As you may know, working with proportions is one of my favourite ways to make sure my wardrobe is mixable and versatile, and one of the first things I do when I'm updating my wardrobe for a new season is to choose about 2-4 proportions that reflect the overall look I'm going for and that fit my lifestyle for the next 3-6 months.

Quick recap: A proportion is what I like to call a specific outfit formula of item categories that you can wear in lots of different versions, like 'Skinny jeans + loose-fitting shirt + long-line coat'. I find proportions as a concept super helpful for quite a few different things, like building a capsule wardrobe of 20-30 pieces, developing a signature look or uniform, and also just to expand my repertoire of outfits.

To illustrate the whole idea a little better, I put together a whole catalogue of different proportions in 2013. They are all tailored to the Fall/Winter season though, and so I wanted to give you guys an updated version, with all new proportions for Spring/Summer 2015.

Disclaimer 1: Of course, a catalogue like this will never be complete. Depending on how many item categories you include or how narrowly you define them (anything from 'Jeans' to 'High-waisted, slim-fitting jeans with rolled up hems' is ok), there could technically be an infinite number of different proportions.

For the sake of this post I focused on these variables:

Type of bottoms (skirts, pants, shorts)
Fit of bottom (Loose-fitting, slim-fitting, skinny, etc.)
Fit of top (slim-fitting vs. a looser fit)
Length of sleeves
Optional topper/third piece

Disclaimer 2: A proportion by itself says little about the personal style of the wearer. A person with a very stark and minimal style could wear the exact same proportion as someone with a bohemian and bold style, because it's the specific pieces (i.e. their colour, material, details) you choose to create your proportion that make the look.

So: When it comes to finding proportions it's important that you always try to look past the overall style of an outfit and focus only on its silhouette and the general type of pieces that create it. Most of the images below come from my Pinterest account, so they all share my specific style, i.e. neutrals + simple lines, but all of the proportions could also be used as the basis for a very colourful, detail-rich outfit.