Let's be honest here, how many times have you dreamt about having a taller figure? This article is a tribute to all my petite sisters out there.
Here are 10 effective styling tips that can visually add a couple of inches to your height!
1. Invest in High-waisted Bottoms
Jeans, shorts, skirts... You name it! High-waisted items bring up your waistline and elongate your legs, giving you a taller figure. Keep in mind that when wearing high-waisted bottoms, your tops should always be tucked in or opt for a crop top.
2. Opt for Flared Bottoms
Pants that are fitted and flare at the bottom give an illusion of longer legs. It is recommended for your flared bottoms to be high-waisted as well and make sure that the pants are fitted at the thigh
For optimum hight, consider wearing pointed shoes of the same colour. Also, keep in mind to tuck your shirt in to prevent your outfit from dragging you down.
3. Tuck-In Your Tops
Tucking-in your top creates a visible waistline, accentuates your waist and elongates your torso area.
This will give out a leaner and longer look. For some of you that are not so comfortable with completely tucking-in your tops, the front tuck and side tuck can be the alteratives. There's also the trendy shirt knot to try out too! Whatever you're wearing, just make sure to tuck in your top for a more neat and flattering look.
4. Bring On the Crop Top
When wearing a crop top, one thing to bear in mind is to pair it with a high-waisted bottom.
This creates length and puts more focus on your legs while also elongating your torso. No worries if you are not comfortable with showing a little bit of skin. You can add a belt over the midline to cover up some extra skin. This can also further accentuate your petite waist.
5. Go for Maxi
A lot of people have the misconception that maxi dresses or skirts make you look shorter. But in fact, it is the opposite.
The trick is to bring up the waist slightly so that you aren't dragging the fabric on the ground.
Things to look out for when trying on a maxi skirt or dress is that the hemline should be almost touching the ground, there should not be too much volume in the skirt, and don't go for too many ruffles. Also, it is recommended to have skirts with thinner pleats rather than thicker ones.
After finding the right skirt, pair it with a tucked-in top or crop top and a pair of heels or pointed flats, and voila! You are ready to strut your stuff!
6. Get Stripey
Stripes are a good choice to spice up your wardrobe. They are not only fun to wear, but they also level up your styling game.
But be careful when choosing striped garments. You want to look for VERTICAL stripes. Vertical stripes are the ones that help make you look taller and slimmer by elongating your torso and legs.
Horizontal ones just make you look wider rather than slimmer. The preferred cutting for striped garments is that it should be slim-fit or with an A-line silhouette.
7. Accessorize
Belts and hats can be amazing accessories for our petite sisters out there. When paired with flared dresses or skirts, a belt can help you show your waistline and it is adjustable to any preferred body proportion you are going for. Whereas hats can make you look taller by adding that few inches at the top of your outfit.
8. Have a Pointed Shoe Collection
Pointed shoes should be a petite woman's best friend. It not only makes your legs longer at the end but to make things even better, pointed heels would really give you that extra height you wanted.
For optimum results pair your outfit with light or nude coloured shoes or pair your shoe colours with the colours of your bottoms.
9. Keep that Clutch
As petite women, big bags - although useful to carry tons of stuff - is not suitable for our size when we dress up.
In turn, big bags will make us appear smaller than we already are. So opt for smaller yet functional bags and purses instead.
Ladies can go for a light-weight sling bag for daily use and when going for a night out, carry a clutch purse for that smaller yet longer frame.
10. Go Monochrome
If styling and dressing up is not for you, go monochrome! It's seriously very easy.
Single-coloured outfits, be it tops with bottoms or a dress, can create an illusion of height. It presents a long, vertical image which makes you look taller.
Besides that, wearing an outfit of the same or similar colour is more pleasing to the eyes, than wearing multiple colours. Wearing multiple colours instead just makes you look shorter by breaking up the body into different parts.
Going monochrome is one of the easiest ways of styling as you don't need a lot of thinking and deciding what to wear. But make sure to not wear too many accessories as it would look too much for the outfit.
