Crossdressing Advice: Jessica Who’s Guide To Dressing Big, Broad & Wide Shoulders

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Well, hello there girlfriend and welcome to another Jessica Who Guide, a collection of crossdressing advice intended to help you perfect your feminine appearance.

In this installment we will be discussing one of the more pesky areas of the body when trying to appear more feminine. Most of us face it and unfortunately no amount of hormones, surgeries or exercises can alleviate the problem of wide shoulders. In response, we have compiled a collection of great tips to help you minimize the width of your articulario humeris.

Perhaps you’re built more like a linebacker than a cheerleader and have a hard time finding the right clothes for your shape. Never fear because with simple fashion tips and tricks, you can create the illusion of a longer body, defined hips and a narrower upper body.

Men aren’t the only ones who face this challenge, so fortunately there are some great pieces and styles that are out there just waiting to be filled out by your beautiful shoulders .

Note: The wide shoulder/narrow hip body type is reffered to as “The Inverted Triangle” or “Cornet Shape”.

First, the obvious one — never wear shoulder pads, even if they are in fashion. Adding to the size of this part of your body is counterproductive in perfecting your look and should be avoided at all costs. The rest of the tips may not be so obvious, and for ease of reading they are presented in list form followed by some brief explanations and picture examples.

Don’t Do It Girlfriend!

Halter Tops
Tube Tops
“Off The Shoulder” Tops*
Nipped / Cinched-in Waisted Tops
Spaghetti Strap Tops
Big Collars
Tight fabric around neck and shoulder area (e.g., Turtlenecks)

While you definitely shouldn’t try to hide you shoulders by drowning them in excessive fabric, halter and tube tops are the polar opposite, suggesting that a compromise will look best. These two styles (halter & tube) put too much emphasis on that region and make your lower body look even smaller

An example of a fashion don’t for big shoulders

I put an asterisk next to off the shoulder tops because I have seen women with broad shoulders pull it off well (one shoulder covered, the other exposed), so you may want to try the look and see if it works. With fashion, it’s all about creating illusions, so thin-strapped tops are going to make your shoulders look even wider just by way of comparison.

Turtlenecks can be great fashion pieces, but if they are too tight then they are actually working against you in trying to make that area appear smaller. Big collars look terrific on clowns but perhaps not as well on women with big shoulders .

Fashion Do’s

Vertical Stripes
Wide Strap Tops
V-Neck Tops
Scoop Neck Tops
Flowy Fabric Sleeves
Cardigans (Unbuttoned)
Kimono Sleeve Tops
Knitted Tops
Shift & Tunic Dresses
Layer Jackets & Knitwear With Something Feminine Underneath
A-Skirts
Boot Cut, Straight Leg & Flared Jeans
Flared Skirts
Ruffled Bottoms
Short Shorts (not excessively short )

Vertical stripes help to elongate the upper body, same goes for v-neck tops, both should be fashion staples in your wardrobe. Flowy fabric sleeves, like kimono, work well in minimizing shoulder breadth. Wide straps are infinitely better than spaghetti straps for the inverted triangle body type.

Same girl, great look for big shoulders – note the ‘flowy’ sleeves

I caught an episode of TLC’s “What Not To Wear” a few months back featuring an Olympic swimmer with massive shoulders. They dressed her in jackets and layered looks with very feminine tops underneath and this really worked well for her.

Because we tend to have narrower hips, flared skirts and ruffled bottoms help create the illusion of a wider hip area, effectively balancing the shoulder region. Boot cut and straight leg jeans are a good fit and if you have long legs flared leg pants and short shorts are perfect.

Shouldering The Load

As mentioned above, there are many women that share this body type with us, especially high fashion models (they tend to have boyish figures). In addition, there are many female celebrities and athletes with broad shoulders that you can look toward for fashion inspiration such as Candace Parker, Morgan Webb, Angelina Jolie and Liv Tyler.

Liv Tyler

Accessories that draw attention away from your shoulders always help, and if possible get acquainted with a good tailor that can alter your clothing to better fit your body (a common tip on “What Not To Wear”). Skinny jeans are somewhat of a toss-up, some people say no and others say yes, so experiment with what looks good on you.

The key is not to hide your shoulders, but rather proudly display them like trophies.