More skin = less bust. That’s the lesson I learned from Imogen Lamport when she suggested I unfasten one more button in the shirt I’m wearing below.

However, from Amy Herzog’s Knit to Flatter workshop I learned that it’s not only about showing more skin–it’s also about grouping. If you group your chest with your waist, it will look longer and lower. If you group it with your neckline, it will look shorter and higher. In the photo above, I have what Amy calls “waist boob”.

Amy, who wears a DD cup, demonstrated her point in a crewneck Fair Isle sweater, a garment I previously thought was totally off limits to D+ women.  On the left, Amy has placed the pattern above her bust line. This groups her bust line with her waist region, resulting in waist boob. She totally looks like she wears a DD or higher. On the right, the pattern includes her bust line.  This groups her bust line with her neckline, and she looks like she wears a C cup or less.

 

A deep neckline is a way both to show more skin and group the bust with the neckline. The key word is deep because even though everyone tells busty women to wear V-necks, all V-necks are not created equal. You can see why with this left-to-right progression.

Flatteringly deep necklines are why camis won’t be going away anytime soon. In the second photo from the left, I’ve placed the tip of the neckline at the top of my cami, exactly where my cleavage begins. It looks okay, but the two photos on the right look much better. (By the way, if you haven’t already answered my neckline depth survey, there’s still time before I collect the results. I’ll delete this parenthetical after I close the survey.)

Besides neckline depth and patterns, we can also use accessories to group bust line and neckline. I don’t have examples right now. Do you? It’s something I want to explore going forward.

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Now I understand another reason that this top with horizontal stripes across my bust line actually looks good–the pattern groups my bust with the top half of my torso.

You can see the same principle with this Pepperberry dress.