← Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
244 | June Q&A - Skirt Lengths for Short Legs, Wedding Guest Outfits You'll Rewear, and More!
00:21:36
Welcome back to HER Style Podcast! I’m not happy about how fast this year is flying, but the bright side is that it’s already time for another monthly Q&A round-up episode! I absolutely love receiving your questions, hearing what you’re...
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- [00:01]
Heather Riggs
Welcome back to Her Style Podcast. I'm not happy about how fast this year is flying by, but the bright side is that it's already time for another monthly Q and A roundup episode. I absolutely love receiving your questions, hearing what you're curious about and want to dive deeper into, and having the opportunity to help you solve some of your top shopping and styling challenges for free right here on the show. Today we're covering questions from our friends Emily, Suzanne and Allison. We're talking about the best, best skirt lengths and styles for short legs, how to pick a wedding guest dress you can actually rewear, and my top styling tips and rules of thumb when it comes to cardigans. This one is going to be packed with practical advice to keep you feeling your most stylish all season long. Pull up a chair and get cozy. We're about to dive into this month's listener Q and A.
- [00:58]
Co-host or Guest
Welcome to Her Style Podcast where we're all about empowering you to show up and get dressed every day with confidence. I'm your host Heather Riggs, a 15 year and counting certified image consultant and color specialist ready to build a wardrobe and a personal style you love. Let's get started.
- [01:25]
Heather Riggs
I'm not going to waste any time. We're going to jump right in because.
- [01:28]
Co-host or Guest
I have some really good questions to.
- [01:30]
Heather Riggs
Cover today and our first one comes from our friend Emily. She emailed me and said I will soon be turning 50 and I'm now more than ever wanting to have a wardrobe that reflects who I am. One area I struggle with most is finding clothes that suit my pear shaped body and short legs. Having a natural, feminine and creative style, I'm drawn to wearing exciting pieces such as vintage 1960s in particular that are still quite understated. Especially for my office job. I'm drawn to styles such as midi skirts or above the knee skirts and dresses, but with my pear shape and disproportionate short thick legs, I never feel they look right on me. I own long skirts throughout summer and wear pants in winter and to work a lot, but I'm feeling bored. I use Pinterest and it's definitely given me ideas, but when I try outfits I feel like they look wrong on me. If you have any other tips beside what's been covered in your earlier podcasts, that would be great. And Emily, of course I do. I'm always happy to dive deeper into any topic that we've already covered and of course take a spin on it considering your personal circumstances. So I have quite a few tips that I'm gonna share with you today to help you make those midi skirts and above the knee skirts that you love so much really work to flatter you. I believe that you can make anything work better. So it's not that you can't wear something, but it's how can you wear something to best flatter your body shape, your proportions, your personal style, all of those different elements that really need to come together to make you look and feel your very best. So the first thing that I wanna offer up to you is trying color continuity. And what I mean by that is choosing midi skirts that are either in a nude or skin tone adjacent color, and then also picking shoes that are in a similar tone. So the idea is to stick to one color on your lower half. That's really going to help to elongate the appearance of your legs dramatically. If you want, you can opt for lighter or darker hues as well. And then you can just put on some matching hosiery and shoes. So, for example, if you have fair skin, but you want to opt for a black skirt, then maybe you're going to also wear black tights and matching black kitten heels. The colors do not have to be an exact match, but you're going to want to try to keep things to a similar contrast level. So you want to go for all light tones, all medium tones, or all dark tones so that there's not a distinct difference. We really want your lower half to read as all one unit. Sometimes the biggest downside to miniskirts and why they don't work for petite body types is that they cut off the leg in a really awkward spot and they can make you look even shorter. Anytime you're drawing that hard horizontal line across your body, it's going to cut at that visual spot. So if you are working to maintain one continuous color throughout your lower half, this is really going to help to blur that line and make the hemline less of a focal point. You can also take this a step further and just aim for one column of color throughout your entire outfit. So you could also opt for a monochromatic look or a simple one color outfit from head to toe. And this is also going to help to lengthen the appearance of your whole body. So just keep in mind the colors that you're pairing up. I think it will really make a difference if you stick to one continuous color for your skirt, your legs or tights, and the shoes that you're wearing. Another thing that you can do is to focus on creating optimal top to bottom balance. Now if you're self conscious about the thickness of your legs, along with your pear shape, which friend I can totally relate, it can definitely help to create more vis on your upper half. You might want to try adding some volume or interesting details around your shoulders. Think puff sleeves. That might appeal to your feminine aesthetic a little bit as well. You could also try more of a boat neckline or vintage inspired collars, things that are going to add a little bit of interest, weight and kind of that broadening effect through your upper body. This is going to help to create some more upward direction visually in your outfit and really balance out your body's shape. So anytime you can add some visual weight on your upper half, it's going to help to make your lower half look a little bit narrower and better balanced with your overall outfit. You could also try adding some texture or patterns up top. This is going to be especially fun with some of those vintage styles. And again, it's going to help to draw the eye up and away from your legs. So do consider the overall balance of your outfit in addition to the color continuity and the proportions. Another trick that you might want to try is playing with some good waist definition. If you look for high waisted midi skirts, that's number one going to help to lengthen through your lower half. Keeping in mind if you're not also short waisted, which I'm thinking if you mention that you have shorter legs, it'll probably be okay to raise the waistline on your skirt. So maybe opt for higher waisted styles and then make sure that they have a slight flare. This can again really help to define and draw the eye to your waist and then it'll subtly graze over your hips and and your thighs in a really flattering way, especially if you pair it with a tucked or cropped blouse. When the hemline of your dress or skirt gradually flares out, it can help to make your thighs and calves look narrower in comparison. So pay attention to where the hemline falls as well. You're probably going to want to aim for it to hit at one of the narrowest parts of your leg, for example, just above or below the knee. That could be an ideal placement. And the last thing to remember is to be mindful about your shoes. We already talked about the importance of choosing a flattering color and that either correlates with your skin tone or your tights. But it's also helpful to opt for shoes that have a low vamp or ankle exposure to help elongate the lower leg visually. So you want to try a more open style of shoe. I know that T strap Mary Janes, for example, are adorable and such a cool vintage look, but they're really going to cut the visual line of your leg off at the ankle. Remember, anytime you're adding horizontal lines in your body, it's going to draw the eye there and also keep create a separation. So unless you're wearing a shoe that is matching your skin tone or your tights exactly, you're probably going to want to consider a more open style of shoe or maybe something that has an almond or pointed toe shape to help further extend the line of your leg. Emily, I hope that these simple tips really help you to style your beloved MIDI and knee length skirts in even more flattering ways. You can absolutely make them work. Don't deny yourself the pieces that you love to wear. Let's just find ways to make them work even better for you. All right, our next question came in from Suzanne and I have to say this is a new friend Suzanne. I don't know if you've been listening for a long time. You might remember when I had zero questions in the queue and I was doing these Q and A episodes every single week and so I sent out an SOS to some of my girlfriends and my friend Suzanne sent me a whole handful of questions that I covered over the course of a month or so and we called it the Suzanne Series as a joke because I was literally just answering all of her questions from week to week. Want to shout out to the original Suzanne and anyone who has sent in questions since then to really keep this podcast going strong. But anyway, today Suzanne said I'm attending a summer wedding and the attire requested is summer formal. The invitation further describes that men can wear suits and ties of any color and women are asked to wear a floor length gown. Do you have any suggestions for a style of dress that could be accessorized to appear more summer formality but could be worn more simply as a summer dress when the wedding is over? I thought about renting but I'd rather invest in a piece that I can add to my wardrobe and wear more often. I'm an hourglass and usually find fit and flare styles to work best. Any suggestions of what to choose or where to find styles that might be able to blend this line would be appreciated. And Suzanne, this is such a fun question. I love a summer wedding and you know me and my thing for formal dresses. So I'm very excited to support you with finding the perfect re wearable dress for the occasion. You are so smart to look for options that you can wear in multiple ways and beyond this one off event. So as you said, you already know what shapes work best on you and I do think that if you could look for maybe a strapless or square neck or even a twist front dress in a really natural fabric like cotton, a linen blend or even a light tencel, I think those fabrics are going to be much easier to dress up or down. And then like you said, stick with a fit and flare or even an a line maxi dress style that's going to work beautifully for your shape and it'll also give you a really simple silhouette to work with for future outfit styling. My best recommendation is to keep things simple in terms of the color and print. I would probably opt for just a solid color dress, but you could also try simple stripes or maybe a soft floral print just to give you some maximum versatility. Obviously pick some colors or one hue that you're going to be excited to re wear. I think blush, pink, coral, teal or even navy are all going to be universally flattering options, but still feel summer appropriate and yet not so bold that you can't re wear them again. The most important thing though is to consider the right fabric. You're probably going to want to avoid any shiny satins or metallic fabric so that you can dress this look down more easily. Later you're going to want to look for maybe a slightly textured or just matte fabric so that you can style it casually with a simple pair of flats. For a low key brunch date or warm weather occasions, maybe just an easy pair of your go to sandals. And keep in mind though, with a maxi length dress you may need to have it hemmed after the wedding so that you can wear it more easily with flats. If you're going to do a wedge or a heel for the wedding, it may be too long to then wear with sandals, just depending on where it falls. And then the last thing is to do some smart accessorizing. So for the wedding you could take a simple, really basic maxi length dress and dress it up with a bold pair of statement earrings. Obviously some metallic heels would look amazing. Grab a pretty clutch and then style your hair and makeup in a really elegant way just to make it feel very polished and put together. And then for more casual looks, as I said, you could wear flats. You could add a raffia or even crossbody bag, add some simple hoop earrings or layered necklaces if you like a beachy boho look. So it's really all about how you're accessorizing and putting your whole outfit together and hopefully you can find something that matches that description with a really simple fabric, color and silhouette that you can wear in lots of different ways. I am going to leave you with a few ideas of where to look for this dress and keep in mind this is not an exhaustive list and I don't know what your budget is for this piece, but for a simple and versatile maxi dress I would personally start with Banana Republic. Reformation has the most gorgeous dresses. Anthropologie is probably a great option. Nordstrom or your favorite department store, maybe Bloomingdale's or Macy's. Or you could even check some of the rental platforms that have a purchase option. So if you were already looking at Rent the Runway you could check their Buy now selections. Even if you don't want to rent something, that might be a really good resource for you and I would love to know what you land on. So please post a picture of your final wedding guest look inside our free Facebook community so we can celebrate with you and give you some other ideas of how to style it for future activities. You can join us@herstylellc.com community and please, please please post your dress. Let us know what you land on. All right, our last question for today was submitted by our friend Allison. She wrote in and said I have a couple cotton cardigans on my shopping list to layer over dresses and tank tops for summer. Do you have any styling tips or rules of thumb for cardigans? I'd love to hear you talk about cardigans on one of your Q and A podcasts. So Alison, this is such a fun question too and I'm always happy to talk about specific pieces and how I personally style them and recommendations or things that to keep in mind as you're putting outfits together with those items. And I do think cardigans are such a great staple piece to have for your wardrobe because if they're light enough they can work well all throughout the year. It's just an easy way to add a little pop of color or a little bit of texture or some elegance to your outfit. So I will say one of my favorite ways to wear cardigan is buttoning it up and tucking it into a pair of high waisted jeans or a skirt and wearing it as a sweater. Cezanne styles their sweaters like this all the time and I just swoon. I think it's such a cool kind of French girl approach and it definitely makes for an easy outfit. So if you haven't already I would try styling your cardigans as a buttoned up sweater. Now, you also want to keep in mind proportions. As with everything, I think that's an important element to pay attention to. So you're probably going to want to avoid longer cardigans that are going to hit at the widest part of your hip or thigh, unless you have an inverted triangle body shape. So if your upper body is wider than your hips, if you're broader across your shoulders than your hips, you could wear a longer cardigan strategically to add some interest and visual weight on your lower half. If you want to draw the eye down to that area and make it look a little bit wider. As I said, when you're adding those horizontal lines across your body, it's going to add some visual weight there and draw the eye as well. But typically you'll probably want to aim for more of a golden ratio, which is going to be 1/3 cardigan to 2/3 bottoms or vice versa. So if you want to do a longer duster length cardigan, then you could maybe pair that with like a cute little mini skirt or something like that, just to lengthen through your lower half. But ultimately it's going to work better to pick a cardigan that's going to draw the eye more to your waist and create some great definition in your upper half. Now, as far as layering, because you did talk about grabbing that for layering over your dresses and tank tops for the summer, I think it's so great if you can just leave it unbuttoned and maybe scrunch up the sleeves a little bit. This is going to give you more relaxed, casual, effortless look. It will also help to make your legs look longer. I can't really explain why, but just trust me, if you try it, if you scrunch up your sleeves a little bit, it's going to help to make your legs look longer. So if that's a common challenge for you, give it a try. Let me know how it works. Works for you. And that's such a great piece to wear over a strappy dress or a tank top, just as you said. Now you could also try a tied front style or a cropped cardigan to keep your silhouette light and summer friendly. One of my private clients just picked up a couple of tie front cardigans and I'm loving the look of them. It's so cute with the little tie like bow detail at the front. It is feminine feeling and just a little bit sexy because it creates a subtle peekaboo effect at the front. Now, my client's been wearing them over a skin tone colored or just basic ivory camisole. But if you have a more daring and alluring personal style, you could also let your bare skin peek through if you want to. So for summer purposes in particular, you're probably going to want to look for some lightweight, breathable cotton blends that have a little bit of structure. I think in general, that's going to work better with sundresses and breezy maxi dresses than slouchy knits, which can feel a little bit heavy and add some bulk to your outfit this time of year. As I already alluded to, I think cardigans are a fabulous piece and opportunity to bring in some accent colors for your wardrobe. If you have an otherwise fairly neutral closet, bringing in some colorful cardigans are a great way to add some little touches of color to any outfit. You can also tie them in with your prints. So if you are wearing a printed sundress, maybe you're going to pull out one of those colors from the print and add a matching cardigan just to pull it all together. I do think this is a fun way to kind of experiment with some new hues for your closet. And of course, you can always rely on some good neutral cardigan options as well. But I would probably take advantage of stocking up on some of your best colors for the season. And then the last thing is maybe one unexpected styling hack that I have been loving and I've been really enjoying on some of my clients lately, which is draping a cardigan over your shoulders. You can tie the sleeves in the front. This is going to give you or you could just leave them open as well. And it's going to give you a really preppy styling look that's also very functional when the temperatures dip indoors. So you can have it as part of your outfit, but not necessarily wear it if it's a little bit warmer. This is just such a cute look. It's still really stylish right now, and so I say embrace it. And Alison, I would definitely do a little outfit searching on Pinterest. You could also check Google or your favorite brand sites. As I mentioned, I love getting styling tips from Cezanne that really appeals to my feminine, personal aesthetic. But look around for even more ideas. Save some outfits that you really like to your Pinterest style mood board and then of course, you can reference those later when you go to get dressed. All right, friend. That wraps up our June Q and A roundup episode. I only received three questions this month, so I covered them all and I don't know if it's because we switched from the weekly to monthly format or if you are just styling yourself like a pro and maybe you don't need as much of my help anymore. But please do keep your questions coming. You can feel free to submit your top question or challenge right now and I will add it to the queue for our next roundup episode which is going to air on July 3rd. Trust me, it will be here before we know it. So you can send your question to supportherstylellc.com youm can post your question in our free facebook community@herstylellc.com community or my favorite way to hear from you is when you leave me a quick voice memo which you can do@herstylellc.com podcast. You're gonna scroll down just a bit. Look for the orange button under the section that says get featured on the podcast. You just have to click that little button, record your voice memo and send it away. It makes me so happy to get to air your voice on the show and it makes me feel like we're having an actual two way conversation. So that's definitely the best my preferred way. But however you want to send your question, I will gratefully receive and answer it. So I look forward to supporting you on the next monthly roundup and in the meantime I just want to give you a little teaser. Be sure to tune into our next episode this upcoming Monday. I don't often have a lot of guest episodes, so we're having a couple back to back this month, but I had the pleasure of sitting down with a major fashion industry mogul and I can't wait for you to hear this inside scoop about where we could be headed with online shopping. She gave us a few tips on trends that she's seeing, how she came up with the idea for her billion dollar business. Yes, that's billion with a B. And her advice to help us all achieve our big goals and dreams no matter what might be getting in the way or stopping you. It was such a good conversation I cannot wait to share it with you next week. So make sure you're following her style podcast so you don't miss a thing.
- [20:49]
Co-host or Guest
Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you want to stop copying everyone else's style and start dialing in your own swoon worthy signature look, head over to take my free 5 minute personal style quiz which you can find at.
- [21:03]
Heather Riggs
The link in the show Notes.
- [21:05]
Co-host or Guest
If you've enjoyed our time together. Please be sure to rate, review and subscribe to her style podcast so you never miss an episode.
- [21:13]
Heather Riggs
Finally, I invite you to make this.
- [21:15]
Co-host or Guest
A two way conversation and send me a DM over on Instagram eatherigstyle to let me know how I can best support you on your style journey. I'm always here for you in style and service. Until next time.