If you’re here you want to find the Perfect Trousers for your Inverted Triangle Body Shape. In this article I’ll introduce you to the best options for your figure and I’ll also show you how the different silhouettes would suit you so you can decide for yourself. It’s all about dressing your unique shape, so there’s no right or wrongs.
Remember, look at the drawings and decide for yourself which ones you like the best!
Inverted Triangle Body shape
You are an Inverted Triangle if the width of your shoulders is bigger than your waist and your hips. You have very little shaping around the waist and thus giving the illusion of an inverted triangle.
The trick to find the Perfect Trousers for your Inverted Triangle Body Shape, is by adding volume to the bottom part of your body. This will make you look more balanced instead of top heavy. Your trousers should:
- Draw attention to the waist and add definition
- Add volume to the lower part of your body to balance the top
This is for your body shape but don’t forget about your body proportions, that will also have an effect on the final look.
Trousers Anatomy
Let’s look at what things we can change in a trousers design. I divided it in 6 characteristics:
- Foundation: This part will have minimal effect on your shape or proportions.
- Waistline: This will help change your body proportions and also the body shape.
- Length: The length combined with the waistline will help balance your look.
- Leg-lines: The silhouette of the leg-lines will add volume when needed to balance your body shape.
- Details: The right details will draw attention to the right places.
- Fabrics and colours: These will bring the whole look together by adding shape and attention.
These are all the trouser parts, let’s look into them one by one.
Inverted Triangle Shape – Foundations
When we talk about foundations, we talk about the structure of the pattern. This will define how much ease there is around the crotch and the upper thigh which will translate into more or less comfort. There are 4 pants foundations: the Culottes, the Trousers, the Slacks and the Jeans. The Culottes are the ones with the most ease and the slacks the ones with less ease.
These foundations are all for woven fabrics (no elasticity) so you can say there’s a fifth foundation used with elastic fabrics to make sportswear and activewear.
The foundations will not have a big effect on changing the body shape or the body proportions, so I will not go into detail today. If you want to learn more about them and how to draft them, click here
Inverted Triangle Shape – Waistbands
When talking about waistlines, they can do two things. They can tell our eyes where the waist should be, and they can help change our body proportions.
Here you have the 3 main waistlines: the high waisted, the mid-rise and the low waisted.
An inverted triangle should lean towards low to mid-rise waistlines to draw more attention to the lower part of your body. I believe the waistband has more to do with body proportions than body shape, so let’s see how to change that:
- High waisted trousers: Sitting anywhere between under the bust and the natural waist. This will elongate your legs and shorten your torso. If you have short legs, this is a great look for you.
- Mid-rise trousers: Sits just below your rib cage which is also called the natural waist. If you have balanced proportions, this is your best option.
- Low waisted trousers: Sitting anywhere between the natural waist and your hips. This option does the opposite to the high waisted, so if you have a short torso (for example), this will be a great look.
The waistline height is not the only thing you can change, you can also make it wider and narrower. I have researched this and concluded that the width of the waistband has more to do with how to balance the total outfit than with only the trousers. This means I will not explain that here.
Inverted Triangle Shape – Leg-lines
The leg-lines are the best way to add or remove volume from areas in your body. In other words, you can change the illusion of your figure to find the Perfect Trousers for your Inverted Triangle Body Shape.
We’re talking about 6 main leg-lines: the slim, the tapered, the straight, the boot cut, the bell bottoms and finally the wide legs.
- Slim: The leg-line follows the silhouette of your legs
- Tapered: It’s wide at the hips and tight at the ankle
- Straight: Falls down from your hips or your knees
- Boot cut: Flares from below your knee
- Bell bottoms: Flares from above or at your knees
- Wide legs: Flare from your waistband
As an inverted triangle, we have to add volume to the lower part of our body. This means that the best leg-lines for this body shape are the boot cut, the bell bottoms, and the wide legs. Try to balance the volume on your shoulders with the volume you add to the leg-lines. Inverted triangle shapes should also stay away from skinny silhouettes because they will emphasise the top.
If I look at this picture, I actually agree with the theory, but remember to decide for yourself which one you like the most!
Inverted Triangle Shape – Length
One other design change we can do is modifying the length of the trousers. The first reason to do that is the change of weather, for summer we’re probably going to wear shorts and in winter long trousers. The other reason to change the length is to balance your body proportions.
The image shows the main lengths that have an official name, but remember you can make them as long or short as you want. Now let’s look into how to change the proportions:
- Shortening: If you shorten the trousers, it will shorten your leg appearance and elongate your torso.
- Lengthening: If you lengthen the trousers it will do the opposite. Shorten your torso and elongate your legs.
It’s all about balance. It can be that you are very proportionate but love high-waisted trousers. The high waist will elongate your legs and shorten your torso, so you can balance that look by shortening the legs of the pants. Play around and see what look suits you best.
Inverted Triangle Shape – Details
Let’s see what we can add to our trousers design to draw attention to certain areas. By drawing attention, the details will help change the illusion of your body shape.
Some of the design details can be: pockets, pleats, turn ups, and distress
As we already discussed, the inverted triangle body shape needs to add volume to different areas, so any detail will work for this shape. In fact, the more details the better! And the lower the details (like turn ups) also the better. But don’t take my word for it, look at it for yourself.
Inverted Triangle Shape – Fabric and Colours
The last thing we’re going to look into is changing the colour and the fabrics to make our trousers. These two things will help balance the look.
Fabrics can be light weight or heavy weight (or in between of course). Light fabrics will soften your figure by adapting to the natural curves. Heavier fabrics will do the opposite and will make you look stiffer and accentuate the parts that are already big.
Colours, on the other hand, will give the change the perception of your curves. Darker colours will slimmer your look and lighter colours will make you look wider. If you don’t believe me, look at the picture on the left.
By combining these two things, we can balance any look! If you think you added too much volume to your leg-line, just choose a darker colour. And if you chose a tapered leg-line, go for a soft fabric.
Choose your Trousers
Now you’re ready to choose the Perfect Trousers for your Inverted Triangle Body Shape. And if you’re still confused, I made this matrix to show you all the possible combinations. I only added trousers that have an “official” name, but of course you can make any design you want!
On the horizontal line I show you the leg-lines and the vertical line has the foundations. Remember to play around with waistlines, lengths, details, fabrics and colours. The world is your oyster!!