I frequently mention semi and faux tucking tops, assuming that the distinction between them was clear. But judging by the number of questions I’ve received, that wasn’t a good assumption. So here’s what I mean, with some examples to illustrate. 

The Semi Tuck

This is when you tuck only one section of your top into the front of jeans, trousers, shorts or a skirt. The tops are usually a little fluid or oversized, although tailored tops can sometimes also work. T-shirts, knitted tops, blouses, button-down shirts and un-welted knitwear semi tuck very effectively. The photos below illustrate the concept to perfection. Semi tucking works well with waistbands that are mid to low rise. I find semi tucking less attractive with high rises, although it’s not a fashion faux pas. Belting a semi tucked top adds a great finishing touch.

The Faux Tuck

This is a term I invented for an alternative to the semi tuck. It only works when the top has a welt (a wide band on the hem) and you need to be wearing a belt. You create the faux tuck by resting the welt on the front section of the belt. You are barely tucking anything at all, but the belt will keep the top in place.

I have faux tucked welted tops in the outfits below. Again, faux tucking works best with waistbands that are mid to low rise. 

I’ve found that knitwear and fleece are great fabrications for faux tucking because of their excellent drape. Silky fabrications with ribbed welts faux tuck pretty well too, despite being lightweight. Flimsy T-shirt fabric drapes less well and therefore isn’t great for the faux tuck.

So you don’t need a welt to semi tuck, but you DO need a welt to faux tuck.

I do not semi tuck tops because the visual effect doesn’t work with my personal style. Instead, I faux tuck my pullovers. The effect is tidier and more dressy, which is a better match with my personality. I am just too neat by nature to make the semi tuck feel right in my outfits. That said, I do love the semi tucked look on others and most of my clients enjoy semi tucking their tops. In fact, semi and faux tucking have turned around many of my formerly belt-phobic clients, who now happily wear belts. This style of casual tucking has been revolutionary, refreshing many a personal style, and, I’m sure, increasing belt sales in the process.

Who is semi tucking and who is faux tucking? And who has yet to try either style of casual tucking?

Many of my clients enjoy wearing shades of burgundy and blue. I’m thrilled to see a good assortment of these great, mainstream colours in stores across all wardrobe items. 

• Vince Camuto Stripe Paneled Tee: A roomy piece that’s fab over a pencil skirt or straight leg jeans and trousers. The placement of the stripes is different and fun. Good for apple shape body types. Runs true to size, or a little large. 
• Marc by Marc Jacobs Clover Satchel: A beautiful little tartan bag. Casually structured. This will give you a burgundy and blue fix for the season. 
• MZ Wallace Belle Nylon Tote: Nylon bags are looking “fresh and new”. They are superbly lightweight, weatherproof and robust. The burgundy edging is subtle and lovely. Actually, this bag is as fab in black with the bright gold zippers and burgundy edging. 
• BlankNYC Faux Leather Jacket: Fitted and runs small. Read the rave reviews. 
• Spanx Lace Bouquet Tights: So pretty I can’t stand it. Match these with burgundy or black footwear, a tonally deep red dress or simple little black number and you’re done. 
• BCBG Kitty Baseball Cap: Cats continue to inspire fashion. Someone be a devil and sport this felt cap that is as chic as it is adorable. 
• Echo Denim Tech Gloves: Keep your hands warm using a touchscreen phone. I love that this product is finally available in a fashionable style that is not black. 

Burgundy looks great with bright, light and dark blue. If you haven’t tried these colour combinations, give them a bash. Throwing in a coral or burnt orange with the burgundy and blue is fab too.

A Beatle bootie is a flat bootie with a pointy toe, and it’s one of five flat footwear trends for Fall. Although Beatle booties don’t resemble what the Beatles wore in the ’60s all that closely, they did serve as an inspiration for this look. Some Beatle booties have a one inch heel as opposed to being completely flat, and a zipper instead of elastic inserts that make them a pull-on style. Some toe boxes are less pointy than others. Almond toes count as pointy toes too. 

Beatle booties are an acquired taste. They are flat, when most women prefer leg-lengthening (and arch supporting) low or mid-sized heels on boots. They are pointy, which can mean uncomfortable toe-squishing, bad flashbacks from the ’80s, and the potential to make your feet look disproportionately long or elf-like. On the other hand, the pointy toe does help to offset the stumpiness and elongate the leg line.

If you bat for Team Beatle Booties, here are five ways to wear them.

1. With Tapered Jeans

Choose skinny or straight leg jeans in a solid or a pattern. Creating a low contrast between the jeans and the boots achieves a longer leg line, as per the first picture. Tucking, semi-tucking or faux tucking the top further lengthens the leg line.

If you do create a high contrast between the booties and the jeans, the tucking becomes more important. That’s how I wear my white Beatle booties with high contrasting black tapered pants. 

2. With Tapered Trousers

Here the same tips apply. Create a low contrast and show the waistband of the bottoms. If tucking or semi tucking is not your thing, create a column of colour instead. That means wearing a top and bottom in the same (or very similar) colour. That way you lengthen your entire frame, which visually offsets the stumpy effect of the booties.

“Tapered legs” does not mean skinnies alone, but also includes straight legs and any baggier style of trouser that narrows at the bottom of the leg.

I don’t suggest pairing Beatle booties with bootcut or flared trousers unless you have extremely long legs and a short torso. Most of the time, bootcuts and flares look better with a heel, even if it’s only a low heel.

3. With Cropped Pants

Matching ankle pants or cropped pants with flat pointy booties is ultra fashion forward, yet quite stumpifying no matter how you slice and dice it. But it’s edgy, and often these days we will forgo a little conventional figure flattery to create that edge. You’ll fare better if you have a naturally long leg line, AND if you keep the colour of the pants and the booties the same (or at least very similar), as in the first picture below. That way your leg looks like an extension of the pants. Of course, creating a column of colour as shown in the second picture lengthens the entire frame and to my eye looks better.

The third picture is the most stumpifying because of the high contrast between the booties and the floral pants, the cropped nature of the pants, and the untucked high contrast sweater worn with the outfit. Not very flattering in a conventional sense, but on the cutting edge of fashion nonetheless.

4. With Dresses

It’s an acquired taste to wear Beatle booties with dresses, especially knee-covering midis where the frump factor sets in pretty fast. I like the low contrast between the white booties and the model’s bare skin because that effect makes your legs look longer. But It’s often a better idea to raise the hemline of the dress to above the knee when you wear flat booties, because it creates more flattering proportions. 

I recreated this outfit with a formfitting long sleeved midi dress and exactly the same white booties. I did not like the effect because of the gaping spaces around my ankle, much like what you see on the model. I am becoming less tolerant of booties that gape even a little too much when wearing them with skirts and dresses. A little gape is fashionably acceptable, but I prefer a tailored fit on my own ankles. 

5. With Shorter Hemlines

This combination is all about wearing shorts, and short skirts or dresses with Beatle booties. Skin equals structure, so showing more leg adds structure to an otherwise stumpy outfit. Wearing booties that are low contrast against your complexion further elongates the leg line, as shown in the first picture.

One and two are the easiest ways to wear Beatle booties, and that’s going to be it for me because my booties gape too much at the ankle to be worn with midi dresses and shorter hemlines. I am warming up to three — with cropped pants — and might give that a go in Spring.

I loved the shape of the flat pointy toe bootie when it surfaced as a very fringe trend last year. I’m drawn to the modern, crisp, refined and “new” shape amidst an overload of casual, chunky, distressed, biker and cowboy-esque boots that are flooding the retail market. I’m an ’80s gal at heart so I enjoy pointy toes. And most importantly, their potential for keeping my fussy walking feet happy is ideal. So I snapped up the white pair from Zara, which were love at first sight, and put them through their paces over the weekend. I’m absolutely thrilled with them. 

How do you feel about wearing Beatle booties? Will you forego a little conventional figure flattery just for fun, to be fashion forward and edgy, or possibly for the extra comfort?

The sky is falling down because I’m wearing ankle length pants. Granted, this is the only way I will sport the length and the styling is extremely deliberate. I continue to have a stormy relationship with pant lengths below the calf and above the ankle bone, but I am open to wearing the length this way. 

These black cigarette pants are old and full length. They are thick, woven, a little stretchy and very comfortable. Perfect for business casual outfits with booties, especially in wet Seattle weather. No soggy hems. But I also like to wear these pants on a mild Summer day with Summer shoes — like my ankle strap pointy toe pumps. So I roll up the hems three times to showcase the ankle strap of the shoe as well as a little ankle skin. I’m okay with this combination because the pants are tapered at the hems, AND because the pants are the same colour as the straps of the shoe. The black straps visually elongate the length of the black pants. This would not have been the case if I’d worn my pointy toe pumps with tan ankle straps. That pairing would have created shorter pant lengths, which to my eye would not have looked right. I am that fussy about the lengths of my pants. 

I could also have worn the pants unrolled to their full length with ankle scrunch, thereby covering up the ankle strap of the pumps. But the straps are what I like best about the shoes so I prefer showcasing them. Plus I like the extra outfit interest that the sliver of ankle skin between the strap and the hems of the pants adds to the outfit. It’s especially effective when the outfit is in motion. 

Other than a formfitting turtleneck, my favourite pullover styles at the moment are high necked with raglan sleeves and a welt in a fluid fit. The magic of the raglan sleeve always fits my shoulder line. The welt adds structure and allows me to faux tuck when I belt trousers and jeans. The fluid fit feels modern and on trend. That’s why I fell in love with the Statement Yarn Sweater from Karen Millen, which has a fun and different back pattern. It drapes like a dream. I wear a layering camisole underneath for extra warmth, scrunch the sleeves, and am good to go over a pair of dressy bottoms. No tucking, layering, belting or jewelelry. Specs, wedding ring and watch are sufficient. 

The pumps are the Okalas in a cheetah print, which I also have in the pony. I chose them for this outfit because their black straps extend the length of the pants, and because they pattern mix with the pullover. As a nod to the matchy-matchy trend, I finished off the outfit with a kitty print clutch. I do like to match my bag and shoes from time to time. 

September is trench season and my cream trench does the job. It’s almost six years old and still going strong. I don’t think it looks dated and I love it as much now as I did when I bought it. I especially love traveling with this trench because white is bright and happy. I have really taken care of it so it still looks pretty pristine. Although it is double-breasted, I often like to wear it open. But I also like the fitted look of wearing it closed. 

This type of outfit is one way of creating what I call “relaxed polish”. The elements are dead simple and the pieces are very comfortable. The unstructured structure is a theme in many of my outfits because it makes the outfit look just a little more modern. The dainty shoes and pretty fabrications add a sense of refinement that is very important to my style.

It’s a more casual business casual outfit formula that might work for your work setting too.