When you wear knitwear as often as I do, it’s a good idea to change up your pullover silhouette from time to tome. So I recently bought a swingy ink blue tunic, and I love it. The high neckline suits my long neck. The short back zipper and stitch detailing is interesting. The longer length and trapeze silhouette is different from the fluid, tailored, welted, cropped and boxy vibes I currently have in my pullover capsule. It also has a Mod integrity, which is in line with my Modern Retro style sensibilities.
I’ve already worn the new tunic twice, and both times I paired it with dark blue cropped straight jeans (the exact items are shown below.) I like the low-contrast effect between the pullover and the jeans because a tunic tends to shorten my leg line when I wear flat or low heels, or cropped pants. Furthermore, the tailored fit of the jeans offsets the swingy volume of the tunic. I finished off the outfit with a scarf, coat, cream boots and animal print bag.
Fashion forward COS on the other hand, styled the same swingy tunic with very wide, ankle-length trousers (see pieces below.) These are the outfit proportions designers are sending down the runways at fashion week, so it makes sense that COS chose this styling.
I keep on looking at COS’s combination hoping that it will grow on me, but it hasn’t yet. For the moment, all I see is a top that looks overly long and wide, paired with trousers that look too short to be regular length and too long to be deliberately cropped. To my eye, the visual effect is not “just flattering enough” because the body looks overly long, while the legs look overly short. Plus the width of the top fails to create even a hint of structure on the lower half of the body when paired with the volume of the trousers.
That said, back in the early ‘90s, I wore soft wide trousers with a soft cotton pullover, and flat sandals. Those proportions weren’t fabulously flattering either, but a few tweaks in the outfit made a difference. The trousers were regular length and covered my feet. The pullover was hip length and welted at the hem. The shorter length lengthened the leg line from the hips upward, while the welt added a little structure to the hip area. The regular length of the wide trouser didn’t look like “floods”.
Maybe in time, my eye will adjust to these proportions. But for now I’m sticking to wearing the same COS tunic with fitted bottoms that are either full length, or look deliberately cropped.
Over to you. Do you think the way COS styled my tunic is just flattering enough?
