This week, I’m running a series on how to wear separates well. See tip one as well.

Tip: When you wear separates, make sure you create a flattering overall shape, or silhouette.

Here’s what you need to know to create a super-flattering silhouette whenever you wear separates.

Separates can be used to create practically any shape… good, bad or downright odd.

That makes them a little bit trickier to wear than a dress, because any well-designed dress has a flattering silhouette already created for you. So when you put it on, as long as the shape of the dress complements your own shape you look fab.

When you wear separates, you have more control over the shape of your outfit, which also gives you far more scope to go wrong. Wear a skirt that adds a lot of weight to your behind with a top that down-plays your bust and you’re instantly pear-shaped, no matter what your natural shape.

A can’t-go-wrong rule I picked up from Leah Feldon’s book, Does This Make Me Look Fat?: The Definitive Rules for Dressing Thin for Every Height, Size, and Shape is:

“Long with short or tight; Short with long or wide”

She’s talking about relative proportions of a jacket with a skirt or pant that result in you looking slimmer and more svelte. If you wear a long jacket or top, you’ll look best in either a short skirt or slim-cut pants. If your jacket or top is short, a long skirt or a wide-leg pant is the way to go.

Once of my favourite Wardrobe Remixers, boboniaa demonstrates this here:

I check out a lot of her outfits on Flickr, and she really knows how to work on over-sized top!

In both pics, she’s wearing a long, loose outer layer on her top half. On the left, she shows how to work a long top with skinny jeans. On the right, she wears a similarly big, loose top, but this time with shorts.

Notice how she doesn’t look swamped by either outfit, even though she’s wearing a garment that’s ‘too big’ in each of them. The secret is that the svelte bottom half balances the baggy top half, so the overall silhouette is flattering.

The advanced version:
In this pic, Fennelgrl works the opposite proportion well — she’s wearing a loose, long skirt, so she’s kept the top half short, neat and fitted.

This outfit would work well with just the skirt and sweater vest, but she’s added a more advanced twist to it. By layering a shirt beneath the vest, she’s added cute little puffed sleeves to the silhouette.

The little bit of extra volume across her shoulders really pulls the outfit together, making this outfit even more flattering.

Bravo!