I am a petite woman. Not only am I just under 4’11” (like a few centimeters off) I also weigh 85 pounds, so when I wear clothing they often wear ME instead. However, I love tall, cozy winter boots as much as anyone else, and even if you’re short (and tiny), you can make tall boots work without looking like you’re playing dress up in too-big shoes.
Petite women CAN wear tall boots, so long as the rest of their outfit is appropriately lengthed. Which means, if you are wearing tall boots, don’t wear a trench coat, or else your tiny frame will just be overwhelmed. I love my brown boots (they’re flats) that go up to my knees, so when I wear them I am sure to wear a tighter jean to tuck into them and a shorter coat to help keep my boots from overpowering my body. I don’t want to look like my legs are little stubs inside my boots because they are overpowering on my body in addition to a long sweater or coat. I keep my tops at just at the waist to keep balance.
Dark wash and tighter fitting jeans make the boots less invasive as well. When your boots take up half your leg’s length, and you’re short enough already, don’t make it worse with a lighter wash or ill-fitting jean. Loose jeans shoved into boots just scream stubby and childish, and unless your light wash jeans are painted on, they’ll fail to elongate your legs. In my experience a tighter, dark wash jean tucked into boots makes all the difference to make my smaller body look like I’m not being eaten by my boots.
Don’t make the mistake I did and tuck in your jeans into your boots, and then put on a huge ass sweater that goes down to your knees, and for that matter don’t listen to your significant other when he tells you that you look sexy. No, you don’t. You look like you aren’t wearing anything but clunky boots and a sweater, since your jeans are nowhere to be seen amongst the clothing and boot overload. If your shirt goes beyond your waistband and you’re wearing tall boots, you are making a fashion mistake. Trust me. The kids will laugh and point.
When wearing tall boots with a dress or skirt, since we’re short it’s best to keep the length of the skirt to just above the knees or an inch or so higher. On taller people, boots usually hit mid calf or slightly higher, on us shorter women boots hit the slightly higher part to the knees, so in order to give that differential between dress (or skirt) and boots, we have to go a bit shorter. You want at least 3 inches between the end of your dress and the top of your boots to balance out. This is fine, but just be sure to tone down the flirty skirt length a bit with a dark brown or slate gray tight to make you look less like a go-go dancer and more sophisticated. I always wear tights or leggings when pairing my boots with a skirt.
And finally, choose a boot that doesn’t make your legs look like you’re swimming in them. My boots are a little bit too wide (OK, a LOT too wide, I can shove both my hands inside a single boot when my leg is in there too), so they don’t fit as well as they should, and make my legs look even more chicken-like than they are. You want the tiniest gap possible between your skin and the boot at the opening as you can without your skin pillowing out on top of it. Good luck with that though, and call me when you actually find a boot that fits like a glove, because every boot I’ve ever tried on I can practically slide both my feet into. But try to get a great fit on the leg as best you can. It makes all the difference.
