Fashion Sense

"How to Dress and Flatter Your Inverted Triangle Body Shape.
Let's Create More Curves!"

The best Inverted Triangle Body Shape fashion advice and styling do-it-yourself styling techniques. You'll find everything you need to know about bringing out the best in your slightly athletic body shape, from how to flatter your wide shoulders to creating more curves around the hips and thighs to create a proportional silhouette.

So What Does it Mean to Have an Inverted Triangle Body Shape?

It means your shoulders and bust part are wider than your hips.

Your probably have strong shoulders and narrow hips.

An "Athletic" Body Shape

You're known for having an athletic-looking body shape! Your frame is quite common among catwalk models. And often your type of shape comes with nice, lean legs :)

Celebrities known to have an inverted triangle body shape: Reneé Zellweger, Naomi Campbell, Teri Hatcher, Demi Moore

How to Dress Your Inverted Triangle Body Shape

Your main goal when putting on clothes should be to add volume and width around your hips. This creates a balanced, hourglass shape.

However your wide shoulders are definitely a great body asset, so don't be afraid to show them off! More on that further down this page.

Let's take a closer look at how you can create a flattering look on your shape!

· Add volume and width around your hips and down. I seriously don't like the fluff Naomi Campbell has put on her upper body (it's such a hideous layering), but you might want to take a look at her jeans. Those flared pants will help balance out your shape.

Other bottoms suited for your body shape: Flare pants, wide leg jeans, A-line skirts.

Tip: Are you a petite size? Then make sure you wear something tailored and fitted on top with flare/wide leg pants. The flare/wide leg + layering combo Naomi Campbell's wearing suit taller women best.
Proud of your beautiful shoulders and want to create a trademark? Then accentuate them!

However avoid overdoing it as it can make you look stick-figured. Balance the look.

· If you look at Teri Hatcher (the woman on your right left), you can see how she pulls it off. She emphasizes her upper part with white, but at the same time she draws attention to her breasts (maybe her best feature?) and the center of her chest. Her dress also has a subtle flare at the hemline. She also adds self-confidence into the mix :)

Best Clothes for Your Inverted Triangle Body Shape

· Your narrow hips and legs are primed for all kinds of pants! Examples are gauchos, harem pants, cargo pockets etc.

· However if you're wearing skinnys or anything that is slim-fitted, make sure you wear something that minimizes your upper part a little bit (like a solid, dark colored sweater) on top and a pair of bright colored (or anything eye-catching) shoes to balance the look.

Full and flaring skirts. Such as A-lines skirt, circle, balloon, etc. anything that flares around the hemline and create more curves around your hips.

Long tops, shirts and sweaters that nip at your waistline or flare out from your waist or bust. Examples are tunics and belted cardigans. It creates curves around your waist and down.

Tip: Petite or/and full-figured? -- Then take extra precautions when wearing long tops/sweaters/jackets as they can make you look shorter and add width around your hips. However, you can try wearing a regular length top (falls right above your hips) with a dark colored belt around the waist.

Belted coats. Choose coats with minimal designs at top and that flair out from the waist.

Bright-colored or eye-catching shoes. These are sure to grab attention to your lean legs.

Low U and V-necks. These will vertically slim down your chest and make it look leaner.

Dresses that are fuller at hemline/cinch your waist/flares out from your waist as they'll add more volume on the bottom, balancing your body shape.

Large straps. Have in mind that if you attempt to wear thin straps then you'll automatically broaden your shoulders by making your shoulders look bigger in comparison. So if you want to achieve a proportional body shape choose larger straps.

Imagine an hourglass shape. Now in your head try to merge your inverted triangle figure with that shape. See the lack of width and flesh around your lower half compared to your shoulders? That's your main focus -- adding more volume and attention to your hips and thighs to stay in proportion with your lower body part, or of course, minimizing your shoulder to keep them in line with your hips.

© Copyright, 2011 Main Street Magazine/Rain Enterprises

As seen in the January Issue of Main Street Magazine.

Printed in Canada, ISSN: 1920-4299 by Rain Enterprises

To find out how to receive your free copy of MSM check out

www.mainstreetmagazine.net

Ancient Mystic

Yemaya, Goddess of the Ocean and the New Year

They call her the goddess Yemaya,

Ymoga (Mother of the Fishes), Iamanga, and Balianne. She traveled with them from Yoruba to distant lands, comforting them in the holds of the slave ships that took them f

ar away from their homeland in Africa. Today she is also celebrated under many other names, including the virg

in Mary (Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception), Stella Maris (Star of the Sea), and Our Lady of Regla...to name but a few.

Originally Yemaya was a river goddess of the Yoruba in Nigeria, far from the ocean. She was a nature spirit, an orisha, a powerful guardian spirit that reflects an important aspect of the God of the Ife religion. An orisha manifests itself as a force of nature. When her people were hoarded onto the slave ships, Yemaya went with them, thus becoming

the Goddess of the Ocean.

Actually Yemaya shares responsibility for the ocean with another orisha. Okolun rules the dark and turbulent

depths of the ocean. Her domain is the upper level, the part of the sea that the light strikes, where water evaporates to be carried to land by her daughter Oya (the wind) to make rain for the crops. Yemaya's gentle waves rock the watery cradle of the abundant life forms of the sea.

Yemaya is a mother goddess, the goddess of home, fertility, love and family. Like water she represents both change and constancy--bringing forth life, protecting it, and changing it as is necessary.

In the creation myths of the Yoruba, the creator Olodumare first created a mortal god-human, Obatala, and gave him a wife. Their children were Yemaya and Aganyu, who had a son together. They named him Orungan. As a teenager Orungan rebelled against his father and brutally raped his mother.

When he tried to rape Yemaya a second time, the river goddess fled to a nearby mountaintop

where she cursed her son until he died. In sorrow she chose to end her own life on the summit of the mountain. As she died she gave birth to fourteen powerful orisha. When her waters broke it caused the great flood that inundated the world and created the seven seas. Obafulom and Lyaa, the first human male and female and the ancestors of all humans, arose from the bones of the goddess. According to legend, Yemaya is the mother of all life.

According to legend, Yemaya's first gift to humans was a sea shell in which her voice could always be heard. To this day we honor Yemaya when we hold a shell to our ear in order to hear her voice, the ocean.

Olokun, the orisha of the bottom of the sea where the light does not shine, inspires respect and fear, for the powers of destruction that can be unleashed from the ocean depths are vast.

In The Secrets of the Sea, Gloria Rolanda tells of a time that Okolun, feeling unappreciated, decided to punish mankind:

At his orders, immense waves began to invade the land...the ocean swelled up, darkened, infinite, and people who lived furthest from the coast saw, terrified, a horizon of water mountains running towards them.

Fortunately Yemaya was able to calm the fury of Okolun just in time, and the wave settled gently into the shore, leaving mounds of coral and pearls when the water receded.

Olukun demands respect for his ominous power that is unbounded, but it is Yemaya that is associated with creation and with life itself. When each of their dual aspects, (such as male and female, power and compassion) is held in proper balance, these two orisha unite to offer enormous gifts and unlimited energy.

Often depicted as a mermaid, or simply a beautiful woman standing amidst the waves, Yemaya is a goddess of comfort and inspiration. When it comes to caring for others, her impulses are sincere and comforting. And she has a love for children that is unequalled.

Yemaya reminds us that ev

en the worst catastrophes can be endured and that, with her help, we can learn to negotiate the ebbs and flows of change in our lives with her wisdom, courage, and

grace.

© Copyright, 2011 Main Street Magazine/Rain Enterprises

As seen in the January Issue of Main Street Magazine.

Printed in Canada, ISSN: 1920-4299 by Rain Enterprises

To find out how to receive your free copy of MSM check out www.mainstreetmagazine.net