April Challenge: hiding your belly

First of all, to my regular followers, apologies for the lack of posting. I hope to make up for it over the next month or so before I go off on my birthday holiday! More of that later, in another post.

I know it's June, however I wanted to show you some of the outfits I wore during April for the Hide Your Belly challenge, which was one of the 40+ Styleclub challenges.

Outfits 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

The above outfits are the ones that I felt worked the best for me, for several reasons.

Starting from the left,with outfit 1: the colours blend in well, so there's not an obvious line, plus the top is patterned and also slightly ruched. Those two factors combined help to hide my tummy.

Outfit 2 has more contrast, however the dark green cardigan and trousers create a column of colour, which draws the eyes down and makes me look taller and slimmer (yay!). The scarf has a similar effect and draws the attention upwards to my portrait area.

Outfit 3 has a long cardigan, which helps to draw the eyes down and avoids anyone looking at the danger zone! If I'd worn a darker top to match the trousers, the slimming effect would have been even greater.

Outfits 4 and 5 are actually going against the "rules" as they have horizontal stripes (or hoops, according to my OH!). Both tops skim the body, so no obvious belly, however horizontal stripes can make you look broader. I think they work though as I am wearing a scarf in outfit 4, which helps to elongate, plus the long pendant in outfit 2 has a similar effect.

Some of the tips that Sylvia gave us were to choose a flattering top, including asymmetrical tops, ones with vertical stripes (no comment!), printed and draped tops.  Layering - in particular using cardigans and jackets - also helps, especially if you create a column of colour. Sylvia suggested adding shape and structure within an outfit, combining wide with more fitted, and the use of accessories to add structure, as well as using scarves to highlight your portrait area.

As you can see, I've followed Sylvia's guidelines in most of these outfits; even when I bent the rules, I think it worked. I'm sure that I'm not the only over 60 woman with a bit of a tummy, so please feel free to share any other tips that you may have.