The best dresses are those that balance out the proportions of your silhouette by adding curves and that emphasize your lower body, shoulders and legs, while creating a more defined waistline.

Fit-and-flare. Fit-and-flare dresses feature a fitted upper body and a full skirt. The dress design is ideal for spotlighting the waistline because of the nip in the middle section of the body.

The flapper silhouette was distinctive, and if you’re a fan of PBS’s “Downton Abbey,” you’ve seen it in full effect this season: angular (basically rectangular), androgynous, slender and ...