Sandhya Garg — Personally
Five Things I Stopped Getting Wrong
Fit · Colour · Hemline · Accessories · Proportion · No Age Rules
Quick Answer
Five things decide how an outfit reads, and none of them is your age or your size. Fit — loose is not the same as forgiving, and clothes that skim beat clothes that hide. Colour — test it against your face in daylight rather than trusting a rule. Hemline — land it where the leg is narrowing, not at its widest point. Accessories — if the garment is doing the work, let it. Proportion — one volume at a time. Learn these five and you can stop thinking about clothes entirely, which is the actual goal.
"I've got so many things I love about myself, but I often feel like there's something wrong with me. I think we're harder on ourselves than we need to be — so I made a change."
— from the live, and still the truest thing on this page
I used to dress to hide. On the days I did not feel good about myself I would reach for something loose and shapeless, and I told myself it helped. It did not. It made me feel worse, and — this is the part that surprised me — it did not even work, because a garment that hides you does not read as smaller. It reads as a larger amount of fabric.
What changed was not my body. It was that I stopped trying to conceal parts of myself and started paying attention to five specific things that actually govern how an outfit reads. I am a designer and a pattern cutter, so I should have known this earlier than I did. Here they are.
The original live, if you would rather hear it than read it. I am wearing the green velvet dress throughout.
One · Loose Is Not the Same as Forgiving
This is the one almost everybody gets wrong, myself included for years. The instinct is that more fabric conceals more. In practice the eye reads the outermost edge of the cloth as the edge of the person — so a genuinely loose garment adds width rather than removing it, and a garment that skims reads closer to your actual shape.
The useful distinction is between loose and unfitted-but-shaped. A kaftan is not tight anywhere and still has a defined line. A wrap ties where your waist actually is. Both give you comfort without giving away the shape entirely — and neither requires you to decide anything about your body first.
Two · Colour, Tested Rather Than Assumed
I wear a lot of warm colour — yellows, oranges, reds — because I have looked at those shades against my own face many times and I know what they do. That is a statement about me, not a rule about you, and I want to be careful about the difference.
The systems that sort people into warm and cool and then tell them which colours they are allowed have no real evidence behind them, and the same person gets sorted differently by different people. The test that does work takes thirty seconds: hold the fabric under your chin in daylight, no makeup, and watch the shadows under your eyes. If they deepen, the colour is fighting you. If they soften, it is working. The full method is in our guide to finding colours that suit you.
Three · Land the Hem Where the Leg Is Narrowing
This is the most mechanical of the five and the easiest to fix. A hemline draws a horizontal line across the body, and the eye reads the width of the body at that exact point. Land it at the widest part of the calf or thigh and that is the width it reports. Land it where the leg is tapering and it reports that instead.
| Length | Where to land it |
|---|---|
| Mini | Above the widest part of the thigh rather than at it. A couple of inches makes the whole difference. |
| Midi | Just below the knee, or at the narrowest point of the calf — not mid-calf at its fullest, which is where midis most often go wrong. |
| Maxi | At the ankle bone or just brushing the floor with your shoes on. Anywhere between the two reads as a hemming accident. |
Four and Five · Let One Thing Do the Work
Four · Accessories
If the dress has a print, a neckline and a detail, it is already saying enough — adding a statement necklace, big earrings and a stacked wrist means four things competing and nothing winning. The rule I use: if the garment is doing the work, wear one piece of jewellery and stop. If the outfit is plain, that is when a bold accessory earns its place.
Five · Proportion
One volume at a time. Wide-leg trousers want a fitted or tucked top; an oversized top wants a narrower bottom. Volume on volume has no reference point, so the eye cannot find the person inside it. This is the same principle as where an A-line begins its flare — it is about where the eye is given something to measure against.
None of this is about looking younger. It is about not having to think about your clothes once you have left the house.
One Thing I'd Say Differently Now
When I first talked about this I framed it as five things that make us look older, and I would not put it that way again. Not because it is impolite, but because it is the wrong diagnosis. A hemline landing at the widest part of your calf is not an age problem — it is a hemline landing in the wrong place, and it does the same thing at twenty-five as at sixty. Every one of these five levers is about geometry and light, not about years. Framing them as anti-ageing borrows a source of anxiety that has nothing to do with the actual mechanics, and I would rather give you the mechanics.
The Five Levers, In Practice · XS to 3XL
Ten Pieces, Including What I'm Wearing
The first four are the actual garments in the video. All verified in stock today.
From the Video
Lever One — Skims Rather Than Hides
Levers Three & Five — Hemline and Proportion
All pieces XS · S · M · L · XL · XXL · XXXL · Size chart · Made to measure · Ask me directly
Frequently Asked Questions
Do loose clothes actually hide anything?
Generally not, and this is the most useful thing on this page. The eye reads the outermost edge of the fabric as the edge of the person, so genuinely loose clothing adds width rather than removing it. What works is a garment that skims — unfitted but shaped, like a kaftan or a wrap, where nothing grips and the line is still defined.
Where should a hemline sit?
Where the leg is narrowing rather than at its widest point, because the eye reads the width of the body at exactly that line. For a midi that means just below the knee or the narrowest part of the calf. For a maxi, the ankle bone or brushing the floor with your shoes on — anywhere between the two looks like an accident.
How many accessories should I wear?
If the garment is doing the work — a print, a strong neckline, visible texture — wear one piece and stop. If the outfit is plain, that is when a bold accessory earns its place. The problem is never the accessory itself; it is several things competing and none of them winning.
What is the rule for proportion?
One volume at a time. Wide-leg trousers want a fitted or tucked top; an oversized top wants a narrower bottom. Volume on volume gives the eye no reference point, so it cannot find the person inside the outfit.
Does any of this change with age?
No. All five levers are about geometry and light. A hemline landing at the widest part of the calf does the same thing at twenty-five as at sixty-five, and framing them as anti-ageing advice borrows an anxiety that has nothing to do with the mechanics.
Does body shape change if I gain or lose weight?
Broadly no — the proportional relationship between shoulders, waist and hips tends to stay consistent, which is why what suits you stays fairly stable over time. That is a reason to learn these five things once rather than relearning them at every size.
Keep Reading
Lever Two
The 30-Second Colour Test
Test it, rather than being told your season.
Lever Five
A-Line Dresses Decoded
Where the flare begins changes everything.
Lever One
What Grading Actually Means
Why fit fails, and it isn't your body.
The Research
Dopamine Dressing
What clothes do to how you feel.
About the Writer
Sandhya Garg is a Project Runway Season 13 designer who won two challenges on the show and presented her collection at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week. She studied womenswear and pattern cutting at London College of Fashion and worked at Alexander McQueen, Gucci, Liberty London, and Alice Temperley. She is a mother of two, runs her label from Los Angeles, and grades every style XS–3XL — featured in Marie Claire, Elle, Cosmopolitan and Vogue online, with made to measure available.
Project Runway · Vogue · Marie Claire · XS–3XL
Stop hiding. Start choosing.
Sandhya Garg is a Los Angeles boutique creating limited-edition artisanal dresses in original hand-drawn prints, hand embroidery and heritage textiles. Sizes XS–3XL, shipped from Scottsdale within 1–3 days.
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