I’m often asked about leg lengthening tips, especially by those who are petite or are proportionally shorter in the legs than their torso. If this is you read on as there are quite a few ways that you can visually elongate your legs and/or create a more balanced silhouette if you are proportionally shorter here.
Wearing one uninterrupted colour from head to toe, rather than chopping the body up with lots of different blocks of colour, works really well. This is why dresses in one colour or tops and trousers/skirts in the same colour work so well.
If you like dresses, and are petite in height, an empire line dress like the one shown here is particularly good, as the seam sits higher than the natural waistline and so we see length from that point.
High waist trousers elongate the legs as they add inches to the length of the trousers. We see one long length from the top of the waistband to the hemline.
Low waist trousers do the opposite as they visually reduce length from the waist to the hemline.
Long simple trousers again make the legs appear longer, whereas cropped trousers visually ‘cut’ the leg area.
If you’re a fan of cropped trousers then wearing shoes/boots in the same colour as your trousers can help to continue the line of colour.
Cargo trousers are often best avoided too as too many details on the leg visually break up its appearance.
An obvious one perhaps, but if you want to elongate the appearance of your legs add a heel so that you can wear slightly longer trousers.
Low vamp shoes, ie., those that show as much of your foot as possible, work really well as we see all of the leg. Ankle straps or gladiator style shoes do the opposite and interrupt the line of vision.
A shoe that is a similar colour to your skin tone is great with skirts/dresses when you’re not wearing tights as again it doesn’t visually interrupt the look of the leg.
I hope these tips are useful. As with all styling tips they need to be considered alongside your style personality, silhouette, height and scale as it may be that for you personally other things are more important. My style personality, for example, is such that I love to add a bit of drama to some of my looks, so whilst I know as someone who is petite that I look better in longer trousers, I’m currently enjoying wearing cropped and wider leg styles with contrasting coloured boots! For me, style personality is the most important part of the style jigsaw.