Where do you like your waistband to be? - YouLookFab Forum

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Where do you like your waistband to be?

April

Veteran

That sounds like a ridiculous question since it seems like a waistband should be at the waist, but in reading about people's trials and tribulations with BF jeans, I realized some people like the waist on their pants low.

I have a pretty high waist and I'm intensely uncomfortable in pants with a low rise. Partly because I hate leaning over and having skin show, but partly I just hate the way it feels to have the waistband down by my hips.

I'm so glad high rise pants are available again. I just hope I'm not walking around looking like Urkel...

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Dressing

41 replies

Latest reply was from Sheila

Astrid

Veteran

Definitely not on my waist. Even when I wear high rise pants or high waisted skirts they don't end at my natural waist but slightly below. I do have one skirt that really goes up to my waist and I have such a hard time to find tops for it because I can't tuck into it without looking ridiculous.

Greyscale

Veteran

My actual waist is very high and I have a long rise, so my ideal is just at the top of my pelvis. It also varies depending on my weight - like many of us, my extra pounds go to love handles. I find that slightly lower waists are more versatile, and higher waists suddenly don't fit if I'm at the upper end of my weight fluctuations.

Joyce B

Veteran

I like them at my waist or slightly below, for the reasons that you mentioned.

Runcarla

Veteran

About 2 inches below my belly button, a 9 inch rise.

Sharon

Veteran

I have a lot of love for high-waisted bottoms. Not jeans, but definitely dressy skinny pant and skirts of all shapes. I especially adore a high-waisted pencil skirt.

kellygirl

Veteran

Hmm, I don't really have a waist. I'd say a couple inches below the belly button.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Oh, most definitely not at my waist. The jeans I'm wearing today hit me 3" below my belly button and that's great with me.

I cannot wear high-waisted anything without looking ridiculous. I have a short waist, big hips and big boobs, so it's incredibly unflattering to put me in a high waisted garment and tuck in a shirt.

For another thing, my narrowest part is not my waist itself but my ribcage right underneath my bust, so if I wear anything like a pencil skirt or a belt at the waist, it gravitates up my body to rest beneath my boobs. Again, not a good look.

Sometimes I mightily envy those of you with less curvy, more cooperative bodies.

shiny

Veteran

I like the waistband to sit right below the belly button, which is a rise around 8.5 to 9 inches. My waist -- the place I bend at, the smallest part of my torso -- is a lot higher than that -- maybe 4 inches higher?

I am widest at this point below my belly button. If the waist band is there, it "locks and loads" stuff in. If it's too low, I get love handles, a beer belly effect pouring over the waistband (so NOT attractive!), or the pants just don't stay up, and I'm futzing and yanking at them.

That said I do wear the boyfriend jeans lower. If not belted, they fall right off. But somehow, when belted just so, they work fine. That experience has made me branch out a bit and experiment, and it does seem to me that there may actually be more factors at play than just rise length. My ponte knit pants are actually only 8 inch rise and they do not bother me either. I think because they are so stretchy, or maybe it's how they are cut in the thighs and back. Not sure.

Gigi

Veteran

I'm in Greyscale's camp: very high waist plus a long rise. I too like my waists to be just at the top of my pelvis for the main reason that it allows me to tuck my shirts without looking like an idiot (it makes my torso appear longer). It did take a while to get used to, but now I love it. I have to be careful with rises, because there are some low rises that fall right on my pelvis and are actually painful, because my hip is a shelf hip that is quite bony and can't tolerate the rubbing of a waistband or belt. I do have one pair of high-waisted pants that are comfy--they smooth over my hips, which is good for shaping, but I can't tuck with them. I recently returned a pair of faux leather pants partly for the reason that the waist was very high but I wanted to be able to tuck.

In reading forum posts over the past week, I have noticed that a very large number of women here are short waisted. I didn't realize it was so common.

April

Veteran

@Janet, I don't think I've tucked anything in since the mid-1980s...

@kellygirl -- high five, I hear you there. I'm using "waist" as a conventional expression of the area between ribs and hips. It's not clearly marked on me either.

@sharon -- love a high-waisted pencil too, but that's something I'd need to custom tailor. If the waist fit, the hips would be way too big.

@Runcarla -- so smart to know the exact rise you need.

@JoyceB -- I was just in the grocery store and a woman getting something off the bottom shelf had about nine inches of back showing. (Not backside, mind you, just lower back.) I have a horror of that the way Angie has a horror of too-short pants.

@Greyscale -- yes, to the extra pounds problem, and I add in an unfortunately-placed C-section scar that creates its own bulges. But I prefer those to be hidden inside pants.

@Astrid -- see my reply to Janet...

Janet

(website)

Veteran

So… this may be a weird question, but Shiny mentions that her waist -- where she bends -- is significantly higher than her belly button. Is this true for most of you? I know I'm weird, but my belly button is at my waist, or darn close to it.

April

Veteran

People, people -- what's with all this tucking in?

@shiny -- yes, I hate that spillover effect as well. I tell myself it's not me, it's the clothes...

@Gigi -- ah, the hipbones fighting with the waistband. I've had that too and it is quite painful.

ETA: Janet, if I bend to the side, the bending spot is above the navel. Not hugely above, maybe two inches?

Emily

Veteran

Maybe it's a matter of finding the right fit, but I've never been comfortable in trousers with a higher rise. I'm afraid i was a teenager in the early 00s, when jean waistbands dipped so low that they practically required a bikini wax, and the preference for a low rise has stuck. I'm not wearing them that low, I definitely like my waistband to near my hips and well below my bellybutton. Pencil skirts sit closer to my waist, though, and I take steps to prevent lower back (and plumber's crack) exposure.

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

Veteran

Janet, my belly button is right at where I bend, too. This is pretty unusual, though; it seems like for most ladies their belly button is a few inches below where they bend (what I usually consider the natural waist).

I know from sewing some of my own clothes that I have a short rise, relative to my height, but a long torso. For years I thought I was short waisted but I'm actually long waisted with a short rise. Thank goodness, or I could have never gotten through the low rise jeans years being tall and found pants I could wear.

shiny

Veteran

Janet, if my jeans hit 3 inches below my waistband, let's just say i'd have to have a wax. And skip the underwear. And surely there'd be a lot of crack showing. Most of my rear would be showing.

An 8.5-9 inch rise is riding just above my hip bone. A 7.5 inch rise is ON my hip bone.

I think maybe my belly button actually sunk lower after I had my babies...

So this is interesting, and maybe it's why I don't understand jean size charts at all? What I call my waist (where I bend, my narrowest part) is about 26-27 inches. At my belly button, I'm closer to 29-30. Then my hips are only about 33-34 inches. Normally when I select sizes, I ignore the waist measurement and look at the hips instead -- and then cross my fingers! Lately I have been having the best luck with size 26 jeans in premium brands -- even though I'm running at the higher end of that scale. I cannot imagine going with the at-belly button measurement.... a size 29 is huge on me all over.

CocoLion

(website)

Veteran

My natural waist is high up. I like pants of all rises but feel most comfortable in a higher rise, where things button around the belly button. Which is around 1.5" below my waist.

Mo

(website)

Veteran

I also have a high waist. And when I gain, it moves up, as the hip shelf gets bigger. It's several inches above my navel. I like to wear pants with rises between 8" and 9". Skirts I like just below my navel, or at it. I don't care for wearing skirts as low as I do jeans.
For example, these jeans were 7.5" rise if I recall. Too low. Left my love handles hanging out to dry instead of locked and loaded as Shiny describes!

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Joyce B

Veteran

Agree, April. I don't want to see butts or to show butt. I want to be able to squat in comfort. I have been doing a lot of research on jeans lately but the only ones that really fit me and are flattering on me are my NYDJs. I still have to check out the Paige Jimmys, but considering all the others that I have tried on, I am not hopeful at all.

Marillen

I have long ~everything~ so even a 10 in. med rise is sitting on the hips and 2 in. below belly button. Any pant sitting at my natural waist would need a rise of 14 in.? O_o

I think most high rise pants, despite sitting slightly below belly button still make my torso look short when tucked! Similar to Gigi I think. So mostly med-rise for me, too low = hip and butt spillage. High rise is comfy though, and I still wear skirts fairly high too.

Anonymous

I have the same body type as Greyscale, and prefer my waistband to be low, beneath my belly button. My belly button is below my natural waist, and my rise is long. Also, I have a slight tummy from having 4 kids--3 of whom were delivered via C-section. As for tucking, I never tuck, and haven't done so in many moons. All tucking does is emphasize how short-waisted I am. I'm petite, and prefer low contrast color combos or dressing all in one color.

Sona

Veteran

My true waist is high like Michelle Obama's but I do not dress like her. Muffin top is a pain with many pant and jean rises being lower and lower...

Thistle

Veteran

I want them at my true waist. Finding this without moving into mom jean territory is hard. I have come to trust Ralph Lauren and Talbots for quality jeans, with a high rise, that don't go too deep into mom jean territory.

But, I am a mom. And I wear jeans, so . . .

DonnaF

Veteran

I just got out the tape measure. My navel is about 2.5" below my waist. Outlier here. I have a lo-o-o-ong torso with a lo-o-o-ng waist. Until I came here, I didn't realize that having a long waist is so unusual. I came of age in the Mom Jeans era, so higher rise jeans feel much more comfortable on me. Since my waist is relatively small, today's waistbands these days never dig into me if the garment fits my hips and thighs. Low rises make me look like I am all torso and that someone has chopped a foot off my legs, plus they emphasize my chunky thighs. High waist skirts and pants make me look much more proportional but are so hard to find.

April

Veteran

@DonnaF -- the high waists are coming back, though. Gap has High Rise Skinnies (online only, for me one size up was right) and Nordstrom shows lots of different brands doing high-rise. Don't give up!

Suz

(website)

Veteran

This is fascinating. In the weight loss program that I did we took regular measurements and the instructions said that one was to be at our waist, where our belly button is. I scratched my head and thought, HUNH? Like some of you, my waist is quite a bit higher than that. But Janet, I think it is a very "normal" place for a waist to be -- maybe ideal.

What an interesting thread -- it seems we really, really vary.

I'll add some more confusion. Because I like my clothing waist in different places, depending on the garment!

Like Grayscale, I'm relatively short, with a short waist and long rise. Short(isn) legs.

But I grew up in a time when people wore everything at their natural waist. So I am not bothered by the proportions of a high waist look, providing everything else is related to it and in balance.

I love high waisted skirts and flat front trousers (the ones with a zip along the side.)

For jeans and trousers, I also love what to me is a medium rise -- a couple of inches below the bellybutton. That'll be about 8.5 or 8 on me.

And equally I adore a 7 inch rise for jeans. Love a long-torsoed look sometimes.

ETA: And I do know that "too low" feeling as well where the band sits on and digs into the hips. OUCH!! I discovered that it was NOT because the rise was too low for me (as I first thought) but actually happened because the band wasn't properly contoured. A well contoured band won't dig that way.

E

Veteran

I'm glad you asked this April, because I loved reading everyone's responses!

I want skirts (I always tuck tops into skirts) to hit exactly at my natural waist, which is level with my belly button and the smallest part of me, which makes belting easy at least. No migrating belts for me! However, it's quite challenging to find skirts that do so and are also knee length (although I'm only 5'3"), as most skirts are designed to sit lower these days. I'm long waisted, so despite my shortness, waist seams on dresses are almost always higher than my natural waist. This used to drive me nuts, since it meant the waist line hit at my wider rib cage, instead of the smallest part of me, but nowadays I don't care as much about always showing off my waist, so I've relaxed a bit there. I'd still be thrilled to find dresses that had the waist seam at my belly button though!

I prefer high rise trousers too, because I have a long rise: even a 10" rise on me hits below my belly button. In the low rise years, I constantly struggled to keep my midsection completely covered, as the long waist/torso & long rise meant shirts were often too short too. *shudder* Luckily, if I accidentally flashed some skin it was my back rather than anything lower down. In my ideal world, all my trousers would suddenly transform themselves into 10 or 11" rises in the front, with longer rises in the back. I'm beginning to think I can do an 9" mid rise (I don't know how 1" can make that much of a difference, but it does), as long as the back rise is more generous: 2 of my 9" rise trousers don't have enough height in the back, which makes me feel insecure and exposed as soon as I do anything but stand/walk. I never fully tuck into trousers, because I don't like the proportion that results (although I'm happy wearing short tops with high rises; it's something about tucking a bit below my natural waist that just looks odd & disguises my curves), but lately I'm trying a semituck thanks to YLF influence, and a 9" seems about perfect for that. Honestly, most of the trousers that I try on that have a high enough rise for me are probably from the 80s or 90s (I rely on thrifting); whenever I look at retail trousers, I'm always disappointed in the rise measurements.

Donna, if you like skinnies, look at the BDG high rises from Urban Outfitters. I also have a long waist and long rise, and their jeans fit like they were made for me.

April

Veteran

I second that about Urban Outfitters BDG jeans (which I originally learned about from shiny). I have a pair that I bought two sizes bigger to wear on a long flight, and I love them.

The bigger size does mean that by the end of the day I'm standing in place, holding the waistband, and jumping up and down to re-adjust the slippage, but I wanted them loose to be comfortable and that they are.

Diana

Veteran

I hardly ever wear anything at my natural waist. Maybe a skirt or two. I have such a high waist that it looks really disproportionate. Also, I have a weird issue where things pressing on my rib cage make me feel like I'm having a panic attack. My natural waist is literally millimeters below my lowest ribs, so there's not much room for things like waistbands and belts.

I prefer my jeans to have an 8-9" rise - this is around 3" below my natural waist. Back rise needs to be 14" though as my butt takes up a lot of room!

Janet, I think my navel is about 2" below my natural waist.

deb

Veteran

April, I am with you. I prefer a higher rise, no lower than an inch below my belly button. If it is lower, my pants will start sagging. When I bend forward, the bend is at my belly button. When I bend to the side, the bend is at my belly button. Based on this, I say my waist is at my belly button. It is also the narrowest part of me. My hip bone is probably 2 inches below my belly button. (I do not think I have typed 'belly button' so many times in one paragraph in my life!)

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