Can us shorty's wear a big bold belt? Heck yeah!
You may have heard that petites should not wear a wide belt, as it supposedly cuts our figure in half and shortens us. Oh pshaw! Nonsense. You just need to know how to pull it off. Here are tips and tricks:
Wear a belt with shape. Curves, asymmetry and hanging ties all keep the eye moving, so as to not slice you visually. The Demetria Belt is sickle shaped and creates a nice curve on your waist.
2/5 to 3/5 balance OK, so don't literally cut yourself in half. At any height, that just isn't pleasingly balanced. Wear the belt over a dress or blouse in which the amount of fabric above and below the belt are uneven, such as 2/5 above and 3/5 below. Here, the skirt part is longer than the top part.
Use colors that pick up what is around it. For example, notice how the belt below picks up the purple color of the dress. It's not such a stark contrast. You can also do the opposite: wear a solid belt with a patterned tunic or dress.
Repeat colors vertically. Go for stark contrast but repeat the contrast color vertically. Look at the photo with the bay blue dress and pink belt. Your eye goes up and down the outfit, Notice the magenta shoes, the bright pink lipstick and (hard to see, but…) bright pink earrings. Other ways to repeat the color are with a hat, a neck scarf, colorful necklace or tights. Notice the black and white hat repeating the black and white pattern of the belt in the above photo and the grey hat and shoes in the photo with the blue dress and grey belt.
Wear a blazer or vest on top of the belted outfit. Here is an example. In this example the belt was also used to shorten the dress by letting a little fabric blouse over the top of the belt. The blazer-vest here allowed for breaking the uneven top/bottom rule mentioned above, because there are a variety of shapes peeking out below and around the vest.
However you do it, go ahead and wear a belt you love. It is such a nice way to define your waist and create a variety of looks with one dress.
