OMG! I tried this! (thanks Suz and Alaskagirl, and also Imogen)...and it just confirms everything I thought I knew about what suits me. (Feeling MUCH better today....alert enough for a bit of lurking in the morning, and now I'm gonna reply to one post before dinner!).
So. Una, to answer your question "who looks good in empire waists?" -- that would be me. I've got a medium-size, not-low bust and my slimmest part is right under it. So they work, provided the top is not too gathered under the bust, in which case I look pregnant, as does everyone else.
I'm 5'1", like you. (I'm measuring from roughly the top of my head. When Leonardo said "one head length", that's what he meant. People always forget about the bit above the hairline, but it's definitely included). I'm exactly the expected proportions everywhere except my bust to waist, which is very short, and my thighs, which are slightly short. (This doesn't surprise me. I think I've got short upper arms, too. I can remember learning to ride a horse as a child, and my cousin, who was teaching me, kept barking, "Keep your elbows down! Elbows DOWN!" until she finally said, "You know, I think your upper arms are just naturally short...you can't GET them down any further!).
So the upshot of this is that my bottom half is longer than my top half, which means low-rise/regular rise pants look better, tucked-in stuff looks not so fab, belt-wearing is iffy except at the hips, and slim-fitting tops that end lower than the hip bone suit me best.
I can bend these rules a little because I'm very slim (I wore something tucked in a few weeks ago, and it didn't look bad, but it was fitted, and the a-line skirt I was wearing seemed to allow me to get away with it). And if I wear heels, my legs look like they're a mile long (even though they are manifestly not) because the calf part is long compared to the thigh part anyway, and of course heels visually lengthen your calves even more.
Well, that was all about me me me. But it's out there for comparison. Some of the things I wear might suit you, Una, but some might not, because it sounds like although we have some similarities in size and frame, we have some important differences, too. (I'm saying all this because you've been asking me for pics for a long time now, thinking that some of my favourite pieces might suit you too -- but now that I've learned this stuff about proportions, I'm thinking they might not).
