Broad shoulders, toned arms and legs, and a nice athletic build – the inverted triangle body shape is a figure that has its many charms! If you have this body shape, you may also have a bust line that ranges from small to big in size.
While you have distinct features that surely stand out, there are also a few others that may need a little bit more boost for you to achieve a more balanced silhouette. Inverted triangle body shapes tend to have very little to almost no waist definition at all, no thanks to the small hips you have that are way narrower in comparison to your broad shoulders.
So whether you’d like to fully flaunt your upper body prominence or soften out your edges, you have to be careful with your style choices to make sure you are showing the best out of your inverted triangle body shape. In order to achieve this, you have to know what fashion mistakes you have to avoid at all costs.
Shoulder Pads
You already have broad and notable shoulders that grab instant attention so there’s absolutely no need to amplify their appearance further, right? The thing with your prominent shoulders is that they can be borderline overwhelming when not styled right, so wearing clothing pieces with shoulder pads will only take over your figure and drown out your other features.
Wearing tops, dresses, or jackets with shoulder pads will significantly add width and visual weight to your upper body. As a result, you will look extremely top-heavy and your less prominent lower body will completely fade out of your silhouette.
So go ahead and ditch your shoulder pads because your beautiful shoulder line no longer needs them! Instead, go for wardrobe pieces that feature neat and structured seams to give you that sophisticated, tailored fit.
Wide Necklines
This shares the same principle as the first fashion mistake with shoulder pads that we previously discussed. Wide necklines will make your shoulders look broader than they already are, which makes them more overwhelming for your figure.
This is because wide necklines draw a straight horizontal line that goes from one shoulder point to another, creating the illusion of width and broadness. Because of the fact that your shoulders are the broadest part of your figure, intensifying this, even more, will draw too much attention and make your undefined waist and narrow hips look even more obvious.
If you really want your broad shoulders to stand out, there are other types of necklines that can do that without making this distinct feature of yours look too overpowering. Go for V-necklines or scoop necklines as they can provide more balance to your look and even allow better exposure for your gorgeous decolletage!
Tops with Dramatic Ruffles
Ruffles are definitely pretty and dainty, so it’s quite common to see them in many different kinds of clothing. However, if you are looking into downplaying the relatively larger appearance of your upper body, tops with dramatic flounces of fabric should be first on your list of fashion mistakes to avoid.
Fabric flounces or ruffles, no matter what their scale is, can add a significant amount of volume to the area where they are placed. Inverted triangle figures have strong upper body features like your broad and sharp-looking shoulders, so wearing tops with ruffled sleeves or ruffled bust line detailing can only emphasize the fact that you are top-heavy.
It’s much wiser to keep the details on your upper body minimal and simple in order to bring even attention throughout your frame. You can still go for ruffles, of course, but have them strategically placed where you need more volume, such as your hips.
Boxy Tops
Your inverted triangle silhouette features sharpness around the edges of your broad shoulders, which makes boxy tops hang more loosely from shoulder to hem. These types of boxy tops will follow the width of your shoulders so there’s no opportunity to show the curves of your bust and define your waistline.
Boxy tops may seem very comfortable, but they aren’t visually helpful if you are looking into bringing shape to your figure. Their shapeless nature will only drown out your undefined waistline even more and therefore make you look more top-heavy.
The ambiguous appearance of your waist will need some extra help to make it look more curved and defined. So when choosing tops, look for those that feature seams, darts, or other details that cinch the waist to make your upper and lower body look more balanced and defined.
Double Breasted Jackets
To subtly blur out the stark size and width contrast of your upper and lower body, you need to avoid clothing pieces that add too many noticeable details on the upper portion of your body. One example of this is double-breasted jackets, as they feature large buttons that serve as the main point of this wardrobe piece.
Double-breasted jackets have two large buttons placed side to side right at the center of the jacket, which draws the eyes to your larger upper body even more. These button placements draw a horizontal line that visually widens out your frame and therefore completely overwhelms your undefined waist, narrow hips, and even your slim legs.
A nice outerwear alternative would be single-breasted jackets as they are way more efficient in keeping the proper balance of your proportions with their ability to bring symmetry to your ensemble. Basically, jackets that feature a more streamlined, vertical silhouette can be an ideal choice rather than double-breasted structures.
Puff Sleeves
The dainty and very feminine vibe of puff sleeves can be quite hard to resist, especially because they have somehow secured a consistent spot in hot fashion trends in recent years! But then, just like what we have discussed earlier in this article, the last thing you will ever want for your broad shoulders is additional bulk or volume so sadly, puff sleeves are also something you have to avoid.
Puff sleeves add volume to your shoulders and make them even broader than they actually are. This visual effect will add more weight to your upper body and therefore amplify your top-heavy figure.
It’s much better to keep your sleeves plain and streamlined for a more put-together look. However, if you want to add some dainty details to your sleeves, you can go for a nice touch of ruffle (such as bell sleeves) or intricate detailing right at the cuff of your sleeves so the volume it will create falls down on the lower part of your frame.
Voluminous Sleeves
Wearing tops and dresses with voluminous sleeves pretty much shares the same concept as puff sleeves, though they can be a lot more overpowering. Balloon sleeves or extreme ruffle detailing all over the entire sleeve length can tremendously overpower your whole figure.
These types of sleeves not only add volume to your upper half but also to your bust line and midsection area as well. This unnecessary amount of bulk can blur out your natural curves and make your undefined waistline look even more shapeless.
The bottom line is, just be extra careful with where you add volume into your ensembles. Incorporating a nice amount of volume into the areas where it lacks, such as your narrow hips, can be helpful for inverted triangle body shapes.
Thin Straps
Thin straps such as spaghetti straps in tops don’t really go with the goal of toning down the prominence of your broad shoulders because what they do is enhance its width even more. As the broadness of your shoulders gets even more extended, your inverted triangle silhouette grows more unbalanced and disproportionate.
The nature of thin straps provide enough support to the garment but also have very little coverage, which allows your entire shoulder line to be very noticeable. The eyes will naturally get drawn to this area, hence leaving your less pronounced lower body underwhelmed and unnoticed.
If you are not a fan of fully-covered sleeves and prefer the comfort of going sleeveless with your style options, then you can still flaunt your figure with superior comfort by simply going for thicker straps. Choose ones that are thick enough to cause a vertical break on the shoulders to subtly subdue its edginess and broadness.
Tops with Horizontal Prints or Patterns
Horizontal prints and patterns create the illusion of width so wearing tops with these patterns can only accentuate the broadness of your upper body even more. Just like the visual effect of wide necklines, the wideness they create on the upper portion of your body can affect the balance of your entire body figure.
Tops that have obvious horizontal details will intensify the harsh size discrepancy between your upper body and lower body. This is something that you always have to be careful with, as your inverted triangle body shape naturally has these unbalanced proportions.
A better style alternative for horizontal prints and patterns is vertical lines or subtle details that don’t draw too much attention. The goal is to break the horizontal line that broadens your top and naturally subdue its prominence so that the scale of your lower body can catch up.
Fitted Racerback Tops
This may not look too visually disrupting at the front, but its wide cut at the back can also contribute to the emphasis of your broad shoulders. This can even be more unflattering if your racerback top is too tight or clingy.
This leaves very little opportunity to cinch your waist so the subtle transition between your waist and hips may be blurred out even more. Additionally, due to its effect that widens the shoulder line, it can also result in a disproportionate frame.
Skinny Jeans
Bottoms that are too tight, such as skinny jeans, can instantly accentuate the obvious contrast between your larger upper body and your smaller lower body. As skinny jeans don’t offer a boost of volume or width, they conform to the natural shape of your narrow hips and slim legs.
The effect of skinny jeans visually slims down your lower body even further, which is an unflattering way to showcase your figure’s best assets. In order to give your inverted triangle shape more depth and dimension, you need your lower body to catch up on the broadness of your upper half.
You can do this simply by going for structures that add more width, such as wide-leg, flared, straight-cut, or bootcut jeans. You don’t really have to overdo it by going for too much volume on your lower body, just as long as the flow of your visual line is more consistent from top to bottom, you can look more pleasingly balanced.
Cropped Jackets
The short length of cropped jackets visually creates a heavier visual weight on your upper body. This is because jackets are usually bulky by nature and they tend to grab more attention compared to other clothing pieces.
If your jacket hangs loosely and the hem hits just right at the waist or midriff, this can further emphasize the absence of definition around your waist. This will have the eyes too focused on your upper body and therefore completely blur out the prominence of your lower body.
Outerwear in longer lengths is highly recommended for inverted triangle shapes because of how they evenly distribute attention from top to bottom. Preferably, jackets that hit at hip length or go slightly past the hips will bring you a more flattering visual ratio.
