What the faux tuck is going on? - YouLookFab Forum

Category

Dressing

Welcome! Read about what to wear and how to wear it on the YLF Blog. Join the YLF Forum to ask specific questions or just chat about fashion and personal style. Or check out the curated list of things we love in YLF Finds.

Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

What the faux tuck is going on?

Missey

Veteran

Would someone explain the art of the faux tuck and or semi tuck to me or is this something I'm going to have to just keep practicing? It seems like many of you YLFers have mastered the craft, making it look effortless and so very "Oh, what? This? I just threw it on!" I look sloppy. Or do I just have to acclimate myself?

Dressing

29 replies

Latest reply was from viva

Anonymous

I just kept looking at what others had done and kept experimenting

milehighstyle (Linda)

Veteran

Me too, haven't quite got it yet. Every so often it works for me, but mostly I give up and either full tuck or full untuck. Maybe there's a perfect shirt length that it works on, or volume of the shirt/tightness of the pants changes the look.

Michelle

(website)

Veteran

Best. Topic title. Ever.

But I'm with you, Diana. I have not the slightest clue how to faux-tuck anything. If one of the forum grand-masters would be so kind as to walk us all through it, including some written guidance, I can vouch for at least one super-grateful reader.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I agree with Michelle about the thread title!

For me, there is a sort of balancing act between hem length, hem cut (straight, curved, high-low, etc.), hem type (banded, shirt-tail, etc.), waistband height (for me, lower is better because I am short-waisted), drapiness of fabric, etc. that either makes or breaks the look. I'm bad at explaining it, but I think I know it when I see it.

Anonymous

Well I do not claim mastery of this art, but I put my bottoms on, buckle my belt, then put my top on. I then grab my waistband at my buckle and pull it out away from my stomach and lightly tuck in the shirt part that directly lay over my buckle. I then kind of fluff or roll the shirt in an upside down wide U shape tapering to my hips.

Lucy

Veteran

Ah, excellent thread, and thank you Ceit for that explanation.

I feel like I can make it work at home, but that I quickly become messed up as the day progresses. I feel like I need hairspray for my semi-tuck!!

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

I don't usually faux tuck very often, but when I do, I do the same thing as Ceit

Firecracker (Sharan)

Veteran

I'm with Joy, I just kept--and keep--experimenting. But here are a few things I've learned from doing it:
1. Faux-tucking pullover sweaters. Angie refers often to the idea of faux-tucking a sweater with a "welt" on the bottom. (I grew up calling this welt "ribbing.") Easiest way to achieve this look is to turn up the welt to the outside of the sweater, so that the wrong side is out. Then flip the fold you've made back toward your body, so that the sweater now laps neatly over the welt. Hike the front center of the sweater welt up over your belt buckle. Tuck a half inch or so of the welt behind the buckle or behind your waistband. Pull down the welt around the rest of the sweater as much as you need to, in order to cover the belt at the back or make it look the way you want. You may end up undoing some of your careful lapping, but that's okay.

2. Semi-tucking blouses or knit tops. I find semi-tucking works if you have a top that fits loosely around your hips. Closer-fitting tops are hard to deal with, although it can be done. I don't try to tuck before buttoning and zipping my pants. Just fasten your pants, do your belt, and then try the tuck. I just tuck about 4 inches across the front, adjust the drape over that center portion of the waist, and then spread out the rest of the top along the front and see how it looks.

Missey

Veteran

I see this is going to take some practice on my part...I thank all of you for your suggestions. I can be a little like my 9-year-old son sometimes. I don't want to practice, I just want to do it. I also think I am so used t seeing my clothes hang/wear a certain way that when I do try a tuck I feel it looks odd on me. Any-hoo, time to get tuckin'!

Peri

Veteran

Agree on the best title ever!!!

Glad the others could help you...I don't tuck real or faux. But so funny!

Gigi

Veteran

This is helpful...count me in the confused camp.

If the shirt is quite long, does the semituck just simply not work well? To my eye, if my top is quite a bit longer than my waist, there is a big contrast in the amount of fabric that flows over the back as opposed to tucked in the front. Is my eye just not adjusted, or does this really not look good?

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Missey, this is hilarious. Get tucking' indeed. What the faux tuck?

Ceit explained it well. I find it really easy to do. It might have to do with the type of top and the degree of fluidity. But the magic of semi-tucking and faux tucking is real. It has the amazing ability to make straight up and down bodies look a little bit curvy, and curvy bodies look less va-va voom and more effortlessly elegant. It kind of skims the whole issue, so to speak.

Gracie

Veteran

I love faux tucking and do it exactly as Ceit explained it.

April

Veteran

Your subject line made me snort my tea.

Parsley

Veteran

I don't have any wisdom to add, but I could not pass this thread up with that hysterically clever title. Love it!

Aziraphale

Veteran

@April: me too. Nothing like a bit of clever faux-foul language to make you snort your drink.

Faux tuck works for me, always has, but I'm wondering if it has something to do with my shape (narrow and rectangular, like Ceit but shorter) and the kind of tops I faux tuck (lightweight jerseys or knits). Also, and this might be important, I generally wear my waistband low. I have no junk in my trunk (sigh) but the bonus of that is that the seat of the pants always covers my entire rear with no butt crack issues even if the rise on the pants is very low. And low rise pants work far better for the semi-tuck, I've found. I have one pair of mid-rise jeans and I never semi-tuck with those -- it just doesn't work.

anne

Veteran

*chuckle*

I haven't really got it either - I mean I get the instructions but it still looks strange most of the to me!

Anonymous

I also love the thread title!

One of the things that intimidates me about faux-tucks (besides my general fear of complicated pants-based silhouettes) is that it's not something you can do once and be set, but something you'll have to redo at least a few times throughout the day, achieving the same perfectly nonchalant look every time. Sometimes in a ladies' room stall with no mirrors.

But maybe that's just my neurosis talking?

Aziraphale

Veteran

Aubergine, yes, I have to re-tuck the front of my top every single time I go to the toilet, but it takes half a second and doesn't require a mirror. It looks perfectly nonchalant because it is. It's like flipping your hair off your face -- most of us do that lots of times a day, aways without a mirror. No?

Wouldn't it be more of a pain in the behind to fully tuck a blouse every time you had to visit the ladies'?

MsMary

Veteran

All I have to say is that next time I want to cuss, I'm going to say "faux tuck" instead!

Suz

(website)

Veteran

What Aziriphale said. It's not actually difficult to redo it -- it's less difficult (for me) than adjusting my tights might be if I were wearing a dress, or than fussing with a necklace. It's just as simple as pulling up your undies. But then I am more or less a rectangle, too. Still I do not think it's a body type thing. Sveta is a pretty pear and she rocks a semi-tuck like there is no tomorrow. And finds it super easy to deal with, too.

catgirl

Veteran

You need an award for this thread title. I can't love it enough.

If you are me, you try to do a neat tuck, give up halfway through in disgust, and voila!

The best way to begin IMHO is with the "belt-snag": just make it look like the hem of your top got caught in the top of your belt buckle.

Michelle

(website)

Veteran

Although Una's hilarious description gives me hope, this seems like a good time to renew my commitment to no-tuck dressing. Though, like Mary, I think I can find a home for faux-tuck in my vocabulary.

Missey

Veteran

I think maybe I would find it easier if I wore belts...looking back at some members posts it seems that the faux tuck is most artfully accomplished with a belt at the waist. I need some cool belts. Jeez I have so much to do on my day off now!

shemarie

That's hilarious! Great question and interesting replies. Like Aziraphale, Suz and AG've said, I too am a rectangle and so low-waisted pants, wide belts, no backside padding, and no hips to hold anything up seem to help my case. I've NEVER been able to do a full-on tuck anyway...when I look back at photos from the days I tried, with high-waisted mom jeans no less, I'm beyond appalled. Like AG, the faux-tuck and semi-tuck followed naturally from way back because I was generally so disheveled anyway. Finally I'd realized it was the only way no-waisted, IT me could wear a belt and hope to have some semblance of a shape. So thrilled it's now an accepted and authentic stylish "thing" - probably the first and likely only time in my life I've been out ahead of a trend!

Anonymous

Aziraphale, I actually don't full-tuck shirts into pants either (just because it seems like it would be really uncomfortable and unflattering on me), but I was maybe figuring that would be easier to do automatically because it's the exact same deal no matter which shirt and pants you're wearing, while the amount of faux-tuck that looks best might be different for different outfits.

Maybe I'll move over next to Michelle in the land of no-tuck dressing! Except that I do like tucking with a full skirt every once in a while.

lyn67

Veteran

LOL, hillarious tittle, indeed:-).

I find tucking, faux and half tucking very very flattering on others(esp slim and/or shapely people) but not too appealing for those of us who have some tummy under their belt. Kind of think a tummy and low rise pants excludes themselves anyway and achieving a flattering tuck of any kind in some high rise pants (if you are a bit overweight and/or shapeless in the back like am me too) I find it also more than challenging. Hence, will follow this thread for more wisdom!

Anonymous

I find that the faux and semi tuck are much easier with belted low-rise jeans than a bottom that ends at the waist. It looks unfinished without a belt.
I have also found that it can do an excellent job of camouflaging a jiggly midriff. That's my biggest reason for wearing the style.

viva

Veteran

haha LOVE the title! I remember a brilliant blog post from Angie on this. Hope it clears up the fogginess:

http://youlookfab.com/2013/09/.....rsus-faux/