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How To Pick Flattering Shoes For An Outfit

September 12, 2022 By: Nada Manley2 Comments

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m a small-scale person. My mom always called me a “sample.” And because of my scale, wearing oversized clothing and accessories can sometimes be a challenge. Perhaps you’ve experienced similar challenges. We all have natural characteristics that we have to take into account when getting dressed.

Outfits also have a scale, ranging from skintight to very voluminous, and the key to flattery is to make sure your shoes are close in scale to your outfits. Sounds simple? It is, but it’s a detail that’s often overlooked and it plays such a key role in putting together flattering outfits.

To put it simply, sleek outfits call for sleek to medium shoes. Oversized outfits call for medium to chunky shoes. Medium width outfits can be paired with almost any shoes.

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Now that we’ve done an overview of this concept, let’s see these principles illustrated.

Sleek Outfits

Whether you’re wearing something skintight or merely fitted, stay close to the scale of the outfit when choosing shoes. That means classic streamlined pumps and ballet flats, delicate sandals, streamlined boots, etc. You can also go more medium in scale with cowboy or riding boots, a block heeled pump or sandal, or a loafer.

Sleek pants + sleek pumps
Sleek pants and loafers definitely work, but the width of the sweater adds another medium element to the outfit.
A sleek dress with chunky shoes is harder to pull off

Structured Outfits

These are the easiest and most flattering outfits to wear at any age, but especially over 40. These outfits are tailored and slightly fitted, but not skin-tight and definitely not oversized. Because they fall in the middle, they are the most versatile when it comes to shoes, and can work equally well with sleek or chunky shoes, depending on the details of the particular outfit.

A structured outfit with chunky shoes works well.
Here is a structured outfit with sleek shoes.
This outfit featured structured and sleek elements.
This outfit is an example of a structured outfit with medium width shoes.
This outfit has two structured elements (the pants and shoes) and one that borders on oversized (the sweater), which works really well.

Oversized Outfits

Oversized is in, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with challenges. An oversized outfit calls for shoes that can support it in visual weight, so choose shoes that are medium to chunky for best results. Delicate shoes can get drowned out and look out of place. Choose chunky boots like lug soled styles, platform shoes, and chunky sneakers and loafers.

This flowy dress is paired with medium to chunky shoes. You could go with a chunkier sneaker as well.
The medium weight and dark color of these boots balance out the flowy dress.
These delicate sandals are overwhelmed by this flowy dress.

So what do you think of this concept? Is it something you’ve thought about before or is it brand new? Let me know in the comments!

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Comments

  1. Nada Manley says

    October 2, 2022 at 9:31 pm

    Thank you so much! I’m so glad you found that post helpful!

  2. Beth Costume says

    September 29, 2022 at 2:26 am

    I loved your post about how to pick flattering shoes for an outfit. I found it to be very inspirational. I loved that you mentioned that you don’t know what scale an outfit is on, but that this is something you just naturally do.

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