Nude hosiery with booties
When wearing booties with dresses or skirts, the hottest look is to put on nude hosiery, especially when the booties are dark-colored. If you look at the runway shows from a few years back, most short boots were worn with colored hoses. Now, the modern and more daring look is to wear skin-colored stockings. From the Fall 2009 Bottega Veneta runway, the booties gave the classical outfits a modern look.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
The juxtapostion of casual booties with dressy outfits can also work for the younger crowd. Erdem and Balenciaga Fall 2009 Ready To Wear collections showed this fabulous look.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
Shorter hemlines for booties
Consider wearing shorter dresses or skirts with booties. You do need to lengthen your leg line as much as possible, so take up your skirt's hemline to above the knee. Mini-skirts will look great with booties. However, if your whole look is classical, then the dress cannot be too short! The Lanvin Fall 2009 Ready To Wear show also paired its more conservative looks with booties.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
Light-colored booties make your legs look longer
If you are worried that your legs will look short in booties, consider getting light colored ones. The Givenchy and Miu Miu Fall 2009 Ready To Wear collections showed light-colored (or see-thru) booties with skirts.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
Booties go well with all dress shapes
When wearing the booties with dresses, it does not matter what is the shape of the skirt. It can be a body-hugging pencil skirt, an A-line dress, a flirty flowing dress, or a gathered skirt. Here are some looks from Erdem, Balenciaga, and Dsquared2 Fall 2009 Ready To Wear collections.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
Booties with mid-calf skirt lengths
Wearing booties with mid-calf skirts can make your legs look really short. In this case, you might want to wear light-colored booties or wear hosiery that is the same color as the booties. Here are some booties-with-long-skirt looks from the Donna Karan and Vivienne Westwood Fall 2009 Ready To Wear collections.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
Skirts with slits go well with booties
Especially for long hemlines, a slit in the skirt or a wrap skirt will look great with booties. Here are some examples from the Lanvin and Givenchy Fall 2009 Ready To Wear collections.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
Booties with straight-legged pants
When you need the height, booties are excellent for wider-legged or straight-legged pants. Long boots are not comfortable underneath your trousers legs. Also, booties will give you an edgier look than a pair of heels. For most of us, the pants should be long enough so that the booties peep out from under the pant legs. Shorter versions of these pants hanging loosely above the top of the booties will make us look stumpier than necessary so beware! Here are some shorter pants looks from Issey Miyake and Kenzo Fall 2009 Ready To Wear collection - they or may not work for you.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
Booties with skinny-legged pants
As for wearing booties with long skinny-legged pants, I have some reservations. First, you must look good in skinny pants (if not, forget it)! Then, it matters how long your booties go up your ankles and you need to figure out if you can comfortably tuck your pant legs into your booties or if it is better to have your booties slip under the pant legs. Some booties are cut very low so you can't really tuck in your pants. Anyway, if you do not want to have a visible gap of skin between the top of your booties and the bottom of your skinny pants, you can wear colored socks. Here are some sleek looks from Gucci and Alexander Wang Fall 2009 Ready To Wear collections.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
The following skinny pants+booties look from Marc Jacobs Fall 2009 Ready To Wear collection is quirky and probably does not look good on most people.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
Booties with tapered pants
It's not a good idea to tuck tapered pants into your booties. I'd suggest that you wear colored hosiery matching your booties. See these looks from the Balenciaga Fall 2009 Ready To Wear collection.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
Colorful leggings/tights and booties
Wear long tops over the tights or leggings and then add your booties for a hot look! However, not everyone can look good in loud-colored or heavily-patterned leggings and tights. You may see these looks on the runways because they are more dramatic, but they are really difficult to carry off in real life! Do you like this look from the Vivienne Westwood Fall 2009 Ready To Wear collection?
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
You might want to take a look at shopbop.com which has some info on how to wear leggings.
Edgy sporty look with booties and shorts
Pairing shorts with booties is easier because you are showing a lot of leg. This look is sportier so you can experiment with odd combinations in your outfits. Alexander Wang achieves this edgy look very well in his Fall 2009 Ready To Wear collection.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
Black tie and booties
The easiest way to add some modern chic to your black-tie look is to wear booties with your gown or dress pants. There are a lot of lacy and delicate booties that you can pair with your evening wear. If your outfit is light colored, you can get a pair of light colored booties. However, if you really want to add some drama, pick a simple solid colored gown with a long slit, wear nude hosiery, and sport a pair of edgy dark-colored booties. For example, the Givenchy Fall 2009 Ready To Wear collection showed the dramatic look of booties with evening wear.
(Photos from style.com - click the picture to see a larger image)
Dress rehearsal at home
Try on things at home after buying them. Spend one or two hours pairing your new booties with various outfits and hosiery so you have some idea what looks good on you and what doesn't. Note that you need to look good from the front, back, and side!
You can shop for the latest booties from these online websites (some are on sale):
(For more booties shopping information, read my other posts on booties: Shopping for fall 2009 booties, Sandals or booties for Spring/Summer 2010.)
Jan 3, 2010
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment