Tips & Tricks for Everybody: Skirt Length Rules FAQ's (Part 4) - More On Shoes & Legwear

Here's the last installment in the FAQ's about the "Skirt Length" Rules -- and this post is for EVERYONE!
 
Shoe & Legwear Guidelines for:
(1)  Maxi skirts and dresses
(2)  Wider-legged capris (which I really don't recommend, but I see that the 'gaucho' look is back)
(3)  Wider-legged pants
(4)  Calf-length, fuller-skirted skirts and dresses


Everybody
Surprise!  The footwear and legwear guidelines for this category for everyone are the same!  Why?  Because regardless of your leg length proportions, these clothing categories will tend to add visual bulk and width to your entire hip-to-foot area.

So all of us will want our footwear and legwear to help us counteract that no-so-flattering "widescreen effect".  We're aiming for either of two equally-acceptable visual goals:  (1) We want to float or skim the floor with disappearing, barely noticeable feet ("weightless footwear"); or (2) we want to be firmly and noticeably anchored to the floor ("gravity footwear").

Let's look first at legwear:  Ideally, match or blend legs with your shoe color.  Why? Because your clothing is already creating a horizontal line near the bottom of your leg, so you don't want to add yet another horizontal line where your leg and shoe "break".

Footwear:  Choose "extremes" footwear -- meaning:

"Weightless footwear" -- Ethereal little bits of shoe that barely add anything to our feet, and the more neutral or quiet the color, the better.  Examples:  ballet shoes, or flat sandals either with a lot of skinny straps or with just a few wider straps.  Notice the footwear choice J. Crew showed with the dreamy Rose Trellis Taryn dress in the picture at right.  Dark, but really just a wisp of leather and no heel at all.  Perfect floaty choice.

On the other "extreme", your choice would be "gravity footwear" with a lot of heft and substance, both literally and visually.  Examples:  wedges, riding boots, booties, shooties or other high-vamped shoes/boots with a flat heel or a chunky heel.  Notice how J. Crew styles the gaucho jean for Spring/Summer 2011.  Very chunky, high-vamped sandal with a lot of dark leather showing, a lot of "heft" to the body and the heel.

And one last tip:  With these types of clothes, we should all avoid skinny or kitten heels of any height, which make us look like we're teeter-tottering on tippy-toe with yards of fabric swirling around us.  The higher the heel, of course, the more that's the look.  Visualize a pretty bunch of barely-tied-down party balloons in the breeze.  Not what we're going for. :-)

That's a wrap, y'all -- for now, the end of these FAQ's.  I hope they're helpful guidelines for you.  If you've got questions or requests for future "Tips & Tricks" posts, please e-mail me at jcauncmom@gmail.com!

Tips & Tricks for Everybody: Skirt Length Rules FAQ's (Part 4) - More On Shoes & Legwear

Tips & Tricks for Long Shinners: Skirt Length Rules FAQ's (Part 3) - Shoes & Legwear

Good morning, everybody! Continuing the edited FAQ's about the infamous "skirt length rules", this post will focus on lovely long-shinners.

Question: "I feel like my shoes really change the way my skirt lengths look on me.  Am I right, and if so how do I pick shoes?"

Answer:  Footwear and legwear can make a huge difference in how the proportioning of your body looks in your overall ensemble. 

By the way, to you lucky and rare neutral-shinners out there who have a balanced measurement in your upper and lower legs:  Do read on, but know that you can experiment with short-shinner AND long-shinner "looks" and probably carry most of them off beautifully!

Shoe and Legwear Guidelines for:
(1)  Shorter skirts and dresses(remember what "shorter" means for you!)
(2)  Narrow-legged capris
(3)  Narrow-legged full-length pants, and
(3)  Narrow-skirted mid-calf skirts and dresses

Long-shinners
Guiding words for you:  High Vamp Shoes, High Contrast Legwear

Long-shinner lovelies, in contrast to your short-shinner friends, you don’t want or need for your footwear and legwear to appear to extend the length of your lower legs. 

Footwear:  High vamp shoes (in any heel height) are your friends.  These are, of course, are just the opposite of low vamp shoes -- they're footwear that comes up high onto the top of your foot.  Examples are shooties, booties, oxfords of every heel height, and most sneakers. "Less you, more shoe" is your mantra, and these styles take a few inches off the apparent length of your leg by "chopping it off at your foot" (sorry, effective but awful image!)

I mentioned that sneakers are almost always a high-vamp shoe, and they deserve a special shout-out for you.  While short-shinners are going to look better (and instinctively prefer) a no-sock or no-show sock look with their sneakers, YOU are the gals who are going to look precious in a high-top sneaker, a sneaker paired with some contrasting-colored ankle socks, or even brighter-colored or patterned sneakers.  Lucky ducks. :-)

Legwear:  Pairing your high vamp footwear with contrasting colors or tones (little color, strong color) in legwear, socks or pants will create a flattering visual “break” between your leg and foot.  You're the gals who can wear gorgeous two-toned oxfords with a nude leg, bright socks or tights, capris or a shorter skirt.

That's it, ladies -- pretty simple if you remember those four guiding words!  Try them and see how they work for you.  Of course, how you wear your own wardrobe can't simply be dictated by a set of math-based visual proportioning tricks.  Only you can decide how all of this jives with your own tastes.  So use what helps you feel and look like your best YOU, and toss the rest.  Compromise is A-OK because the most important rule is this: You should love it if you're gonna own it and wear it!

Please e-mail me at jcauncmom@gmail.com if you have more questions about any of the concepts I've discussed, other wardrobe "fit" questions, or requests for future wardrobe tips & tricks posts!

Tips & Tricks for Long Shinners: Skirt Length Rules FAQ's (Part 3) - Shoes & Legwear

Tips & Tricks for Short-Shinners: Skirt Length Rules FAQ's (Part 2) - Shoes & Legwear

Today's edited Parts 2, 3 and 4 in the FAQ's about the "skirt length rules" will take a look at the often-overlooked importance of how your choice of shoes and legwear affects the visual proportioning of your body.  We'll focus on short-shinners first, because they (I should say "we", because this is my category) are the majority of women out there.

By the way, to you lucky and rare neutral-shinners out there who have a balanced measurement in your upper and lower legs:  Do read on, but know that you can experiment with both the short-shinner and long-shinner "looks" and probably carry most of them off beautifully!

Question: "I feel like my shoes really change the way my skirt lengths look on me.  Am I right, and if so how do I pick shoes?"

Answer:  Footwear and legwear can make a huge difference in how the proportioning of your body looks in your overall ensemble. 

Shoe and Legwear Guidelines for:
(1)  Shorter skirts and dresses(remember what "shorter" means for you!)
(2)  Narrow-legged capris
(3)  Narrow-legged full-length pants, and
(3)  Narrow-skirted mid-calf skirts and dresses

Short-shinners
Guiding words for you: Low Vamp Shoes, Low Contrast Legwear

My thanks to the Mothership for this image!

Footwear:  A shoe that shows a lot of the top of your foot is known to shoemakers as a “low vamp” shoe.  And short-shinners, especially with these strong-horizontal-lined categories of clothing, this is YOUR footwear because a low vamp shoe adds visual length to your lower leg -- perfect to promote your visual goal of "more you, less shoe"!  Classic low vamp examples:  Ballet flats -- the most extreme low vamp of which are the infamous "toe cleavage" ballet flats -- and the J. Crew Juliet-style mid- to high-heeled pump.  The "more you, less shoe" effect is even more powerful in tall low vamp heels, because the top of your foot's visible in the semi-vertical position.

Legwear:  Minimize the contrast between shoe color and leg color.  Aim to blend or match the color of your legs (socks, tights or full-length pants legs) to the color of your shoes.  Shoes that contrast too much with the color on your legs will increase the appearance that your legs are weirdly cut off too soon. 

The only no-fail exception to the short-shinners' low vamp-low contrast guideline is wearing a low vamp, high-heeled pump with a nude leg.  That's an exceptionally pretty look on a short-shinner because it so dramatically elongates the lower leg. 

High vamp shoes, of course, are just the opposite of low vamp shoes -- they're footwear that comes up high onto the top of your foot.  Examples are shooties, booties, oxfords of every heel height, and most sneakers.  The worst visual-proportioning offender for short-shinners (with any clothing, actually) is the high vamp shoe worn with high-contrast legwear.   If you just looooooove and want to wear high vamp footwear (and I do, too), choose a high vamp shoe that matches or closely blends with your leg color.  Or wear low-contrasting socks and full-length pants in a color that "blends" with the shoe.  Remember, your goal is to make your leg and foot disappear into each other -- "more you, less shoe"!

I mentioned that sneakers are almost always a high-vamp shoe.  So, with "more you, less shoe" in mind, short-shinners, are you having an AHA! moment?  Now you know why the reason why most women -- because most women are short-shinners -- instinctively prefer the way sneakers look worn with no socks (or no-shows).  See, your brain's telling you how to visually correct your proportions and you didn't even realize it!

I encourage you to see how these simple guidelines work for you.  Of course, how you wear your own wardrobe can't simply be dictated by a set of math-based visual proportioning tricks.  Only you can decide how all of this jives with your own tastes.  So use what helps you feel and look like your best YOU, and toss the rest.  Compromise is A-OK because the most important rule is this: You should love it if you're gonna own it and wear it!

Please e-mail me at jcauncmom@gmail.com if you have more questions about any of the concepts I've discussed, other wardrobe "fit" questions, or requests for future wardrobe tips & tricks posts!

Tips & Tricks for Short-Shinners: Skirt Length Rules FAQ's (Part 2) - Shoes & Legwear

Tips & Tricks: Skirt Length Rules FAQ's (Part 1)

Wow, is it ever true that time flies.  This past weekend I got an e-mail notice that a new comment had been made at my two-part post entitled "How to Decide Your Ideal Skirt Length" (Part I here and Part II here).  Imagine my surprise at discovering that those posts were published 18 months ago!

Since some of the best skirt-wearing times of the year are just around the corner, I thought that over the next few days I'd post some FAQ's about the "skirt length rules" and related topics.  If you haven't read my original posts, peek before you read on so that "short shinner" and "long shinner" are terms you'll understand!  And y'all, listen -- what I'm going to tell you is based upon my fairly extensive experience and education in the garment trade, but these are my opinions, and you're entitled to decide that you disagree.  I only ask that you do so respectfully. :-)

1.   Question:  “[F]or the top [leg] measurement, are you talking about [measuring from] the top of the hip above the bellybutton or lower down? I'm coming up with 21" on top and 14" on the bottom which seems crazy!?!”

Answer:  Those measurements aren’t crazy at all for a short-shinner!  Measure your upper leg length from the middle of your kneecap upwards to the protruding (you can feel it even you can’t see it) part of your outer hipbone that is just below your bellybutton.  To put it another way -- see on this illustration how your pelvis is shaped kind of like an abstract pair of Mickey Mouse ears?  You’re measuring from the upper-outer corner of either one of the Mickey Mouse ears (right around what's labeled -- and misspelled -- here as the "spina ilaca"), down to the middle of your kneecap on the same side.

2.   Question:  "How does the "skirt length rule" apply to wearing shorts?"

Answer:  Use the same skirt length rule to determine your optimal shorts length. Short-shinners will look better in shorter shorts.  Long-shinners are born to be Bermuda shorts girls.

3.   Question: “Is there math to the right length of capris/crop pants? I have never -- as in, ever -- had any idea how long they should be on me...”

Answer:  Yep, the same "visual proportioning" rules and some related concepts apply for wearing capris.

Short-shinners

Capri length:  To visually correct your proportions, you’re gonna want more of your lower leg to show.  So hem or roll your capris so that they stop at the fullest part of your calf, leaving a nice “swell” of calf and showing.  Try on a pair of your J. Crew café capris, roll the leg to the length I'm suggesting and look at the difference 2 - 3 inches makes!

Capri leg width:  I realize this is mildly controversial, but I promise you, short-shinners, you're going to look better in narrow-legged capris even if you're a girl with some hips.  Why?  Because the more closely the hem of your capris hugs your legs, the more it appears that your capris and your legs are one nice, elongated visual unit.  A wider pants leg visually chops up the line of your leg, much like a skirt hem does. 

Long-shinners

Capri length:  Your thighs are longer than your calves, so you want to visually shorten your lower leg by having less of it showing.  Therefore, your capris are going to look better in a lower-hitting hem -- one that ends between the smaller tapering part of your calf and no less than about 4 inches above the "knob" of your ankle. 

Capri leg width:  Surprise!  Long-shinners, you are ALSO going to look best in a narrower capri leg, but you can successfully carry off a bit more width than your short-shinned friends (say, a stovepipe-shaped pant leg).

And let me just say this to everybody -- again, perhaps igniting a flame war, but I'm sticking to this opinion like Custer's Last Stand:  A wide-legged cropped pant is simply not an optimal look on any woman.  For that matter, cuffs on a cropped pant of any width aren't great, either -- they add bulk at just the wrong place, unless they're skinnied-up in that mysterious folding trick that J. Crew uses.  Promise me that if you're just jonesing to wear wide-legged capris, you'll at least pay close attention to where they're hemmed.

4.  Question:  "How does your [hemline] rule apply to wearing longer skirts?"

Answer:  Just like it applies to capris.

Short-shinners

To hem a below-the-knee skirt, apply the "capris rules".  Allow as much of your lower leg to show as you can without significantly altering the "look" and flow of your skirt.

Long-shinners

Apply your "capris rules".  Stop the hemline no lower than about 4 inches above the "knob" of your ankle.

That's it for now, y'all.   Part 2 coming tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

Tips & Tricks: Skirt Length Rules FAQ's (Part 1)

Tips & Tricks: For Short-Waisted and Long-Waisted Girls

Hey everyone!

I've gotten several requests over the past couple of weeks to share more of the tips and tricks I learned in my years as a clothes peddler.  I thought I'd start by recapping for y'all a real basic:  Short-Waisted versus Long-Waisted.

You all know by now that I'm a short-shinned, long-thighed girl.  I didn't figure that out til I was almost 30.  And at the same time I discovered that I am short-waisted. Yeah, I know, you're thinking "Is she kidding me? How could she not KNOW she was short-waisted??"  After all, we see it in the mirror our whole lives; we know this small detail about our physique, right?  I'm here to tell ya, not necessarily.  I'll tell you my little story, but if you'd prefer to skip ahead to tips and tricks, scroll down.  You won't hurt my feelings one bit! 

I am boyishly shaped.  I've got no waist, I have broad shoulders and I have long skinny legs -- think: a narrow rectangle on Popsicle sticks -- and I seem taller and longer than I really am.  I think I've mentioned that people always describe me as "around five foot six or so", when in fact I'm five foot four.  My mother looked at my shape, considered the fact that I needed pants "long in the stride" (a fact which, incidentally, is totally unrelated), and simply concluded -- and told me -- that I was long-waisted.  My relatives backed her up -- at every family event I heard "Look how long you're getting, for heaven's sake!"  And I believed my people. When I was fresh out of law school I read every article I could find on how to dress for being long-waisted, and I followed that advice with great care, trying my best to look mature and elegant in front of the infuriating older, male trial judges who regarded me with such condescending, toying amusement.  (There's a topic for another post, girls. Stay tuned.)

I'd been practicing for about a year when an older woman lawyer invited me to go shopping with her to a "home trunk show."  This was, in fact, my introduction to the line of clothes that I'd one day sell.  It was also my introduction to understanding the proportions of my body correctly.  The "consultant" who was hosting us pulled just a couple of fabulous items for me to try on, saying "This is just for size and style so I can make some notes about you for the future!!"  And as I tried on clothes, she educated me, tactfully but firmly, about what I should be wearing, and why.  She was spot-on in her advice, and I figured out real fast that I'd been wearing almost everything completely wrong, from colors to shapes to proportions.

The very first misconception that she exploded was my firm belief that I was long-waisted.  I am, in fact, ridiculously short-waisted, and I have a very narrow natural waist which just aggravates the "short-waisted effect".  As I found out, whether you're long-waisted or short-waisted has nothing to do with the shape of your torso; it has everything to do with the length of your torso relative to the lower half of you.  It's another one of those simple measure-and-compare facts, girls, like your leg proportions.

Wanna see for yourself what you truly are?  You will need your trusty measuring tape, a mirror, a piece of paper and a pen. 

• Measure from the top of your head to your natural waist (**more in a moment on how to find that). 
• Now measure from your natural waist to the floor. 
• If you're longer on the top than on the bottom, you're long-waisted.  If you're shorter on top than on the bottom, you're short-waisted.  It's that simple.

**Finding your true natural waist is kinda fun, because you may discover that it's not where you thought it was or that it's not nearly as wide as you thought it was.   Here's how to do it:

• Place your thumb into your armpit on the same side of the body and gently slide your thumb down in a straight line along your side until you can just barely tuck your thumbnail underneath the edge of your bottom rib.  To find the right spot to stop, it may help if you lean slightly in the other direction, as if you were s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g your torso.  Once you find your bottom rib and get your thumb into position, stand upright again, keeping your thumb firmly where it is.
• Now gently trail your index finger from the same hand downwards away from your thumb. Stop moving your index finger as soon as you begin to feel even the tiniest trace of a curve outwards in your body's shape.
• Look in the mirror at the visual distance between your thumb and your index finger. That gap that you see between thumb and index finger is your entire natural waist!
• Now carefully pull your hand away from your side, keeping your index finger and thumb in exactly the same positions, and plant your hand down onto the piece of paper, marking where your thumb and index finger landed.  Measure the distance between those two points.  This is the width of your natural waist.  A distance of 1" to 1.25" is typical of someone short-waisted. 

So what do you DO with this interesting info? Well, you can change the way you look in your clothes in subtle but very flattering ways by deploying a few tricks of the trade. This is another one of those "fix the proportion visually" situations, as is choosing your skirt length.

If you're short-waisted:
Your torso is shorter than your lower half, so your natural waist will tend to look like it rides high.  To correct your body's upper half/lower half proportions, you're going to want to visually lengthen your torso and pull your observer's eye down so that your waist appears to be lower on your body.   A few short-waisted girl tricks:

• Match your belt color to the color of your top. The visual effect is that you add the width of your belt to the length of your torso -- i.e., if your belt's an inch wide, your torso looks an inch longer.
• Wear your belt as if it were a waist bracelet instead of wearing it as if it were holding up your pants or skirt. When you put on your belt, hook it one hole looser than snug. This little trick makes your belt buckle hang just a teeny bit forward and down, so that the visual silhouette of your belt is a gentle "V" instead of a horizontal line around you. Your waist appears lower on your body.  
• Following that same reasoning, avoid wide belts unless they're contoured belts (C-shaped). Contoured belts tend to hang a little lower in front naturally. :-)
• Avoid tucking in your tops when possible.  If you want or need to tuck in, make sure you're tucked in smoothly -- you don't want waist bunching -- and be sure to apply the "waist bracelet" belt trick.
• Be careful with short cardis or short jackets.   I know they're cute and I break my own rules to wear them, too.  But they can visually cut you in half.  Best if they're matched or blended closely to the color of your pants or skirt.  It also helps to wear a longer shirt/cami/tank/sweater and let it hang out from underneath.
• Longer cardis or jackets (v-necks especially) are a short-waisted girl's friends.  Leave them open or unbelted.  This is a perfect quick fix for the disproportion between your top and your bottom halves. 

If you're long-waisted:
Your torso is longer than your lower half, so your natural waist will tend to look like it rides low.   To correct your body's upper half/lower half proportions, you're going to want to visually shorten your torso and pull your observer's eye up so that your waist appears to be higher on your body.   A few long-waisted girl tricks:

• Match your belt color to the color of your bottoms.  You don't want the extra inch of torso that would be created by matching the belt to your top.
• Wear your belt snug.  Unlike your short-waisted friends, you don't want to let your belt droop at all -- you want your waist to appear as high as possible.
• Following that same reasoning, wide belts are best worn cinched on you, and you can wear a straight, wide belt.
• Tucked-in tops and empire-waisted tops are good options for you.  If you wear a long top, try belting it in the middle.
• Be careful with long cardis or jackets.  You don't need to add length to your upper half, so if you're jonesing to wear a long 'n lean topper, belt it in the middle.  
• Short cardis or jackets can be a long-waisted girl's very best options, as long as you make sure they hit you right at or just slightly below your natural waist.  A cardi or jacket that's too short will hit you above your natural waist and make you look like your clothes have shrunk! 

And if you're that rare woman whose upper and lower halves are pretty evenly proportioned:

Well, I hate ya, but that's beside the point. :-)  All you need to do is follow two simple rules:

• Since you don't have to choose clothes that will help to correct a disproportion, you should choose your clothes to highlight whatever you feel is your best body feature.
• Wear fitted (different from tight) clothes.  Don't wear baggy clothes -- they'll distort your lovely proportions.

I hope you'll find this helpful, Crewsers!  See you tomorrow -- I am off to have a glass of wine and study the FS section of the Crewniverse before dinner.  Just in case I've missed any short-waisted girl gems.

Tips & Tricks: For Short-Waisted and Long-Waisted Girls

Tips & Tricks: Using Your "Skinny Bits"

Well, girls, I've about used up my blog time this afternoon pathetically begging for my other blog (see my previous post :-)), but I do want to share with you quickly another of the many tips & tricks I learned in my years in the clothing biz.

This one's about your "Skinny Bits".

"Skinny Bits" is a rag trade term that refers to the two faithful parts of a woman's body that stay slim, no matter what, 99.9999% of the time.  No matter the shape of the rest of you, your Skinny Bits are always on standby to help you look taller, longer and leaner.  And they reliably work their magic every single time you ask them to.  I always thought "Skinny Bits" was a wonderful, well-deserved, vaguely British, fabulously cheeky-sounding term to use to name two such magnificent body parts. 

Your Skinny Bits are:

• Your forearms from mid-elbow down and
• Your upper chest and neck; specifically, the V-shaped area that starts just at the top of a little peek of cleavage (that's the bottom of the V) and extends upward in a fairly narrow V to include your upper chest, a bit of collarbone area and your neck.
  

For some mysterious reason my partner and I always had a lot of short women as customers, and "Skinny Bits" became their second favorite fashion trick (right behind "Find Your Perfect Skirt Length").

The trick is all about creating the illusion of more length, leanness, and height for you using visual "V" silhouettes.  Here's how the Skinny Bits help you do this.

Your neck/chest Skinny Bit area helps to draw the human eye (the person looking at you, in other words) in the shape of a "V".  Your observer will naturally and not at all consciously be drawn to look from your shoulder to your other shoulder to your waist.  The impression that's subtly created is that YOU are "V"-shaped.  Oo-la-la, shades of Barbie.  Who doesn't want to have a tinier waist??  Your neck/chest SB also creates visual length for your neck, which is universally flattering to the face.  Of course, the easiest way to highlight the neck/chest Skinny Bit is by wearing V-necked blouses and cardigans (with a tiny bit of cami showing -- that's fine and doesn't break the visual line).  But don't worry if you're wearing a crew or scoop-necked top --- just create more visual length from your neck down (the illusion of a V-neck, if you will) by wearing mid-length necklaces that hang in that "V" shape.

Your forearms Skinny Bit also helps you create a subtle visual "V" shape -- this time, an inverted V that's formed by looking UP your arm (which hangs, of course, slightly away from your body), to your armpit, then down the side of your body back to your waist.  To get the human eye of your observer to travel that very flattering, very feminine inverted "V", simply push up your sleeves to just below the crook of your elbow.  Now your exposed, slim forearm (with a little eye-catching bling on it, perhaps) catches the eye, and starts the eye traveling UP to the elbow and thru the inverted "V" of this Skinny Bit.  The effect is to create a visually long, lean extension of your upper body.  Fabulous.  We used to tell our customers NEVER to wear their long-sleeved tops or casual jackets all the way to the wrist.  So girls, push those sleeves up and look at the difference in the mirror -- it's like you just lost 3 pounds, I'm tellin' ya.  If your sleeves are wide, fold them like you'd do the hem of jeans in the famous J. Crew "skinny fold".  The object is to have a slim-lined bunch of fabric at the elbow, not a big messy wad.

By the way, the existence of the universally-flattering forearm Skinny Bit is precisely why 3/4-length-sleeved henleys and tees look good on almost everyone!

One other tiny tip related to the forearm Skinny Bit:  When you buy a jacket, pay attention to how WIDE the sleeves are.  If they're bulky, especially below the elbow, have the sleeve tapered from top to bottom by a seamstress.  The technical term for this tapering (and you should ask to have this done with your trousers, too, when you have them hemmed, but that's a topic for another post) is "pegging" -- it means gradually narrowing from top to bottom, or in this case from shoulder to wrist.  Next time you try on a jacket in the store, fold back that wide sleeve and look at the difference in the mirror.  Once again, girls, this is one of those small expenditures that will make a HUGE difference in the way your clothes fit and look.

That's it for now -- nothing complex here, just a ridiculously simple but never-fail trick or two to make you feel and look like a tall(er) drink of cool water!

Tips & Tricks: Using Your "Skinny Bits"

Tips & Tricks: How to Decide Your Ideal Skirt Length (Part 2)

Hi again, everybody! In my previous post I mentioned that one of the things I learned in my years in the "high-end rag trade" was how to size and fit my customers proportionally correctly.  Believe it or not, your 'ideal skirt length' is something you can figure out to an exact mathematically-perfect measurement.  It's worth taking the time to do, because you're going to present your most well-groomed, elegant self when your skirts are proportionally correct for your body.

In a female body with ideal leg proportions (like the cute gal at left), the length of the upper leg (top of hipbone to mid-kneecap) and the length of the lower leg (mid-kneecap to mid-ankle bone) would be identical numbers.  But this body type -- we'll call her the "neutral-shinner" -- is pretty rare.  Almost all of us have some significant difference between our upper leg and the lower leg measurements.  The most common "leg type" among American women is long upper leg-short lower leg, which is what I have.  Call us "short-shinners".  The less common leg type is short upper leg-long lower leg ("long-shinners"). 

The result of our varying leg proportions is that we don't all look equally fabulous in the same skirt lengths, and you're about to understand why.

Don't assume you know your leg proportions just because of your height, by the way.  Whether you're short-shinned or long-shinned is not connected to how tall you are.  Go grab your tape measure and take your leg measurements (with a helper, if needed).  Here's how to do it:

• First, place your fingertip right on the protruding knobby outer part of your hipbone just below the navel.  (If you're having trouble finding this spot, think of your pelvic bone and hips as being shaped like a pair of "Mickey Mouse" ears, and now put your fingertip on the top outer edge of the Mickey Mouse ear.)

• Next, take your measuring tape, and measure precisely from the place where your fingertip is resting on your hipbone straight down the outside of your leg to the middle of your kneecap.  This is your upper leg length.  Mine's 17 inches.

• Now place your fingertip onto the middle of your kneecap -- right where you ended the upper leg measurement -- and slide your fingertip out carefully from there, in a straight line, to the outside edge of your kneecap.  Starting from that exact place, measure straight down to the middle of your ankle bone.  That's your lower leg length.  Mine's 13 inches.  I have 4 inches less leg on the bottom than on the top.  I am a classic short-shinner.
  

Now, try to imagine me in a skirt -- any style -- that hits me at my knee or hovers just below my knee.  No matter what shoes I am wearing, I will still look like I'm Ms. Frump standing in a hole.  This is because when you look at me, I'm all skirt.  Visually, my legs seem to appear out from underneath this long piece of fabric and abruptly disappear too soon!

I'll use myself as an example to illustrate how to use the formula for figuring out how long your skirts should be:

• LONGER leg length (for me, that's the upper leg at 17 inches) minus SHORTER leg length (for me, that's the lower leg at 13 inches) = DIFFERENCE (for me, 4 inches) -- This is the "discrepancy" between your leg proportions.

• Half of DIFFERENCE (for me, 4) = YOUR MAGIC NUMBER.  For me, the MAGIC NUMBER is 2 inches -- In other words, if my shins were 2 inches longer and my thighs were 2 inches shorter, my upper and lower legs would be perfectly proportional.

• To VISUALLY correct your leg proportions if you're a short-shinner:  Raise your skirt hem ABOVE the middle of your kneecap exactly the same number of inches as your "MAGIC NUMBER."

• To VISUALLY correct your leg proportions if you're a long-shinner:  Drop your hemline BELOW the middle of your kneecap by exactly the same number of inches as your "MAGIC NUMBER". 

Thus, for me, if I place my skirt hem 2 inches above the middle of my kneecap, then when you look at my leg silhouette you see 50% skirt and 50% leg.  A visually-perfected, more eye-pleasing proportion!  When I figured this out,

Once I understood my "MAGIC NUMBER", I applied it to all of my clothes.  Miniskirts and 5"-inseam shorts became my friends for life.  (And by the way, this little mystery was forever solved for me:  Why I Look Like Crap in Bermuda Shorts. ;-))  I do keep a couple of business suits hemmed just a shade longer because there are certainly situations in which we need to err on the side of conservative clothing. 

If you're a long-shinner, you need to wear your skirts longer to visually correct the proportions of your short thighs and long shins.  You look great in Bermuda shorts, too, but not shorter shorts for the same mathematical and visual reason.

Try these tips for yourselves, everybody.  I promise you it will change the way you strategically view your entire lower-body wardrobe.  Short-shinners, pin up some of your knee-length skirts.  Long-shinners, put away your 5" shorts and minis and try on a pair of Bermudas or a pencil skirt.  Now  look in the mirror at the difference.  Hem your skirts to your "correct length" if they need hemming.  Pay for it if you don't sew.  I'll tell you what I told my clothing customers for years:  If you pay top dollar for a great skirt and it looks mediocre on you, you've wasted every nickel.  But if you spend an extra $15 to have that skirt hemmed to the perfect length for your body, your off-the-rack great skirt will look like a $1,000 custom-tailored skirt. 
 
That's the basics, y'all!  If you have any specific questions feel free to comment or e-mail me at jcauncmom@gmail.com.   Hope this has been a fun and helpful read, and happy measuring!!

Tips & Tricks: How to Decide Your Ideal Skirt Length (Part 2)

Tips & Tricks: How To Decide Your Ideal Skirt Length (Part I)

Good afternoon, everybody!

I am recuperating from a bout of weirdly off-season out-of-nowhere bronchitis, which totally wrecked all holiday plans for us besides DH bringing me soup on a tray. :-)  Sweet sweet man, my DH.

And I'm under doc's orders to do pretty much nothing til Friday -- meaning, for me, life in temporary purgatory, since I'm a workout-a-day-aholic.  Also meaning that I've got unusual time on my hands, so I've been reading and catching up on your blogs, playing on Polyvore and coming dangerously close to busting out my AmEx card again for no really compelling reason.  Even QVC's starting to look enticing.  Yikes.

I caught Gi Gi's post about the luscious double serge pencil skirts (Sidebar (as we lawyers say): Gi Gi, you're looking fab-u-LUSS, girl).  Here, she was musing about whether to get the Regular or Petite skirt:

I also ordered the skirts in 4p and had a hard time deciding if they looked better than the size 2. Ultimately I went with the size 2 because a more covered knee = a more professional or demure look. The 4P wasn't like a miniskirt or anything. It just clicked that my legs are a little on the longer side for a shortie so sometimes I prefer regular sizes.

Definitely true that a more covered knee = more demure, more covered, more traditionally professional.  But Gi Gi's comment reminded me of my add-on belief, based on experience, which is that on some women, a tiny bit of knee showing actually creates -- sneakily and subliminally -- a more perfectly professional look. That is, if what you're aiming for is a skirt length that says "Oh yes, I'm aware that I'm an educated and accomplished woman and that I'm a peer amongst you men.  But that doesn't mean that I have to sacrifice just the right trace of femininity in my clothes.  Notice my absolutely perfectly-tailored power ensemble including this gorgeous skirt which is neither matronly nor showy but which hits my leg at exactly the right spot to make me look fabulous."  

How do we each find that "sweet spot" where our appropriate-but-oh-so-flattering hems should hit?  Well, yours truly can tell ya.  I will now publicly, for the first time, share a trick I used to teach my customers about skirt length.

Customers, you say? Yep.  I did have 'em, and I do have "street cred" on this stuff.

Many years back, during one of my periodic hiatuses from my law practice (I have a really juvenile attention span, I've decided :-)) , I co-owned a women's clothing business.  My partner and I sold for one of the uber-expensive brands that is sold thru "home shows" (we used to call it Tupperware Togs, but of course only where our big-spending customers couldn't hear us :-)).  The majority of our customers were lawyers, doctors, and other high-falutin' executive-type gals, and what we sold them for the most part was executive office wear.

We did well (for lots of reasons, a big one of which was that we were just plain lucky because, as "temporarily retired" professionals, we naturally had an easier time attracting customers from our own peer group).  In our six years in the biz we sold a boatload of clothes for the company (which still exists, still makes gazillions of dollars, and is privately-held by the lone SOB misogynistic owner -- but that's another ironic tale.) In our 4th year of selling the company asked us to join the faculty at their semi-annual training institute for novice "consultants" (saleswomen, in fancy parlance).  They taught us what and how to teach the newbies, and we loved hamming it up on stage.  Two years later they recruited us to move full-time away from sales and onto the management side of the house, as salaried "Regional Trainers."  This sounded vaguely glamorous and a whole lot more fun than our commissioned and increasingly hectic business.  And they trained us some more, so we enjoyed that.  But the job turned out to be much more of a traveling grind for us working moms than we'd thought it would be.  So after 18 months we both moved on to other horizons.


Overall, though, it was pretty darned wonderful to be immersed in the insiders' world of almost-haute-couture fashion for years.  I learned so much about fabric (I recognize all the mills where J. Crew buys their silk, linen and wools), garment construction (and what to look for to see how well something's made and where the corners were cut), alterations techniques, color and pattern mixing, sizing and -- here's the biggie for today -- how to clothe my customers in garments and patterns that were proportionally correct for their bodies.

We passed along lots of tips to our customers over the years -- we even accompanied them to get their clothes altered so we could teach them along the way.  Gauging from their responses, the number one fave tip by FAR was how to answer this question: How do I decide where to hem my skirts or what length to buy?


I'm going to tell YOU how to answer this question... in Part 2 of this post.  Only because Part 1 has gotten seriously long.  Grab your tape measure (not optional) and I'll be back as soon as I throw some chicken in the oven for dinner. :-)

Tips & Tricks: How To Decide Your Ideal Skirt Length (Part I)