Petite Dress Tips

The importance of visually elongating yourself in the vertical direction cannot be emphasized enough for petite women.  Think: elevating the waistline, including vertical details such as slits, and trying monochromatic dressing to avoid breaking the vertical lines you are creating. 

• A-line, wrap, empire waist, and belted dresses (think of creating/vertically lifting your waistline) are typically universally successful for petite women.  Don’t shy away from maxi dresses either!
• Midi dresses are a danger.  The hem of a midi dress lands between the ankle and knee.  This introduces a badly placed horizontal line that has the effect of making your legs look shorter.  On a petite person, this is not ideal. However, you may be able to pull off a regular sized midi dress if it lands closer to your ankle, essentially becoming a maxi dress.
• Incorporate slits – these are excellent vertical details that visually elongate the legs.
• Avoid dresses that are bulky or busy. Complicated designs and patterns tend to overwhelm your frame, as well as very large prints.
• Dresses that are too loose will overwhelm you, as well as dresses that are too puffy.
• A petite sized dress will help bring the waistline higher on your body, thus elongating you vertically.

The following photo shows how an elevated waistline on a dress gives the illusion of longer legs.  I love the A-line cut of this dress, great hemline location, and the clear/nude shoes.

The hem of this midi dress visually cuts off the leg length.

• Elevate the waistline with A-line, wrap, empire waist, and high belted styles
• Incorporate vertical details such as slits

The print of this dress is too large – the eye is drawn to the huge print instead of the person wearing the dress.