Thursday, December 3, 2015

Q&A About Short Boots

Today's question: "I see young women wearing dresses with black short boots, and it looks so cute. Is that something I can wear after forty? My legs are not very long from the knee to the ankle, and I am only 5' 3" tall."


Dress by Karl Lagerfeld via Dillard's.


Wearing black ankle boots with a dress always makes the person appear shorter and wider. This trend is not very flattering for most women since it adds horizontal lines that visually shorten your body rather than lengthening it. Whereas if you wear shoes with a low-cut vamp that shows more of the leg and the top of the foot, it visually lengthens the leg.





Dress by Karl Lagerfeld via Dillard's.


The vamp is the portion of a shoe that cuts across the top of your foot at the front. A low vamp cuts across the toes' base, while a high vamp can come up the foot even up to the ankle. A heel height of only two inches lifts the body and makes clothes fall better, which gives a slimmer appearance.


Calvin Klein pumps.



If you want to make your legs look longer, seek out pumps or boots with slightly pointed toes and slender heels, as opposed to square-toes, chunky styles, or thick ankle straps, all of which can give the appearance of a shorter, stockier leg.