Shadowing Practice: How to Make Your Outfits Better (Avoid These Styling Mistakes!) - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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What's good?

Today I'm going to recreate some of my old outfits and make them better.

How am I going to do that?

Well, I'm going to walk you through the whole process

and hopefully this video can help you learn how to upgrade your outfits as well.

Fashion is in the details and there are a few small

but intentional choices that you can make to elevate your daily style and make a huge impact on your overall look.

If this video helps you in any way,

be sure to give it a like and subscribe if you haven't already.

Now let's get into it.

If you look at all of these older outfits,

they all kind of have something in common.

What is that?

Well, one of the biggest fashion mistakes that I made in the past is not understanding fit and proportion.

And that's mainly because I didn't understand my body.

Now let me walk you through what I mean by this.

When I used to gather outfit inspiration from Pinterest,

I thought that I could just use any sweater or any coat as long as it was similar.

I also thought, well this girl is skinny and I'm skinny too so it'll look the same on me.

There's two gigantic mistakes that I made here.

The first mistake I made is not understanding fit.

The material, stiffness, and cut of a garment is what determines the overall look of a piece.

For example, a lightweight blazer is going to have a very different look from a wool blazer

because the stiffness of the wool creates a more structured look.

So if you see a Pinterest girly wearing thick plaid pants and you try to recreate the outfit with lightweight plaid pants,

you might think, oh, well, she's wearing plaid pants.

I have plaid pants, so it should work out.

But you're going to get a very different outfit simply because of the weight and structure of the fabric.

The second mistake I made is not understanding proportion.

And a lot of that had to do with the fact that I didn't understand my body.

Now, I used to think that I had super broad shoulders because when you objectively look at the shape of my body,

my shoulders are wider than my hips.

So I was like, yeah, I have broad shoulders.

But then I started coming across pictures of celebrities that actually had broad shoulders and I thought to myself,

hmm, maybe my shoulders aren't as broad as I thought they were.

And so I pondered on this for a very long time until I had an epiphany

and came to the realization that it's not that my shoulders are broad,

it's that my hips are really narrow.

This piece of information was invaluable to me because I was able to learn that different types of fabrics,

styles, and cuts will fall on my body differently than someone with wider shoulders or wider hips.

Another huge piece of information that I learned about my body is

that I have really long legs in comparison to my torso.

Now, some people have long legs and a short torso.

Some people have a long torso and short legs,

and some people are more balanced.

Regardless, clothing is going to look different on different proportions.

If you're going to recreate an outfit that you see someone else wearing,

you need to consider their proportions as well as your own.

For example, someone with a longer torso and wider hips looks very different from me,

even if we're wearing a similar outfit.

Now these two things are kind of why I'm reluctant to agree with that whole

is this a good outfit or is she just skinny sort of thing?

Because look, I see skinny people with terrible outfits all the time.

I mean, look at these.

The thing is that celebrities have stylists and stylists understand everything that I just talked about.

They understand fit and proportions and the way different fabrics drape around different body types.

Celebrities pay good money to look good.

Everyone has the ability to be stylish.

You do not need to be skinny to have good outfits.

You just need to understand your proportions and the fit and cut of the clothing that you're buying.

Make your closet work for you,

not the other way around.

Now that we've got all that covered,

let's put all that knowledge into practice and recreate some of my old outfits together.

Okay, so I can immediately identify why this outfit doesn't work.

The biggest one is that these jeans have way too short of an inseam.

Remember how I said I have long legs and a short torso?

Well, these jeans are too short on me.

Another thing I can identify is that the pant legs kind of taper inwards.

Because I have narrow hips and wider shoulders,

these tapered pants bring attention to the fact that I have very narrow hips,

and this makes the outfit look very imbalanced.

Let's swap out these jeans with these.

These jeans are longer, which is much more suitable for the length of my legs,

and they are slightly flared,

which balances out my narrow hips.

Having black on top and white on the bottom is way too much contrast for this outfit,

especially because my body doesn't have balanced proportions.

So let's switch out this black shirt with this cropped white one.

This is much more balanced, right?

Look at how big of a difference being more intentional makes.

Alright, three key issues with this one.

Number one, these are the same jeans that I was wearing in the first outfit.

They're too short.

Number two, tapered legged pants look better with a more narrow shoe.

These boots are too chunky for these jeans, creating an imbalance.

Number three.

It's kind of hard to tell with this lighting,

but this blazer is quite fit to the body,

yet the shirt that I'm wearing underneath is pretty loose.

This makes the shirt look super wrinkled because there's too much fabric that isn't accommodated by the fit of the blazer.

And it was honestly quite uncomfortable to wear because of that.

So let's fix this.

Let's switch out the jeans with the same pair from outfit one.

Now personally, when I wear pants and a shirt,

I like to show skin somewhere to break up that kind of solidness of an outfit and add more interest.

Otherwise, it can feel a bit overwhelming and uncomfortable like I'm drowning in clothing.

In the first outfit, I achieved this with a cropped t-shirt,

but in this outfit, I'm going to do this with a v-neck top.

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Well, this is actually a bodysuit,

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but you know the vibes.

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Boom!

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This is already looking way more balanced.

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I'm going to keep the same color scheme here so I'm going to wear these black booties.

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As you can see they are much more narrow of a silhouette than the other boots

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and they're also a lot pointier which in my opinion looks more striking

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and adds more visual interest so I'm going to put these on.

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In the original outfit you can see that the blazer is quite snug.

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This outfit is pretty casual and I want to feel comfortable in this outfit

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so I'm going to switch out that blazer for this one that is way looser of a fit.

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Also, I found that double-breasted blazers look kind of weird on me anyway.

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I think it's because I have a narrow body,

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so it's too much fabric for me and it makes me feel and look like I'm drowning.

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With that being said, if you are trying to recreate someone's outfit,

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consider the fit of the clothes that the person is wearing.

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Okay, there's a lot going on here.

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I don't know what I was thinking when I put this outfit together.

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Like what was that about?

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So let's fix it.

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Now I still have this shirt,

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but here's why I don't really wear it these days.

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This shirt is very thin and flimsy.

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Because of this, it wrinkles very easily and it clings to my body in very unflattering ways.

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I mean, look at the way it's clinging to my bust area.

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It's super uncomfortable when you have to constantly mess around with your clothing throughout the day.

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Personally, I feel way more confident in my outfit when I know

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that it looks good no matter how it's laying on my body.

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With this shirt, I am constantly worried about it clinging in unflattering ways and I'm always messing with it.

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On the other hand, let's take a look at this graphic tee.

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The fabric is quite thicker and there's a little bit more structure in the shoulders,

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so it doesn't cling to my body,

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it falls on it like a hanger.

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This is a much more comfortable and flattering type of graphic tee, for me anyway.

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Now, keep in mind that these are both men's shirts and they're both the same size.

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The key difference here is the fabric weight or density.

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One clings and one falls.

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Let's go with the more flattering option.

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These pants that I'm wearing in the older outfit were trousers,

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like a business casual trouser.

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And I love trousers.

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I wear them when I wanna be put together and I wear them even when I'm styling a streetwear outfit.

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I just love the juxtaposition.

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I love trousers.

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The problem here is that these are not the trousers for me.

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They're too short.

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And once again, they are tapered.

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Now, I don't know why I had so many short tapered pants.

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Maybe it was the trend at the time,

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but it was not the trend for me.

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That's why it's so important to understand your body and have a personal style.

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Because if you just follow trend after trend,

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they might not work for you.

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They might not look good.

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You might not be comfortable and it'll be a complete waste of money.

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But anyway, back to the pants.

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We're going to swap these out for these trousers.

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Wow, what a difference.

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They're a much better length and again,

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they slightly flare out to create more balance.

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Plus, these are pleated and because I have narrow hips,

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this little pleat detail adds a little more volume to my hip area,

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making me look more balanced.

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This color palette is all over the place.

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I'm actually going to keep the red shoes for a pop of color,

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but we're going to switch out this jacket for a black one because look,

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that just makes more sense.

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Now I was probably wearing that jacket because it was a little cold outside

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so I'm gonna match the energy here and put on this lightweight puffer.

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Boom!

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To accessorize I'm gonna wear this red bag so that your eyes go across the outfit.

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Without the bag your eyes go straight to the shoes.

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You know what I'm saying?

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So matching that bag with the shoes makes your eyes see the outfit as a whole.

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It goes from top to middle to bottom as opposed to like just going to your shoes

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Gee whiz what a terribly proportioned outfit Wowzers two main issues with this one one.

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It's very top heavy I'm wearing this furry jacket thing,

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which is huge compared to the bottom half of my body

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Which is a terrible combination for someone who has no hips

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This outfit is bringing attention to the fact that there are no hips there.

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The other issue is the skinny jeans.

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Now look, if you want to keep wearing your skinny jeans,

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then you should do that.

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I personally don't think that they are the most flattering type of pant for a majority of body types.

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Again, if you're comfortable in your skinny jeans and you love them,

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then you should keep wearing them.

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But if you're like me and you only ever wore skinny jeans

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because they were the trend at the time and not because they actually look good or are comfortable to wear,

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then consider not wearing them anymore.

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Explore literally any other type of pants.

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And yes, I am talking to you, fellow millennials.

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Once you release yourself from the chains of skinny jeans,

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you will find fashion so much more exciting because there are so many different types of pants out there.

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Now for me, the reason why I don't like skinny jeans,

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especially in this picture, is because I have narrow hips and these high-waisted skinny jeans are not doing anything for me.

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I also have really skinny long legs.

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I look like a pair of training chopsticks.

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So let's fix this.

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Let's make this outfit monochromatic.

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Boom!

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Less contrast means that my uneven proportions are less pronounced.

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We are also not wearing skinny jeans anymore.

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We got flared pants on.

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Look, lots of women don't have that perfect hourglass shape.

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I would actually say that most of us don't.

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I'm one of them.

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I will never look like this,

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but I can create an hourglass silhouette by making my pants flare out at the bottom to mirror my shoulder line.

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This looks much more balanced, doesn't it?

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Okay, I don't hate this outfit.

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I think it looks alright.

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But there are a few tweaks that we can make to make it an outfit.

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You know what I'm saying?

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Like right now, this is just aight.

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But we want a look, you feel me?

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Because right now I look like a Silicon Valley tech bro that just discovered what an overcoat is.

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So let's start with the sweater.

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Let's swap this out with a crew neck sweatshirt.

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The original sweater was a turtleneck and I felt a little claustrophobic in it especially

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because I'm wearing so much fabric in this outfit.

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The lowered neckline of this new sweater feels a lot more comfortable for me.

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The sweatpants in the original outfit are tapered at bottom and because this sweatshirt is a little loose fitting,

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I don't want to be heavy on the top

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and skinny on the bottom because this is going to create that same imbalance that I had in that last outfit.

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I'm going to put on a pair of looser fit sweatpants.

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I think having an exposed ankle with sweatpants can look a little awkward

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so I'm going to swap out these low top sneakers for high tops.

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This coat is nice.

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I still have it but I haven't been wearing it as often

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because I recently got another one that fits me way better.

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This one is longer, so it harmonizes really well with my elongated body.

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The other coat that I had was shorter,

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and I don't know how to explain it,

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but it was a really awkward length for how long I am.

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In contrast, when my mom,

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who is quite a bit shorter than me,

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wears a coat with a similar length,

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it looks more harmonious on her.

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In my personal opinion, if you're on the taller side or if you're shorter but you have really elongated limbs,

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a longer coat looks better.

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This is just my opinion.

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This coat also fits looser.

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If you look at the beige coat,

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the shoulder lines are closer to the collarbone whereas the darker coat has a more elongated shoulder line

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and the armpits are positioned much lower.

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This is great because it leaves room for any loose-fitting sweater that you wear underneath.

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So while the original outfit wasn't necessarily bad,

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it was kind of just okay.

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This new outfit has a lot more flavor.

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It's a little bit more stylish and those small changes that we made have a really big impact on the overall look.

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So what do you guys think?

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Do you think the new outfits are an improvement?

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Let me know which recreation was your favorite in the comments down below.

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If you learned something new in this video,

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please let me know in the comments or give this video a like.

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Subscribe if you would like to see more videos like this and I'll catch you guys next time.

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Peace!

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Bye.

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