Mid-thigh shorts are popular with my clients, but most of my clients don’t feel pulled together when wearing them with basic tees. My suggestion is to style the shorts with a pretty top and casual flat footwear that’s dressier than flip-flops. The visual effect is relaxed and casual, but more grown-up and polished. 

Here are four outfit ideas to get you started. Choose any colour palette across solids and patterns. Pick short lengths that make you feel fab.

1. Elaborate Knitted Top, Denim Shorts & Slip-Ons

Choose a knitted top made of jersey with some kind of detailing, like a peplum, hem frill, or exuberant sleeve. This example has ruched sleeves with ties that create an interesting effect with a pair of denim cut-offs and slip-ons like sneakers, espadrilles, or d’Orsay flats. Wear the top semi-tucked or untucked.

2. Dressy Shorts & Blouse with Slides

Choose dressy shorts, like a high-waisted style or a paper bag silhouette, and pair them with a dressy blouse made of eyelet, lace, or something silky. Tuck or semi-tuck the top to showcase the waistband of the shorts. Add flat slides to dress down the look. A straw bag adds a trendy yet classic and beachy touch.

3. Shorts & Boho Blouse

This is the easiest version to pull together. Combine a pair of simple shorts with a breezy boho-lite blouse. Wear the top untucked and not semi-tucked like the model. Finish off the outfit with flat sandals or espadrilles, and a casual bag.

4. Patterned Shorts, Knotted Top & Sneakers

Combine a pair of patterned shorts with an elaborate knitted top that you can knot at the hem to create some structure. That way you don’t need to tuck or semi-tuck the top, or let it hang and look tent-y. Finish off the outfit with sneakers. Here, the white top and sneakers match, pulling the look together. The silky shorts add textural interest and the sneaks throw in the athletic touch. A fun juxtaposition.

I don’t wear shorts of any description since I’d much rather wear a casual dress with casual footwear. That said, if a fabulous pair of knee-length shorts came my way I’d give them a whirl with a boho-lite blouse.

The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale opens to the public on July 20. Early access, available to Nordstrom card members, started today. The NAS is by far my favourite sale of the year. It is unique in that it offers deep discounts for items from the upcoming Fall and Winter season. Prices go back up after August 5. 

The NAS is quite the event, especially in Seattle, the home of Nordstrom HQ and its flagship store. During the week of early access I have wall-to-wall appointments with clients. I spend a few hours with each of them, working from 8AM to 10PM most nights of the week. I love every minute of it, but I’m exhausted by the end of early access.

The NAS also generates a lot of excitement here on YLF and there is a special section of the forum dedicated to the sale. We have a lot of fun talking about the items, and also working together to ensure we spend our sale budgets wisely. I will be posting on the forum as I go, reporting on what I find and giving you some behind-the-scenes peeks at what my clients and I are up to. On the right is my own first find of the sale. A pretty, elegant, cool-weather dress that fits like a dream.

Whether or not you’re actively shopping the sale, please feel free to join the fun.

By the way, many people are not interested in the sale and that is part of the reason we have created that special NAS section. If you would like to tune out the NAS, just collapse that featured forum section using the “hide” button.

Enjoy the sale!

Long blazers are a flashback to the late ‘80s and ‘90s. They’ve been on the fringe of fashion for a while and are gaining momentum.The lengths of the blazers cover the bottom, and finish on the hips about a quarter or a third of the way down the thighs.  

The silhouettes vary. Some are highly structured like an equestrian jacket. Others are soft, floppy and fluid. Some are single-breasted and others double-breasted. The stance of the blazer is low, and that’s a very important design feature. Many of the long blazers in the late ‘90s had high stances, which changed up the look a lot. They’re usually collared, and come in all sorts of colours, patterns, solids, and fabrics. You can wear the blazer open or closed, and throughout the year in the right fabric for the season. The collection below shows a good assortment of the item.

I am cautious about this length of blazer because the proportions can look very off to my eye. The length of the blazer dramatically lengthens the torso thereby shortening the leg line because of the low hem on the leg. The low stance and position of the welted pockets further accentuate the length of the torso, and drag your eye downwards, which shortens the leg. This is a perfect classic British riding jacket length because when you’re on a horse, the length is swallowed up by the way you’re seated in the saddle and drapes elegantly over the thighs.

The long blazer is a slam dunk on my tall clients. They look WOW in the silhouette because they have the real estate to carry the length. The proportions that are jarring to my eye are effortlessly evened out. This is harder to do when you’re regular height or shorter. Not impossible, but you have to be careful. Keeping the long blazer open in front tempers the short-legged effect because it breaks up the horizontal line on the leg. It also creates a vertical line up the centre front of the body which draws the eye upward. Showcasing the waistline by tucking or semi-tucking a top, or wearing a cropped top when wearing the blazer open, will also lengthen the leg line because it shortens the torso. You can wear heels to give your outfit some height, keep the blazer low contrast to your bottoms to blur the low horizontal line, or wear a column of colour.

I do have some petite and regular height clients who rock the structured and unstructured long blazer vibe, some even with flats. They’re curvy hourglass and pear-shaped body types who fill out the lower half extremely well and enjoy the covering comfort of the bottom, hips and thighs. Some long blazer silhouettes have cut-away fronts that dramatically lengthen the leg line, and those are easier to feel fab in when you’re not tall. My own long Smythe equestrian blazer has cut-away fronts that make it a whole lot more flattering when I wear flats.

And last, here’s an outfit with interesting proportions. The closed long blazer draws the eye down and lengthens the torso, which shortens the leg line. Yet the much shorter length of the culottes lengthens the lower leg from the ankles upward. The two opposing silhouettes cancel each other out and create harmony. The heels further lengthen the leg line. Clever.

Over to you. What’s your take on the long blazer trend?

A wild card is an item that is atypical for your style persona, but that speaks to you in some way. Adding a wild card to your wardrobe is an excellent way to evolve your style, making it feel extra refreshed for the season. They can be a way to solve a style and fit challenge, or to temper your poison eye for a look. Wild cards can be new colours, vibes or silhouettes. Or a new way that you wear your hair, your make-up, or put together your outfits. Wild cards always make my must haves list because nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I’ve noticed that my own wild cards happen organically and sometimes by accident. I don’t go out looking for them, but fully embrace them when they come my way. I don’t try to rationalize a wild card, but simply take it as a sign that I was meant to give this look a go. I like the spontaneity.

For Spring and Summer 2018 I added two wild cards to my style. A pair of high-rise black skinnies, and a pair of white huarache sandals:

Due to unexpectedly cold weather on a trip, I needed an emergency pair of full-length skinny jeans to wear under a dress with flats. I don’t wear opaque tights or leggings, hence the skinnies. I hadn’t planned on black or high rise, but that’s what I got. I don’t even wear black jeans, and high rise is not on my radar because of my relatively short rise. Well, I liked these jeans enough to wear them with a fluid tucked blouse and pullover on the same trip, thereby showcasing the high-rise skinny silhouette in all its glory.

I needed to replace my white sandals because I wore my old pair into the ground. Pickings were slim because I need a flat, supportive and extremely comfortable pair in a size US 6.5 narrow width. My feet are extra low volume in sandals and sometimes the narrow widths are a touch wide. I ordered several pairs and eventually chose a boho-lite pair of Naturalizer huaraches. They’re not my slam dunk sartorial preference, but an insanely good fit and sublimely comfortable. The woven leather reminds me of lace, and since I love lace I thought why the heck not. I’ve been walking around hot and dry Salt Lake City in them for days — 18,000 steps a day — and they have been incredible. I LOVE these new sandals and have already duplicated them.

I used to say that I don’t wear black jeans, and that I was as boho as Karl Lagerfeld. That’s codswallop because I do wear black jeans, and enjoy wearing boho-lite items because they’re pretty. Thanks to my wild cards, I’m keeping an open mind, solving fit challenges, and having even more fun with fashion.

Over to you. What are your Spring & Summer wild cards this year?