I have heard quite a few women comment about their waist length or lack thereof. So how do you know if you have a short waist or a long waist? Can you tell just by looking at yourself in the mirror. Sometimes, but by using a measuring tape, you will know for sure. Having that certainty will help you shop for clothes that work best on your waist type and make your entire outfit look better.Get Out Your Measuring Tape

To determine whether you have a short waist or a long waist, you need to take two measurements: (1) from your armpit to your natural waist and (2) from your natural waist to your crotch point. (Your crotch point is the place where your torso or pelvis ends and your legs begin.)

Your natural waist is generally the area around your belly button. It can be right at your belly button or in close proximity to it. Another way to find your natural waist is bend to one side. The point where your side naturally bends in is your natural waist. The place where you put your hands at your waist with your elbows facing outward is yet another way to find your natural waist.

• If the measurement from your armpit to your waist is shorter than the measurement from your waist to your crotch point, you have a short waist.
• If the measurement from your armpit to your waist is larger than the measurement from your waist to your crotch point, you have a long waist.

How to Dress a Short Waist

When you have a short waist, the top and bottom halves of your body are not balanced; too short on top and too long on the bottom (yes it is possible to be too long on the bottom even though you always hear about how great long legs are and how you must always lengthen the leg line).

The key to dressing a short waist is to choose clothes that will elongate your top half to better balance it with your bottom half. With a short waist, it is critical that you have a good fitting bra that lifts your properly. You need all the distance you can get between your chest and waist.

• Tucking in your shirt will visually shorten your waist even more. Try to avoid tucking your shirts.
• Avoid cropped tops and jackets that do not at least reach your hip bones. Opt for tops and jackets that hit your hipbone or a little below.
• When wearing a belt over shirts or dresses, the belt should rest below your natural waist. A belt worn at the natural waist will accentuate your short waist rather than lengthen it.
• Choose vertical stripes instead of horizontal stripes. Vertical stripes will give the illusion of a longer torso and horizontal stripes will shorten it.

How to Dress a Long Waist

When you have a long waist, your top and bottom halves of your body are not balanced; too long on top and too short on the bottom. The key to dressing a long waist is to choose clothes that will shorten your top half to better balance it with your bottom half. Most of these guidelines are the exact opposite of those for the short waist.

• Longer tops should be belted at your waist instead of below the waist. To break up the length even more, choose a belt that is brightly colored, contrasts with your pants or is attention grabbing.
• Thicker belts are better than skinnier ones at shortening the torso.
• Choose horizontal stripes over vertical stripes. Horizontal stripes visually have a shortening effect. However, if you carry more weight in your midsection,  horizontal stripes can have a widening effect and therefore should be avoided.
• Cropped tops and jackets work wonderfully to shorten your torso.

Now that you know which type of waist you have, you can choose clothing that will create more balance for you body, which in turn will make your outfits look better and ultimately make you feel better about your image.

If you have any image, style or fashion questions, contact me via email or leave a comment on this blog. I would love to hear from you!!

 

Tags: Dressing Your Body, long waist, short waist

This entry was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Dressing Your Body . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.