Nat Laurel

I posted another daily look on Instagram and one of my readers caught me contradicting my own style advice. “Didn’t you recommend against V-necks for a body type with narrow shoulders and childbearing hips?” read one of the comments on the picture of the sleeveless wrap-shirt. I did and I still do. Blessed with a pear-shaped body I steer clear from all things V-neck and suggest all similarly shaped ladies do the same. V-necks compromise pear-shaped bodies by accentuating the imbalance between the heavy bottom and fragile torso. Yet, certain designs can restore the balance. This is one of them. I believe this is the only V-neck I own and the reason it stuck in my closet is the scye.

You might need to look up the word as it’s been out of use for decades. It is basically a tailoring term for the armhole opening in a garment. You might also find it curious that Coco Chanel used to snap, “It’s in the scye,” when pronouncing yay-or-nay to a garment fit. The scye tailoring really does define the fit of the garment. The sleeveless shirt in question features a very wide, loose scye, which enhances the upper body armor style, thus offering balance to the hips. The starchy fabric of the blouse strengthens the effect. Typically, all V-necks come in gooey jersey, not to mention that nearly everything these days comes in gooey jersey. Gooey jersey tends to accentuate narrow shoulders allowing childbearing hips to dominate your look. This inspired my recommendation to steer clear from V-necks for all pear-shaped ladies and other victims of fouette-thighs.

Another way a V-neck can compromise a pear-shaped body is when the scye is cut deep, like on the picture of one of my au pairs that I attached in the box. Deep cut scyes allow women with athletic, Norman-build bodies to wear ladylike dresses and actually shine in them, instead of looking dowdy. Think Princess Diana and a beauty type I define as a Z-type or an Amazon. But the same deep cut scye can turn a pear-shaped body and a Siren type woman into a shapeless pile. Enamored with all things athletic (and all things Diana), modern fashion features deep-cut scyes on nearly every garment it produces and hails them as ‘updated.’ Updated they are, except Siren beauty type women are left with nothing to wear.

This sleeveless shirt is courtesy of my 2006 Buenos Aires shopping and is one of the few items in my very limited collection of tops. Because, ummm, modern fashion simply offers no tops that help maintain favorable proportions for women with childbearing hips. This wrap-shirt, shoulder-bone covering scye is characteristic of mid-century tailoring, when the bottom-heavy female body with a narrow back was used as a blueprint. This is an interesting example of how outdated styling (Argentina is not a particularly fashion forward place) can benefit one’s style. I then fine-tuned it with accessories, colors, and attitude to extract vintage from outdated and turn it all into a Siren version of modern.

Given this shirt is a relatively exclusive design (though that is exactly what our world needs ever so badly to become mainstream) and all V-necks come in gooey jersey or as “updated classic dresses,” I felt it safer to advise my S-type beauty followers against wearing V-necks. But I am blessed with very observant and loyal readers who keep me on my toes and inspire my writing about the devil in the details.