The apple shaped women have generous curves and slender legs but often carry extra weight in the tummy area. When it comes to choosing the right coats, understanding your body features is key. This detailed guide will help you understand your strengths and weaknesses, thus take you to find the ideal coats for your shape.
MAIN CONSIDERATION
- Broad and rounded shoulders. They are quite noticeable due to the fact that they are significantly wider compared to the rest of your body.
- Full and more pronounced bust line. Your breasts tend to be on the bigger side and they are very nicely shaped as well, which makes it one of your apple figure’s best features.
- Straight and undefined waist. Your waist lacks a distinct curvature which makes your midsection shapeless with no definition.
- Heavy midsection that’s prone to belly bulge. You tend to carry an excess amount of weight in your tummy area so you most likely have a muffin top.
- Narrow and shapeless hips. They are of almost the same width and size as your midsection, with no distinguishable curve to define their transition.
- Slim and well-toned legs. You have beautiful, slim legs which makes them also one of your figure’s best features.
Coats tend to be quite bulky in general, but with the right design and detail, you’ll surely be able to find one that suits your Apple figure. Let’s dive into the things you need to look for when choosing a coat!
FIT
Coats are generally bigger than your actual frame so it can be quite tricky to find the appropriate fit. Try to remember that the goal in finding the right coat for your apple figure is to go for seams, details, and silhouettes that bring out your best features such as your broad shoulders, full bust, and slim legs.
On the other hand, you should also go for structures that can deal with your lack of definition. So, it’s ideal to find coats that are fitted at the waist, as well as those that gently flare out to amp up the narrowness of your hips.
SILHOUETTE
A-Line
A-Line coats possess all the very important features that an apple body shape needs in order to look more balanced overall. A-Line coats are structured to have a gentle flare that embraces the upper body and adds the right amount of volume to the less prominent lower half of your body.
Such a silhouette mimics the shape of an hourglass figure, which visually balances out the size and width difference between your upper half and lower half. They also typically cinch at the waist to enhance the shape of your midsection by nipping it into a slight curve.
As the subtle flare creates more room for the body, A-Line coats can also be very helpful in camouflaging the midsection without overwhelming your other features.
Wrap
What’s incredibly flattering about wrap coats is their self-tie belt that you can fully adjust according to your desired waist cinch and level of comfort. This ability to give the waist a snug cinch helps create the illusion of an hourglass shape by defining the balance between your upper and lower body.
Additionally, most wrap coats feature a V-neckline due to how the coat overlaps. As you know, V-shaped necklines work efficiently in drawing the eyes up and down to create a sense of verticality and symmetry in your apple frame.
This structure also helps camouflage your bulky midsection without adding too much volume to your figure.
Peplum
Peplum coats do an exceptional job of flattering apple-shaped women due to their fitted waistline and flared peplum detail that instantly gives the illusion of an hourglass silhouette. The very distinct design of peplum coats makes you look like you have a smaller and more defined waist, while the overskirt/peplum flare adds just the right volume to give more depth to your hips.
This overskirt attachment is also very beneficial in terms of subtly concealing the midsection to make your belly bulge unnoticeable. This immediately balances out your proportions by making it seem like you have a pleasingly symmetrical upper and lower body.
Straight
This can be a good choice if you’re looking for a coat that’s simple and streamlined, without too many details to overwhelm your apple body shape. Because of its simplicity, it’s more versatile and easier to pull off with pretty much any ensemble.
This coat doesn’t necessarily cinch the waist because of its straight-cut structure, but it can be helpful in a way that it doesn’t draw too much attention to the midsection, where a tummy bulge is most likely present. It has a relaxed fit that can help camouflage your problem areas while still making your best features stand out.
Princess Seam
Princess seam coats feature a nicely contoured shape brought by the strategic vertical seams that flawlessly run from the shoulder line to the hem. This creates a well-polished look as it naturally accentuates your prominent shoulders and bust line while also giving your waist some definition.
Moreover, princess seams also elongate your frame to give you a taller and leaner appearance. Neutralizing your top-heavy appearance is also something princess seam coats can do to make your torso more proportionate to your lower body, particularly your narrow hips.
FABRIC
Structured fabrics will always be a winner when it comes to coats, especially if you’re dealing with an apple-shaped body. It’s because structured fabrics are slightly firmer, and therefore can hold their shape well and create a more balanced silhouette.
Gabardine
This is a common fabric material for coats and this tightly-woven fabric is one of the best options for apple body shapes. With its slightly stiff nature, coats made from gabardine can maintain the shape of the coat’s silhouette while still easily conforming to your body with the help of certain coat details such as a belt.
Wool Blend
If you’re looking for something thicker and warmer, this is another structured fabric option. Although slightly heavier, wool blend coats can also efficiently bring balance to your apple-shaped figure by holding onto its shape and therefore easily work around the natural imbalance of your figure.
Tweed
There are several types of tweed fabric and there are lighter and heavier variants. Either way, its structure is also quite advantageous for apple shapes due to its ability to conform to your shape without looking too boxy or tight.
DESIGN
Belts
Belts can be tremendously important when it comes to choosing coats that will easily bring you instant waist definition. Since your apple-shaped body lacks waist definition, the snug hold of a belt can help indent the sides of your waist to create an hourglass-like figure.
The visual balance it creates effectively gives your frame a more defined waist-to-hip ratio. The flare that the belt cinch creates also adds a bit of volume to your hips to make it seem symmetrical to your broad shoulders.
Single Row Buttons
Buttons can be a very stylish addition to almost any garment, but did you also know that how they are placed can also greatly influence your visual balance? Buttons that are placed neatly in a vertical pattern will draw the eyes up and down to give your frame a more balanced silhouette.
It’s also helpful in causing a distraction so that the eyes won’t even notice your heavier midsection or tummy bulge as the gaze will be fixated on the buttons.
Vertical Prints
Just like the effect of single-row buttons placed vertically on coats, vertical prints such as stripes can also slim your frame down in order to bring better balance to your overall figure. Since you lean towards a top-heavy figure, coats that have vertical prints can help slim your upper body down to match your lower body.
Depending on the scale of vertical prints, you can elongate and slim down your figure without overwhelming your body’s best features such as your shoulders and bust.
STYLES TO AVOID
Knowing what coat styles to avoid can be a little bit tricky due to the fact that a lot of coats are pretty much bulky. However, there are certain common factors that you may want to watch out for so you don’t make that fashion faux pas of unflattering your Apple figure.
Oversized and Boxy
Streamlined and straight cuts are okay, but when you go overboard with them by choosing boxy, oversized ones, you will end up making your body look even more shapeless. They may be trendy, as you may have already seen how oversized coats have been gracing the runways lately – but they’re not very apple figure-friendly.
It’s understandable that you’d like to make room to conceal the appearance of your heavier midsection or belly bulge. However, coats with oversized and boxy silhouettes will only emphasize the heaviness of your upper body and therefore completely overpower your less prominent hips and legs.
Double Breasted
Remember how button placements can highly influence your visual balance? This is what I mean! Double-breasted coats do not really sit very well on apple-shaped bodies because its wide and two horizontal rows of buttons will just emphasize your top-heavy figure.
Instead of toning down the appearance of your heavier and more prominent upper half, double-breasted coats can add significant weight to your upper body and therefore completely put your less prominent hips and slim legs out of the spotlight. As the bulky buttons are placed at the center of the coat, they can also highlight your heavier midsection more.
This additional bulk will obviously drown your figure and therefore be significantly less defined. This will disrupt your visual balance and make you look more disproportionate from head to toe.
Crop Puffer Coats
The hem of crop coats usually hit just right above the hips and this can be extremely flattering when you have narrow and undefined hips. It will draw attention to your undefined waistline as well so crop puffer coats will only emphasize the straightness of your figure.
To add to its problematic length, the puffy nature of crop puffer coats will add an unnecessary amount of volume to your upper body which can make you look heavier. This imbalance will visibly come to light even more because the size discrepancy between the top and bottom regions of your body will grow much further.
Peacoat
There are a number of reasons why Apple figures should stay away from peacoats and three of the major ones are its double-breasted design, boxy silhouette, and hip-length cut. Since you already have a prominent upper body, most particularly your bust size, double-breasted jackets will only add unnecessary volume to your upper body.
Peacoats tend to look quite shapeless and oversized so it can be very disadvantageous for apple shapes struggling with uneven body proportions. Because of its voluminous silhouette, it will only emphasize how your upper body is way larger than your lower body.
Coats with Epaulets
Basically, epaulets are shoulder details featuring a strap that is secured in a loop by a button, similar to the style of military uniforms. One example of coats with epaulets is trench coats.
They can be an interesting addition to your coat. However, since apple body shapes already have very prominent broad shoulders, adding details to your shoulders may overpower the rest of your other features, most particularly your less prominent lower body.
