Why You Never Look Good in Ankle Boots

Have you ever noticed ankle boots always seem so awkward? I certainly have. Of all the boots I own, I own a lot of boots. Ankle boots are the hardest to wear. Before we get into how to look better in them, you must first understand why they just never work. Take a look at this outfit. I'm wearing a black turtleneck top with a midi satin skirt and a pair of black ankle boots. Now take a look at outfit number two. Yes, it's exactly the same top and bottom. The only difference is I switched to tall boots. Have you noticed? This outfit looks a lot more flattering. And the reason is because when I'm wearing tall boots, it doesn't divide my legs. But when I'm wearing ankle booties, that's exactly what they do. Because there's a gap between what I wear and ankle boots, that division of my legs looks very obvious. Now that you understand the most important principle, take a look. Are you making these very common mistakes? First, when you're wearing light color pants, are you pairing them with dark color booties? This kind of combination creates a very sharp contrast, creates a hard line right at your ankle, and that's what makes look like your legs stop right there. It's all about how our eyes follow colors. Whenever there is a big contrast, that's gonna pull attention to that spot, making it look like your legs are cut off right there. To fix this, I'm switching to a pair of booties that's very similar to the pants I'm wearing. So now you're gonna notice that division line doesn't look so obvious anymore. Another major mistake that I noticed a lot of women are making is to wear white denim with black booties. Lighter colors expand, and when you're wearing white denim, this is drawing more attention to your bottom half. But now you're adding black shoes, which creates a very sharp stop right at your ankle. So this actually makes your legs look chunkier than you are. Besides, it also makes your entire outfit look bottom heavy. White leg pants and white leg jeans are one of the biggest trends right now, so I get lots of questions. Qi, what kind of booties go with them? Here's the thing, you need to make sure avoid wearing them with big toe shapes because white leg shape is already carrying a lot of volume and lots of flow around your legs. When you wear this with bulky toe-shaped booties, that's gonna disrupt the flow of the silhouette. Besides, bigger toe-shaped booties already carry a lot of weight with them, so they're gonna make it look bottom heavy, and that is gonna make your legs look cut off. So the key to look your best with white leg jeans or white leg pants is to go with slender tall booties. Pointy toe works the best because the design just looks more sleek, so therefore it goes much better with the flow of pants, and that's gonna give you an overall more sophisticated and polished look. If you're like me, love to wear skirts or dresses in winter season, you probably have noticed it becomes extremely hard when you are wearing them with ankle booties, because if your skirt is not long enough, this is gonna give you a very noticeable gap between your skirt and your ankle booties, and that gap is really unflattering because your legs are now being cut off. Of course, one of the solutions is to switch to tall boots, and that covers up that gap, but if you want to continue to work with your ankle booties, I have found a perfect solution for you. All you need to is to add a pair of black tights. Black tights have a sleek and slimming effect. They can make your entire bottom half look more cohesive because they create a monochromatic look for your bottom half, and this is gonna make your entire outfit look more put together. Besides, you're gonna love your black tights when the weather gets colder, they're gonna give you that extra layer of warmth. I live in northern New Jersey, and it can get really rainy and snowy in the winter. The reason I can continue to wear skirts or dresses in the winter is because of my black tights that keeps me extra warm. There's something very subtle but can be extremely important when it comes to your ankle booties, and that is volume. When you're choosing your ankle booties, if it comes with thicker toe shape or bigger bottoms, for example, large soles, that's gonna give it a lot of volume. So when you're wearing this style of boots, even though they look youthful and edgy and bold, you must avoid wearing them with feminine outfits. This outfit is for the transitioning weather. Even though I'm wearing a sweater top, because it's sleeveless, that makes it more lightweight. Besides, I'm wearing a mini skirt, so overall, the silhouette looks playful and feminine. If I'm wearing this with chunky booties like this, immediately, the silhouette is disrupted, and this is gonna make it look out of balance. The mini skirt was meant to highlight my legs and give me that elongating and flattering look. Now because of the booties, my bottom actually looks clunky. So instead, I'm switching to pointy toe booties. Immediately, you're gonna notice a major difference. This style of booties look way better with feminine outfits. Now you can tell the entire silhouette looks more streamlined, and my top and bottom and shoes look more in harmony with each other. When it comes to choosing your ankle booties, we talked about how important the toe shape is, but the other part of the equation are the colors. I own a lot of booties, but when I'm looking at my collection, the ones that I wear the least are those with really bright colors or really colorful prints. For the classic and balanced look, neutrals are the best. Booties that are black, grey, brown, or beige are the best because they blend very easily with the rest of your outfit instead of competing with them, and they're gonna make your overall outfit look more cohesive and look more elegant and effortless. On the other hand, bright color booties are statement pieces, so naturally, they're attention grabbing. Unless you're intentionally bringing all the focus to your feet, this can make your entire outfit look out of balance. In general, your outfit is gonna be more flattering when you're drawing more focus to your face. This is what makes you look taller and better. Especially if you're shorter like myself, I'm 5'2, so it's really critical that I am doing everything I can to bring the focus above instead of focusing on the bottom half, especially not at my feet. This season, animal prints are making a huge comeback, so you're gonna see animal printed booties everywhere. While fashion is all about having fun and expressing yourself, so if you don't have any, go for it, but make sure you're not investing too much, and this is a lesson that I learned the hard way. The last time animal prints were super viral was about five or maybe eight years ago. I don't remember exactly, but I know I was so excited. I purchased a lot of animal printed booties, but over the years, what I noticed is that they are the ones I wore the least, and the reason is obvious, because they're so attention-grabbing to wear and look good in an outfit, you need to do a lot of planning. If you don't have time for that, most likely you're gonna leave them aside and not making any use out of it. Now let's talk when you're choosing ankle booties, what kind of shaft height you should go for and why it matters. I noticed of all the ankle booties I own, the kind of booties I wear the most are those that's hitting just above the ankle, because this is most versatile. It goes with just about any outfit. It doesn't matter if you're wearing skirt outfits, dress outfits, or jeans or pants. The higher the shaft, the harder it can be for you to style them, because with pants or jeans, higher shaft ankle booties can just be very awkward to wear under them, but on the other hand, when you are wearing skirts or dress outfits, higher shaft can make it very easily look like your legs are cut off by the high shaft. So stick with the sweet spot, which is right above the ankle that gives you the right amount of coverage, but also make it versatile with any kind of outfits you're wearing, and this is the most flattering shaft height for most women. Everything I've talked about today applies to women of all height, but if you are shorter like me, I'm 5'2", then you're gonna find ankle booties are extra challenging, and that is because our legs are shorter to begin with, and ankle booties by design, they are just very easy to make our legs look even shorter. So therefore, when you're choosing ankle booties, pay attention to everything I have mentioned before, and there's one type of ankle booties that you should really be very very cautious about, or just skip them if you're not quite sure, and that is ankle booties with very thick bottoms. The luxos, the platforms, and that kind of ankle booties typically are very hard to style, no matter how tall you are, and if you are already petite like myself, they can really make you look out of proportion. So make sure you're choosing the right style for the ankle booties. Wow, I'm so glad you have watched the entire video. This is pretty much everything that you need to know at this point, and you should be able to find the right style and style them properly to make yourself look better in any kind of ankle boots. There's a lot more I want to talk to you about, so make sure you watch another video where I will share with you all my tips and tricks all through my own years of trial and error. I will see you in this video.