Petite Outfit Ideas for Women Over 50: Cold Weather Edition

Written by mcallija in Uncategorized

It can be extremely challenging to piece together an outfit that fits properly and is comfortable, flattering, and aligns with your personal taste and style. This can be even more challenging if you are a petite woman over the age of 50 as so many clothes are designed with young women who are 5’6″ tall (or taller) in mind.

As someone who is always cold, it is extremely easy to reach for a big, cozy sweater, thick socks, and comfortable boots during colder months, instead of giving more thought and effort into wearing something stylish. However, building a wardrobe that includes a handful of cold-weather, petite-friendly outfits that are stylish, flattering, and comfortable will make it easier to reach for them in your closet.

Ponte Pants, Sweater & Ankle Boots

As a petite, it is important to wear outfits that are balanced. Fitted bottoms paired with an oversized or chunky sweater create a balanced look, as opposed to wearing an oversized sweater with baggy or loose-fitting bottoms. Wearing both a baggy style on top and bottom tends to swallow petite figures and diminish your shape.

Leggings are an excellent style for petites as they are extremely comfortable and can be dressed up or down. Thanks to the overwhelming consensus that leggings are the best, there are many styles of leggings to choose from so you can easily achieve your desired look. There are a lot of cheap, thin leggings out there, but a pair of high-quality leggings is a wardrobe staple and worthwhile investment.

If you happen to not be a big fan of leggings, ponte pants are a perfect alternative. Ponte pants are wonderful, because they are just as comfortable and fit almost the same as leggings but offer a more elevated look. The difference between leggings and ponte pants is the fabric. Ponte pants are made of a thicker fabric, while leggings are made of thin, clingy fabric and are not forgiving of any flaws and imperfections. Because ponte pants are thicker than leggings, they may be a better option during colder months of the year. Also, ponte pants better disguise imperfections, feel more secure, and offer a more flattering, polished look. Perhaps you are looking for an outfit to wear to work, and you feel that leggings are a little too casual. Ponte pants are great step up from leggings but are just as trendy, comfortable, and easy to style.

J. Jill’s Slit-Hem Ponte Leggings pictured above are available in petite sizes, so they’ll most likely be the perfect length for petites who are 5’4″ or shorter. Pair these bottoms with a v-neckline top, like J. Jill’s Mixed Media Cardi Sweater shown above, to add the illusion of height. V-neck tops move the eyes downward and make the torso appear longer. Another petite tip for adding height is to wear monochromatic outfits. A monochrome outfit creates a long, unbroken column of color, which elongates the figure and makes you appear taller.

Long Sleeve Dress, Cropped Sweater & Stretch Knee-High Boots

Dresses are an excellent option for petites, especially ones that are a singular color. The black, Eileen Fisher dress pictured above creates a long, unbroken vertical line, which allows the eyes to easily travel up and down the body. This has an elongating affect and creates the illusion of height. Pair this dress with Eileen Fisher’s Stretch Knit Boot to lengthen your “vertical line” even more. Knee-high boots are a great style to pair with this dress, as opposed to ankle boots. This is because the top part of the ankle boot’s shaft would be exposed, along with a portion of your legs, which would cause a break in the “vertical line.” As a result, this would “chop off” your legs and make them appear shorter.

For extra warmth, top this dress off with a cropped sweater, like the one pictured above. Cropped sweaters, blazers, and jackets are great for petites as they lay right around the hip area. Regular and longer length sweaters, blazers, and jackets fall around the mid-thigh area chopping off a portion of your legs which can make them appear shorter.

Skinny Leg Pants, Cropped Sweater & Pointed-Toe Ankle Boots

The outfit pictured above is a simple, petite-friendly everyday look. The Eileen Fisher Flex Ponte Carrot Pants are soft and easy to wear, but also offer a more structured look with front pleats and a tapered leg. This outfit also features a cropped sweater. As mentioned above, cropped sweaters are great for petites as they don’t chop off your legs and have less of a “swallowing” effect. Pointed toe shoes are also a great style for petites as they lengthen the legs, as opposed to square toe shoes that tend to shorten the legs.

A handbag is an important part of an outfit but is often overlooked. For petites, it’s best to choose a purse that’s not too large as it can overpower a small body type. The Coach Polished Pebble Leather Willow Tote, pictured above, is one of my favorite purses for many reasons. It’s simple and goes with any outfit. It’s not too big but not too small, so it holds all my essentials without overpowering my frame or taking up too much space. Many tote bags are just one large compartment without pockets or smaller compartments. Not only that, but many totes don’t offer any kind of closure, making it feel like your items aren’t very secure. The Coach Willow tote has a center zip compartment and a turnlock and magnetic snap closure, so it makes my things feel secure and organized.

Monochrome Outfit

A monochromatic outfit is probably one of the easiest ways to elongate your figure. To achieve a monochromatic look, all you have to do is piece together an outfit of a singular color. This creates one continuous vertical line, making you appear taller and slimmer. Eileen Fisher offers many tops and bottoms of the same color, so you can easily piece together monochromatic outfits.

I enjoy incorporating different fabrics and textures into my outfits as it’s a very simple way to add some variety to my wardrobe. The Eileen Fisher pants pictured above are a plush velveteen made from organic cotton, which add some texture and offer a casual, yet elevated look. Also, these pants have a high rise, so they are a great choice for making petite legs appear longer.

Belts are a wonderful accessory to spice up any outfit and create a more polished look. With that being said, it’s important to mention that belts create a horizontal line across the waist. As mentioned previously, vertical lines have an elongating effect, while horizontal lines have a shortening effect. As petites, we try to stay away from horizontal lines as they can make us appear shorter; however, I don’t think us petites should have to give up belts altogether. Instead, opt for a belt that closely matches the color of your bottoms as this will create a much less obvious horizontal line. For instance, in the outfit pictured above, the black belt blends in nicely with the dark pants. A lighter colored belt paired with these dark pants would stand out much more and create a much more pronounced horizontal line. As a result, this would move the viewers eyes side-to-side and make us appear shorter in height.

Belted Sweater

Who doesn’t love thick, warm sweaters? I know I do! However, sometimes I want to wear a thick sweater without it looking overly casual or completely swallowing my figure. Cue M.M. Lafleur’s Snyder Jacket! This specific sweaters is great for petites for a few reasons. First, it has a wrap front, so you can easily tighten or loosen it to fit your specific shape. Second, the belt cinches the waistline creating an hourglass figure, as opposed to unstructured sweaters that can look overly baggy. that Third, the sleeves are extra fitted at the wrists, which provide additional structure and don’t swallow your arms like wide-sleeved sweaters tend to do.

The M.M. Lafleur Archie Jeans have an adjustable hem, so you can adjust the length to suit your specific height. The adjustable hem is not only petite-friendly, but also allows you to wear them with both heels, flats, and everything in between. These pants have a very subtle flare/bootcut, which make them easy to wear with boots as they can easily fit over the boot shaft without bunching up.

Assembling a stylish outfit during the colder months of the year can be tricky for anyone. Let’s be honest – it’s just easy to throw on an outfit that is warm without giving much thought to the style and fit. Not only that, but if you a petite woman over the age of 50, it can be even trickier to assemble a stylish, cold-weather friendly outfit. Petite clothing options are limited in general, but even more so for women over the age of 50.

However, there are some really great brands that make this task much easier by offering petite-friendly, age appropriate clothing for petite women over the age of 50. Some of those brands include: J. Jill, Talbots, Eileen Fisher, M.M. Lafleur, Boden, and Land’s End. I hope the outfits shown above provide you with some outfit inspiration and make getting dressed as a petite woman a little easier (and fun)!

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