find a curved neckline such as a scooped neckline as this will help draw the attention to the neckline, collarbone and your face. This helps make your bust appear to be well supported and well proportioned to your dress style.

The Don’ts

•    Avoid strapless dresses or square necklines as this will tend to make you appear heavier at the top.
•    Also depending on the dress fabric, those dresses with shinny or sheen appearance, as well as those containing pleats or ruffles can make the bust appear heavier.

An Example:

A good example of a dress to use for those who is busty is illustrated below:

(click for more photos)

If you’re Cuvier

It’s probably likely that you fit one of the body shapes above with an addition that you are curvier. Some tips if you are curvier is:

The Do’s:

•    Try to balance out your narrow hips with extra bustle (extra fabric or padding) to balance out the narrow hips.
•    Alternatively, find dress with a tightly fitting around the waist with a skirt that falls loosely over your hips, thighs and calves to compliment the curviness of your figure.

An Example:

A good example of a dress to use for curvy body shape is illustrated below:

(click for more photos)


At Kennela Fashion we custom-make all dresses to order and offer many dresses to suit all figures. Our mission is to "share your most cherished moments through beautiful dresses". Visit our online-store at: https://kennela.fashion