How To Look Taller: Outfit Ideas & Styling Tips

One of the things I love about styling is that you can create powerful visual illusions just with a few simple tweaks. And today I thought we could focus on the different styling approaches, tools that you can use to make yourself appear visually taller, basically stretching out that vertical line rather than squashing it. And when it comes to stretching that visual line of our outfit, I think one of the biggest mistakes that people make is focusing on the individual items rather than where the eye starts and stops. Which brings me to my very first tip, which is to consider the eyeline and not the outfit. Now, if we think about an outfit that has very high contrast, a lot of starts and stops, we're going to be breaking up the outfit and creating a shorter visual line. An outfit that has softer transitions between the different pieces will stretch out that visual line. And this is something that I often repeat in my notes for my styling clients on index is that outfits that have a singular through line, or even just a gradient of color where the eye naturally travels down the body are instantly going to make you appear taller, even though your proportions haven't changed. Another way to think of this is fewer horizontal interruptions in our outfit equals a taller effect. And this sets up everything else that follows. And you'll see that this is a cornerstone for some of the other styling tricks that I mentioned in this video. My next tip is to subtly raise the waist. Something I'm often repeating is that where we define our waist is where our legs begin. And we often associate long legs with this idea of height. So if we're considering a low, a mid or a high rise pant, and this is for your proportions, not what measurements on a website tell you, the one that has more of a high rise is likely to make you appear taller. However, I think here, it's probably also worth considering our proportions and how we want to balance them out. A mid rise might actually be the best option for you in terms of achieving balance and that nice little touch of additional visual height. Basically, the key idea here is that we're shifting the perceived leg line upwards. And you can really see the difference between a low rise and also a high rise. Additionally, how we're styling a loose or untucked top versus a top that is tucked in. And that's a great little styling hack with the bonus of making your outfit feel a little bit more polished. Now, my next tip is going to sound really counterintuitive, but it's that longer layers beat cropped ones. Now, visually, you might think, how does this work? Because if we've got a cropped jacket, then we're going to be lengthening that line of the leg. It's one of the reasons why wearing a long line coat over a singular column of color is really flattering because when we have these open vertical lines, it draws the eye up and down and stretches that part of the body. It's one of the reasons why I'm often recommending a maxi length coat, especially if you do want to have that visual height baked into your outfit. And I find that it is especially effective when it's styled with something that is a little bit shorter underneath. You have this really nice play on proportions in addition to that lovely lengthening effect from the long vertical line. It's why you may notice if you're wearing a long line blazer or a longer cardigan open, that it appears that your torso has been stretched downwards slightly. I do always recommend wearing those open so that you can define your waist up a little bit higher. That really helps to balance out the equation while still giving you the benefits of that longer outer line. I say this a lot, but match the color of your shoes to your bottoms. Now, this isn't about wearing a nude shoe. This is actually more about continuity. Again, if we're thinking about our outfits in blocks, if we have the same color on our bottom, like a black trouser and a black shoe, we've essentially extended that line through the leg all the way through to the end of the foot. And you can really compound this further by wearing a pointed toe shoe as that draws the eye down to a point. It's why I'm often mentioning if we do have a cropped pant to wear a boot that has a slightly higher vamp or wearing a sock so we don't have that break at the ankle as it instantly shortens the visual line of the leg. As we go through this video, you'll probably pick up that there are a few of these tricks that I'm doing with the styling of my outfit today. And the next tip is to consider vertical details. Again, thinking about our outfits like an arrow up and down, when we do have things that draw the eye downwards, that is going to imply length. So this could be a center seam in your trousers, whether it is already stitched into the pant or it's something that you are ironing or pressing in. It could be a really nice long necklace like the one that I have on today. An item that's in a plissé or has pleats could be vertical ribbing. All of these things have the effect of guiding the eye up and down instead of side to side. So again, stretching out that line of the body and implying this idea of length. This next one is one of my favorite styling tricks. I do it all the time, including today, and that is to go monochrome or tonal from head to toe. The great thing about this is it creates this really nice long block of color. So we're stretching out that visual of our body. It's naturally elongating, but it also has the benefit of looking really effortless, even if the act of putting together the outfit was effortful. This doesn't have to mean boring. You can easily create visual interest by using different textures like the crinkled fabric of my slip dress, plus the really nice, soft, fuzzy knit that I'm wearing, adding in high shine components like this long pendant necklace that I'm wearing, and also thinking about the texture of your shoe and your bag. These soft tonal shifts create fewer visual stops, making the silhouette appear longer than it actually is. This next trick plays around with the idea of proportion and is probably something many of you are doing already, and that's to keep the top clean and fitted while opting for volume on your lower half. This visual restraint on your upper half paired with that volume on your lower half naturally elongates as it's drawing the eye downwards. The magic here is in the contrast, as the structure and simplicity of the top acts as a visual anchor, allowing the lower half to feel intentional rather than overwhelming. And this is a great styling fix, too, if your outfit ever feels heavy or bottom-weighted. Actually removing some of that structure from your upper half allows that focus to shift down and create breathing room, which actually gives this illusion of length. Avoid a visible ankle strap. Now, I personally love an ankle strap shoe. The Valentino Tango Pumps were a favorite of mine for many years. However, they didn't really do much for the length of my legs. Essentially, they are creating that additional horizontal break in our outfits, which shortens that visual appearance of the leg. If you are wearing an ankle strap shoe, you want to be wearing it with a bottom that is actually covering the strap, as that's going to be the most flattering if you are trying to stretch out that visual line. And this also goes for crop pants, too. When you are wearing a crop trouser, it is going to shorten that line, especially where there is a high element of contrast between the color of the pant and the color of your skin. You can fix this by wearing a pointed toe or streamlined shoe or alternatively opting for a heel, so we can add in that height quite literally. But the shorter the crop, the more you're going to find that it cuts you off. My next tip is to wear your bag a little bit higher on the hip. Similar to my point earlier about where we define our waist is where our legs begin. When we have a bag that is sitting really low on the body below our hip, it drags that eyeline downwards and actually lengthens the visual appearance of our torso, making it look much longer than it actually is. You'll see that when we do shorten that bag strap, our eyeline is brought up and it gives a little bit more visual space for our lower half and for how long we perceive our legs to be. And finally, consider the length of your trousers. A full length trouser is always going to lengthen the leg as opposed to the which kind of is a follow on from that tip I mentioned earlier. Again, think of this as lines in our outfit. When we have a full length pant, we are creating that really nice long seamless line all the way to the floor, whereas that line will be interrupted sooner when we are wearing a shorter trouser and you can really see the difference. It doesn't mean that you have to kind of tuck away your crop pants forever, but more so that you can really think about your outfit as a series of choices. And there are so many different ways that our styling decisions can play out. They can affect the mood of our outfit, the formality level of our outfit, whether we want to create contrast or have a really eye-catching fashion moment, or it can really allow us to manipulate the visuals of our silhouette. And I hope that you found these ideas useful, really tangible, ones that you can immediately go out and apply to your wardrobe today. If you've learned anything new today, I hope that you will subscribe. If you're not already, I share a lot of styling advice, brand reviews, and how to make the most of your wardrobe. Thank you so, so much for being here and for spending some of your time with me. I'm always really grateful. I'd love to know if you have any other tips, share those down in the comments below so we can all learn from each other and I will see you next week with a brand new video. See you soon. Bye.