Belts play different roles in your wardrobe depending on your body type.

• For an hourglass, a belt defines your narrowest point – her waist.
• For a triangle, a belt underscores your smaller upper body, helping draw focus away from her hips.
• For a rectangle, the right belt can create the illusion of the waistline curve your body really doesn’t have.
• For an inverted triangle, a belt can elongate her torso to balance your upper body fullness.
• For an oval, a belt is usually just not a great idea.

Hourglass:

Many different belts work easily on this curvey figure type.  Widths from about ¾”  to 1 ½ “ are ideal.  Decorated or embellished belts draw the eye side to side at the waist, which is fine for a slim hourglass.  Plain belts with more eye-catching buckles focus attention at the center, which is better for an hourglass with a few extra pounds.  However, too many extra pounds on the tummy would suggest a more subtle buckle instead.

  Embellished                                 Bold buckle                                      Subtle buckle

An hourglass usually prefers to belt over a fairly fitted garment rather than using the belt to gather in the bulky fabric of a straighter silhouette.  If two garments meet at the waistline, at least one of them should skim her body (a bloused shirt meeting slim pants, for example, or a sleek ribbed sweater meeting a soft, fuller skirt) to avoid the risk of a “link sausage” look.

Triangle: 

This body type often chooses straight styles in an attempt to camouflage hips.  But fitted clothing actually minimizes more effectively.  A slightly bloused top garment tucked into a sleek skirt or pant goes a long way to creating visual balance, especially when the waist is defined with a narrow belt.

Belts that ride lower on the body usually call attention to the hips – exactly what a triangle wants to avoid.

Hip belt - better for rectangles or ITs than Triangles

Rectangle:

Rectangles often avoid belts because they don’t want to call attention to the waist. But they can belt very effectively in two different ways.

A belt 1 ½” or less that matches the color of the garment won’t call attention to the width at the waist, but if it has an eye-catching buckle it will bring focus to the center of the body and create the illusion of a narrower waist.  This approach is doubly effective when you add a jacket or cardigan, worn unbuttoned, so the buckle is visible and the true waist width is not.

Rectangles also look great in a low-slung a symmetrical belt.  The eye follows the dip in the belt’s line, creating the illusion of curve through the middle body. 

Inverted Triangles:

An IT who is relatively trim through the torso and waist can wear a traditional straight belt, and is especially flattered by one that rests lower on her narrow hips. 

A full-busted IT  needs to be careful about wide belts that take up too much of the space between her bust and waist, making her torso appear shorter and wider.

Wide  belts - poor choices for short torso or full busts

An IT who carries excess weight through her middle body is usually better avoiding belts altogether.

Ovals:

Because of accumulated weight in her middle body, an oval woman usually looks better in clothing that skims uninterrupted through her waist area with no belt at all.

Belt choices also depend partially on a woman’s torso length.

* A short-waisted woman – less than average length from shoulder to waist – looks more balanced wearing a narrow belt that doesn’t take up much of that limited torso length.  Contour belts – those cut in a curved shape rather than a straight strip –are especially flattering since the top edge of the belt hits the waistline rather than extending above it.

Chain or leather belts that can ride lower on the body also flatter a short-waisted gal. This styling looks best with the belt at the natural waistline at the side seams and the low point off-center in front. The greater the “dip”, the more the torso is elongated.

Low-slung asymetrical belt elongates torso, shapes waist

*  A long-waisted woman – more than average length from shoulder to waist – gets a more balanced look with a wider belt that fills up some of that excess torso length, especially if she also has short legs.  Straight belts that ride right at her natural waist are more flattering than contour ones.

Shopping  and care tips:

• Just like with shoes and Core Four garments, your most versatile color for belts is your Key Neutral, usually related to your hair color.
•  Discard the fabric-covered belt that came with a dress and replace it with a nice leather one to instantly upgrade the entire look.
•  If you find a great belt on sale but it’s a bigger size than you need, remember that your shoe repair shop can usually shorten it very inexpensively.  Sadly it doesn’t work the other way around.
• If that great sale belt happens to be the reversible design, you can shorten it yourself.  Use the tiny screwdriver from an eyeglass repair kit to remove the buckle mechanism.  Cut the excess  length from the buckle  end of the leather strip, insert it back into the buckle mechanism and re-tighten the tiny screws. 
• Belts sometimes lose color where the buckle rubs against the leather.  Refresh them with shoe polish, shoe dye or permanent markers.  You’ll find an amazing variety of colored markers at art specialty stores.
• Prolong the life of new ribbon and web belts with a coating of water and stain repellant spray like Scotchguard .