Table of Contents
CHARACTERISTICS
You may have a spoon body type if your body have the following traits:
- Your hips are larger than your waist and bust.
- You have a clearly defined waist
- Your shoulders and chest are slightly more narrow than your hips
- You carry some weight in the upper thighs, and possibly upper arms as well.
- Spoon body type is similar to the pear shape. However, the main difference is a spoon body type is described as having a more defined waist than a pear.
The best ways to dress the spoon body type is to balance out your narrower top with your wider bottom. That means you should wear tops that can add volume to your top and expand your narrow shoulders, and in the meantime wear bottoms that can make your hips appear slimmer. If you are self conscious about thick thighs, avoid any bottoms that clings tightly to your legs such as the skinny jeans.
TOPS
Tops with Ruffles
Flatter your naturally curvy hips by playing up the top half of your body with tops that have ruffles . These types of style elements add dimension to the body, the top half in this case, which is great for giving your shape subtle balance.
As your hips are relatively wider and more pronounced compared to your upper body, your upper half would need noticeable details that add volume. Ruffles will help give your upper half a fuller look (specifically your shoulders and bust area) so that it can match and balance out the prominence of your hips.
Off the Shoulder
Staying in theme with bringing more focus of outfits to the top half, because we are balancing the hips, wear pieces that show off your shoulders. There are a ton of different, stylish ways you can do this so you can adapt this style tip in a way that speaks to your personal style.
Off-the-shoulder is one of the best designs that can balance out the bottom-heavy impression of the spoon body shape. The reason is the off-the-shoulder design creates a horizontal line across your shoulders, which is the best way to draw attention to your top and distract away from the curvier bottom.
Exposing your shoulders would take the gaze on your decolletage – a very effective visual trick to neutralize the overall attention of your figure. The horizontal line that this clothing piece makes creates an even visual line that makes your upper half and hips more proportionate.
You can also opt for off-the-shoulder tops with flowy chiffon ruffle fabric overlap to create a sense of movement and therefore draw the eyes away from your broad hips.
Choose Shirts with Full Sleeves
Another great way to emphasize the top half of your body is with full sleeves. This is to achieve the goal of giving more emphasis to your upper body and steering the attention away from your big hips.
Full sleeves may also feature certain interesting details as long as they aren’t too overwhelming. Bell sleeves, eyelet cuffs, or even statement buttons can be very good style additions to your sleeves in order to enhance the appearance of your body’s top half.
Any shirt or dress that has interesting sleeves can be favored with a spoon body shape. While showing off your shoulders and neckline is a great way to dress if you don’t want to show those areas of your body, full sleeves may be more your speed.
V-Neck, Square Neck, and Scoop Neck Tops
Generally, open necklines will always be your quick go-to style option if you have a spoon body shape. Just like the style principle of off-the-shoulder tops, necklines that expose a wider area on your chest line can help bring proper balance to your upper half and hips.
These three types of necklines are the most common and versatile styles that help open up more space on your upper half. It gives you the appearance of broader shoulders and a more prominent bust line while also drawing the eyes up and down to give your shape a sense of balance and verticality.
Structured Tops with Shoulder Pads
You may think that shoulder pads are a thing of the past, but their classic vintage vibe never really goes out of style! In fact, wearing tops that have shoulder pads gives your upper body a nice boost and therefore neutralizes the overwhelming size of your wider hips.
Spoon body shapes typically have narrow shoulders which makes the hips appear even larger than they actually are. Tops with shoulder pads will help extend the width of your shoulders and amp up their shape so that they won’t get overshadowed by the hips.
DRESSES
Wear Strapless Dress
Anything strapless, whether it’s a top or dress, can greatly expand your shoulder width visually, thus balancing out your wider bottom. When you wear a strapless dress, not only it make your shoulders appear wider, but also they draw attention above to your face, thus distracting any attention to your bottom half.
Whether you choose to go for a minimalist strapless design or a piece that features fancy embellishments, you can achieve a more balanced silhouette by having the focus on your decolletage. Strapless dresses are usually made from stretchy fabric that provides comfort and prevents the top from slipping.
Just remember to choose the best fit that provides enough support for your bust area. Nobody wants a horrifying wardrobe mishap!
Wear A-line Dress
A-line is the most flattering silhouette for women with the spoon shape. Your small and defined waistline is your body shape’s biggest strength so it’s quite important to maximize that by cinching your waist.
A-line dresses are very well-known for their structure that focuses on cinching the waist for better definition. This creates a focal point at the waist as an A-Line dress emphasizes this slim area to create a visual illusion of an hourglass body shape.
The A-line-shaped dress is fitted at the top and flares out gradually under the waist, it can camouflage your heavier bottom.
They are also very easy to pull off and can be a very comfortable style choice regardless of the occasion and weather! So if you’re looking for a foolproof clothing choice for your spoon-shaped body, stock your wardrobe up with A-Line dresses!
Wear Empire Waist
If you aren’t familiar, an empire waist is defined as a silhouette that fits close to the chest until right under the bust with the material under that fitting flowier. It’s a silhouette you see a lot of in special occasion dresses. Empire waist silhouettes aren’t just for special occasion wear though, it’s an incredible style choice when you have a spoon body type.
When choosing an empire waist dress to flatter your spoon body shape, try to look for flowy fabrics such as chiffon, silk, or georgette. These types of fabric drape gracefully over your hips which effectively camouflages and tones down your broad hips for better visual balance.
Because of the way the silhouette emphasizes the waist, it highlights your naturally defined waist and skims over your hips gently. If you don’t want to draw a lot of focus to your stomach this silhouette is for you.
Wear Ruching Details
Ruching is another detailing that can be flattering to women with a spoon body type. The reason is the many folds of the ruching design can add volume to your upper body and therefore balance out the heavier bottom half of the spoon shape.
One fun bonus you get with ruffles and rushing is that these details help camouflage your midsection, so if that’s something you want to achieve this is a must-know style tip to follow.
Dresses with Wide Collars
When you think of wide collars, different styles starting from cute to edgy such as lapel, sailor, and babydoll collars come to mind! These styles are not only a great fashion statement but are also very flattering for women with spoon body shapes.
Dresses with wide collars help bring balance to your entire figure by visually widening the shoulder area and making the upper body appear more in line with the lower body. They also draw attention to the neckline and collarbone area resulting in a much-minimized focus on your wide hips.
Flowy Wrap Dress
Wrap dresses will always have that magical charm that instantly brings out your best features and counterbalances your areas of concern. Thanks to its waist tie, this type of dress cinches the waist to make it look more curved and defined.
The adjustability of wrap dresses is advantageous for spoon body shapes as it allows you to create a flattering fit that suits your individual proportions. You can tighten the wrap to perfectly accentuate your waist or loosen it slightly for a more relaxed and comfortable fit.
JACKETS
Wear Jackets with Shoulder Definition
This may seem like an out-of-the-box style tip, but shoulder definition is a great way to create a small touch of volume to the top half of your shape to give your shape an hourglass aesthetic. While looking for blazers and jackets, keep an eye out for options that have either shoulder pads or some other sort of shoulder definition. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be 80’s style shoulder pads just a smidge will do.
Wear Coats with Waist Definition
When it comes to choosing the best coats for the spoon body type, make sure there’s a clear waist definition in any jacket/coat you wear. As mentioned earlier, your narrow and well-defined waist is one of your body shape’s core strengths so you have to emphasize that by going for coats that cinch the waist.
Some coats have belts for you to achieve such definition, while others feature tailored seams that subtly nip the waist in. This will give you the illusion of an hourglass shape wherein your upper and lower half will look more well-balanced.
Even though you have a defined waistline, opting for coats that have added definition to the area of the body will further enhance your shape.
Wear Long Cardigan
When spoon-shaped women choose a cardigan, the length is critical. Never choose a cardigan that ends right at the widest part of your hips or your thighs.
Instead, you can go shorter or longer. The safest length for you is the longer version, i.e. a cardigan that reaches past the widest part of your bottom half.
Alternatively, if you are less self-conscious about your wider hips, you may consider a cropped length that ends before your hip. The caveat is this length does draw more attention to your hips, so you should wear a black bottom to balance it out.
PANTS
Tailor your Pants
It’s not uncommon for women with a spoon body shape to have a difficult time finding pants that fit perfectly off the rack. Many spoon-shaped ladies struggle with the gapped waist when you buy the pants off the rack of department stores.
You will need to get pants tailored to fit your body shape. To make the most of your pants, purchase them to fit your hips and bum, and then get the other areas (likely the waist) tailored as needed. While shopping, keep in mind that pants don’t necessarily have to fit ‘perfectly,’ and can get tailored to suit your shape in the best way possible.
Since your waist, hips, and legs have a significant size difference, you’ll need more room to accommodate your hips but that can also mean that off-the-rack pants may be too big for your waist and legs. In this case, you may want to consider investing in having your pants tailored for them to perfectly fit you.
Avoid Pants with a Lot of Detailing
Pants, often denim jeans, come in a variety of styles with different embellishments and finishes added to them. Because of the placement of these details is at the hip and bum area, they’re typically not the most flattering additions for a woman with a spoon body type. Focus on pants that are minimal in detailing and design, particularly around the widest part of your hips and bum. Flat pockets, no whiskering, etc. are going to be key elements to look out for when selecting pants.
Straight Leg Pants are Ideal
Enhance your body shape with straight leg pants. Wearing pants that are straight in style creates the look of longer, leaner legs which is incredibly flattering for a spoon shape. The best fit for straight leg pants will be straight down from your hips, in turn giving your leg on long line down the bottom half.
The silhouette of pants plays a major role in flattering any body shape. Take your straight leg pants, or any fit for that matter, a step further on the figure flattery train and opt for dark solid colors. These colors flatter, without drawing all of the attention to your bottom half.
Wear Wide Leg Pants
Choose wide-leg pants with enough weight so that they skim over your hips and fall straight down from there. Wide-leg pants are one of the most flattering shapes for women with spoon shape because they can perfectly camouflage your wider hips and thighs, which tend to be the area of concern of the spoon shape.
Careful with skinny bottoms
If you goal is to distract attention away from your heavier bottom, then the spoon shaped women should be very cautions with a skinny cut. This includes skinny jeans and cigarette pants, both quite on trend.
The reason is whenever you wear a skinny bottom, they highlight every curve in your butt and your thighs. If you are self-conscious about drawing attention to your hips and thigh, which tend to be the widest part of the spoon shape, then you may want to stay away from skinny bottoms.
If you do wish to wear skinny jeans, then you can wear a long cardigan or coat that is longer than the widest part of your hips or your thighs. This is a great strategy to camouflage your wider bottom while still enjoying the skinny jeans trend.
Avoid Pants with Bulky Pockets
Bulky pockets can greatly disrupt your silhouette and accentuate your wider hip area, which undermines the goal of achieving a harmonious and proportionate look.
These types of bulky and heavily-embellished pockets add visual weight and volume to the hips and thighs. They create a focal point that draws the eye directly to the wider part of the body, shifting the balance away from the upper body and potentially exaggerating the asymmetry of the spoon shape.
SKIRTS
Tailored High-Waisted Skirts
Everything high-waisted should be your spoon-shaped body’s best friend! As they sit slightly above the natural waistline (a.k.a. The narrowest part of your torso), you’ll instantly get a beautifully defined waistline that can help detract the attention from your wide hips.
It’s also ideal to have your skirts tailored to really match your size. However, if you feel like having your bottoms tailored all the time can be quite a hassle, then you can just go for off-the-rack pieces and have them slightly altered if needed.
Flowy Skirts with Asymmetrical Hemlines
Another way to steer the focus away from your wide hips is to draw the eyes down to the hem. Skirts with asymmetrical hemlines are both stylish and visually beneficial for ladies with spoon body shapes.
You may also choose a skirt that features pleating in its fabric so it can add to its visual-balancing effects. Vertical details, along with an interesting hemline asymmetry efficiently slims your overall figure down and therefore offset the hips.
The Key Takeaway
Working around the natural visual disparity of your spoon-shaped body is all about playing with your proportions through clothing cuts and structures. I hope this comprehensive guide made it easier for you to complete your wardrobe!