You are short-waisted when the distance between your shoulders and waistline is shorter than average. There are two ways to determine whether this is the case. 

•  Stand up straight and see if you can fit two hand widths into the space from under your bust to your natural waist. Your fingers should not be spread. If you can fit less than two hand widths, you’re short-waisted. Some of my clients can only fit one hand width into this space. 

• Measure the length from shoulder to hip bone. Measure the length from hip bone to just below the knee cap. If the former is shorter by about two inches, you’re short-waisted. 

The guidelines for dressing short-waisted bodies can be less than useful when they do not take other body modifiers into account. They’re often very general and assume that the rest of your body has typical proportions. They are also focussed on creating conventionally flattering proportions, which might not be your style goal. But the guidelines do provide a solid starting point if your goal is to lengthen the torso to create a more balanced visual between the top and bottom parts of your body. Interestingly, the first three tips work equally well to shorten a long torso. 

1. Wear a Well-Fitting Bra

The right bra lifts the bust, creating a waistline while smoothing out the silhouette. Make sure you’re wearing the right bra size and are adequately supported. The wrong bra can make a short-waisted person seem even more short waisted, especially with a larger bust. 

2. Wear a Column of Colour 

This means wearing the same colour on the top and bottom, or wearing a top that creates a very low contrast against the bottom. The column masks where your torso ends and legs begin. A solid dress is an easy way to wear a column of colour. 

3. Wear Empire Cuts 

This sounds counter-intuitive because you might imagine the empire cut will raise the waist, shortening the torso even further. But what it actually does it hide the waist and create a different cutline across the body.

4. Wear Mid or Low-Rise Jeans and Trousers

Dropping the position of the waistband to below the natural waist visually lengthens the torso and shortens the leg line. For this to work you must showcase the waistband of the jeans or trousers by tucking or semi-tucking the top. 

5. Wear Garments with a Dropped or Natural Waist 

Wearing dresses and tops with a dropped waist lengthens the torso because it draws the eye downwards. Dresses with a defined natural waist can balance out the length of both a short and a long torso. 

6. Wear Tops with Diagonal Hems

Regular length tops with diagonal hems visually lengthen the torso on the longer side, while the shorter side creates structure. Semi-tucking a top into a pair of mid or low-rise bottoms is a more subtle version of the same strategy. 

7. Wear V-Necklines

V-necklines visually lengthen a short neck and short torso. This is especially effective when you are petite with a larger bustline. 

8. Keep Tops UNTucked 

Untucked regular and tunic length tops effectively lengthen the torso and shorten the leg line, especially when you create a high contrast between the top and bottom. Short waists look best in skirts with shorter untucked tops. Tucking a top into a high-waisted skirt or pair of pants shortens a short waist even further. 

9. Create Vertical Integrity with Accessories

Wearing long statement necklaces, or necklaces with chunky pendants, visually lengthens the torso in a more suble way. Tying a scarf vertically so that the ends hang down, or wearing an infinity scarf, draws the eye up and down, which achieves the same effect. 

10. Wear Low-Slung Belts 

Low-slung belts reposition the waist by lowering it, which lengthens the torso. Soft skinny belts worn loosely around the waist so that they “dip” lower in front are an excellent way to balance out a short torso. The soft V-shape in front effectively draws the eye up and down. 

11. Wear Self-Colour Belts on the Waist

If you’re going to wear a belt on the natural waist with a high-contrast top, match the belt to the colour of the pants or skirt. That way you’ll soften the cutting horizontal line across the body, thereby lengthening the torso in a subtle way. 

12. Wear Long Layers Over a Belted Waist

Wearing a high-contrast belt on the natural waist shortens an already short waist. By layering a long layer like a tunic cardigan over the belted top, you’ll visually lengthen the torso, offsetting the cutting line of the waisted belt. Belting at the natural waist over a longer jacket also helps to lengthen a shorter waist.

You can use a few of these tips in one outfit: combine an asymmetrical V-necked ink tunic with a pair of black skinny jeans and chunky pendant necklace. Or wear a low-slung, soft, low-contrast belt over a column of colour. Feel free to ask further questions on how to dress a shorter waist in the comments section.

There is no one correct way to build your wardrobe colour palette. Unless you’re in the very unusual situation of starting a wardrobe from scratch and building it all in one go, your palette will evolve organically over time through an intuitive process. That said, it is definitely worthwhile to give the colour palette of your wardrobe some thought so that the items work together to create cohesive outfits that make you feel fab.

Helping clients with their wardrobe palettes is a fascinating aspect of my work. I find that palettes differ quite a bit from one client to another, and seldom do they mirror my own. Over the years I’ve found that being in touch with the way colours make you feel, assessing your affinity for colour mixing, identifying your important neutrals and colours, and being deliberate when adding a new colour to your wardrobe, are all important parts of mastering your wardrobe palette.

Listen to Your Emotions 

The colour of a wardrobe item can make us feel happy, sad, confident, blah, serious, playful, powerful, weak, energetic, anxious or alluring. LISTEN to these emotions and make sure that the emotion associated with the colour of a particular wardrobe item is the right one. 

Do a little soul-searching with colour because it’s not always as straightforward as it seems. You may love a colour in theory — like magenta — but feel off when wearing it as a wardrobe item. Or perhaps it’s a question of sporting a particular colour in the right smaller dose — like through an accessory. Explore how colours make you feel on a regular basis because this does change over time. 

Assess Your Affinity to Colour Mixing

The more willing you are to combine unexpected and clashing colours together in an outfit, the easier it is to manage a wardrobe with a large assortment of colour. 

In other words if your affinity for colour mixing is high, you’ll happily combine all sorts of weird and wonderful colours into an outfit and feel fab. Because you like wearing a wide assortment of colours and in unconventional combinations, you feel in control of a wardrobe that is steadily increasing in colour possibilities. This is not the case when your affinity for colour mixing is low. In this case a wardrobe full of colour will be overwhelming. The colour combinations that tickle your fancy will be narrower, so it will be a good idea to limit the range of colours in your wardrobe. 

Identify Your Favourite Neutrals

Identifying which neutrals work best for your complexion and style creates a foundation that can be mixed and matched with other neutrals and non-neutral colours.

It’s important to choose a range of neutrals — from dark to light — because some neutrals work better with non-neutrals than others. For example, whites and tans work particularly well with pastels. Dark neutrals work well with brights and jewel tones. And chocolate and cognac work well with earth tones.   

If you like to keep it very simple, choose a dark, mid-tone and light neutral as the backbone of your wardrobe. Stick to these neutrals and don’t add another unless you’re prepared to move out of your comfort zone when styling neutrals in outfits. 

Again, if your affinity for colour mixing is high, you’ll effectively build a wardrobe with a larger assortment of neutrals. For example, there is no need to choose between dark neutrals like black, chocolate, charcoal and ink blue when you like wearing them together in an outfit or styling them with a large range of non-neutrals. The same holds true for mid-tone and light neutrals. 

Identify Your Favourite Colours 

Most people also enjoy wearing a range of non-neutral colours, even if the range is very small. Identify the colours that work with your complexion and make those the permanent colours in your wardrobe. Having a dark, mid-tone and light neutral to work with them will increase the outfit combinations you can create. 

You might find that you wear colours seasonally, in which case you need to ensure that you have the right neutrals to support the wardrobe colour spectrum that changes with the seasons. 

In the rare instance that you ONLY wear neutrals, you can skip this step entirely. Building a wardrobe that consists solely of neutrals can be done if those are the only colours that create a positive emotion for you. 

Think in Capsules When Adding a New Colour 

It is inevitable that our style will evolve over time, and that is a good thing. It also means that you will be introducing new colours to your wardrobe from time to time. But you have to be mindful about how you’re going to integrate that new colour into your outfits. Ask yourself whether you already have the neutral and non-neutral items to wear with the new colour. If not, purchase the new colour with a support act. Perhaps you need to purchase more than one item in the new colour in order to create cohesive outfits.   

For example, a dark neutral and jewel tone-loving client of mine wanted to add blush to her wardrobe for Spring. In order to make the blush work well in outfits, she also needed to purchase a few more separates in white and blush, as well as tan and silver shoes and bag. Having invested in a support act of light neutrals, it opened the door to add new colours like mint and lilac quite effortlessly because they also worked well with the white, tan and silver.

As I mentioned at the outset, building the colour palette of your wardrobe can be intuitive, which means that some of you are following these steps without giving them a lot of thought. This is especially true for those who have a high affinity for colour mixing. 

Just when you have it all figured out, your colour preferences will change. And so the thought process starts all over again, making our wardrobes a perpetual work in progress.

• Phoebe Philo, former creative director of Céline and Chloé, is returning to fashion with an independent, namesake house.
• Nordstrom will start selling the Topshop clothing brand on its website and in its brick-and-mortar stores. It will also allow shoppers to collect and send back Asos products at its stores from this Autumn.
• One of the world’s most famous department stores, Harrods, is launching its first fashion rental service.
• SPANX’s more affordable shapewear line, ASSETS by SPANX,  is available at Target stores.
• This month Target is also opening Ulta Beauty shop-in-shops in 100 locations, with plans to roll out to 800 Target stores over the next few years.
• Tracee Ellis Ross and Oprah Winfrey have announced a docuseries that “will feature ‘intimate and authentic’ personal stories around black hair.”
• London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is planning an exhibition about African fashion, featuring “250 objects telling the story of the continent through the work of its most prominent and influential designers.”
• This October, JCPenney is opening an in-store beauty salon featuring Black-owned brands.

Fun Fashion Quote

 I really like photographer Christine Han’s thoughts on her beauty philosophy:

“I watch my 13-month-old daughter and there’s no question of beautiful or not beautiful. She just IS. She is always in her body, in the moment, confident, strong. She is absolutely natural, and hasn’t had all the conditionings put upon her yet. Beauty is getting back to that natural state, becoming aware of your thoughts and realizing you are more than your body.”

Los Angeles-based Julie D. Harbour (56) is a stylist who documents her outfits on Instagram, and her website, Stylish Paradox. Julie is a confident dresser who loves bold patterns, colour, and a sassy high heel. She alternates between silhouettes that accentuate her curves and more fluid-fit outfits. Her trademark radiant smile, bright lippy, and big hoop earrings are all an integral part of her wonderful style.

“My style has evolved into only incorporating clothing into my wardrobe that I love. One of my style mantras is, don’t buy it unless you love it! And I’ve learned to always show up as myself! Being a little extra with your style is okay!!!! Own it!”

This off-the-shoulder midi number in pretty pastels is wonderful for a warm Spring day. The subtly frilled neckline, and tiered silhouette with more exuberant frilly hemline create playful movement and visual interest. Julie’s wide cream belt with oversized gold buckle accentuates her waist and adds structure. The stiletto sandals lengthen the leg line, while the unexpected cornflower blue colour is perfect with the light blue and peach pattern of the dress. Oversized sunnies and big earrings add pizzazz. Julie’s sleek straight hair juxtaposes cleverly with the frilly detailing of the frock, and her bright red lippy draws attention to our blogger’s trademark radiant smile.

Julie loves a bold pattern, and this gorgeous floral print pantsuit fits that bill perfectly. Wearing the same pattern on top and bottom streamlines the look, and creates vertical integrity by drawing the eye up and down. Julie combines the eye-catching florals with an equally bright orange top with high neckline that matches one of the colours in the jacket. The cropped tapered pant legs showcase dainty strappy sandals. The black footwear echoes the black background of the floral print, which also lengthens the leg line. A fun geometric necklace, bright red satchel, and statement red specs complete the look with aplomb.

Our blogger created this soft-edged look around a form-fitting black dress with interesting design details. The V-neckline and vertical seam running down the middle have an elongating effect. At the same time, the ruching adds flattering visual interest and creates a subtle faux high-low hemline. The tie-dye moto jacket in grey, black and white adds edgy toughness. Julie’s fun three-toned platform brogues add a bit of a lift, and echo the colours in the jacket. Large silver hoops add subtle bling, while Julie’s curly hair worn down brings softness to the look.

It’s interesting to see how you can create a completely different vibe with the same pair of shoes. Julie is wearing the same chunky brogues as in the previous outfit. Here, their menswear flair juxtaposes brilliantly with the soft pink and flowy silhouette of her shirtdress. The combination also has a subtle ‘50s vibe to it. The white polka dots on the dress — that match the white in the footwear — and billowy sleeves add playful charm. The fit-and-flare style accentuates Julie’s waist and creates structure. Her big sunnies and bright red lipstick add old-school glam.

A chic column of black gets the glam treatment by adding a luxe looking tweed cape. Julie is wearing an elbow-length puff-sleeved top untucked over a black faux leather pencil skirt. The sleek below-the-knee skirt is a Modern Classic. Combining it with black pointy-toe boots lengthens the leg line, while the slouchy scrunched style creates fun visual interest. The fab multi-coloured tweed cape worn asymmetrically over one shoulder glams up the entire look. Note how the beige and brown lining matches Julie’s wide belt that streamlines the voluminous topper. Wearing her hair back showcases the cape’s beautiful collar and Julie’s oversized hoop earrings. Bright lipstick and our blogger’s fab smile are the icing on the cake. 

Let us know what you think of Julie’s amazing outfits in the comments, and be sure to check out the rest of her style on Instagram or her website.