The Best Booties for Curvy Women & Petite Girls Too!

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Do you know why I love shoes so much? They never make you feel fat. But, that doesn’t necessarily apply to ankle boots.

We put time and thought into wearing clothes that flatter us the best so let’s not ruin that by putting on a bootie that looked good on that skinny, long-legged influencer but will effectively cause us to look like a stump. ;-( But there are booties that can actually elongate our legs…

Ankle booties with a notched shaft or one that dips in the front are the BEST Booties for curvy women or women with thick legs or those with short legs.

The most important principle for dressing slim is to visually create long lines! So when choosing short booties, the same rule applies.

Booties: Jeffrey Campbell

• Draw the eye up AND down, and elongate the leg
• Don’t visually cut the leg off, creating stumps
• Look better with skirts or shorts
• Create a visual *”arrow”, even with jeans

*The deeper the notch the longer the “arrow”.

You can see that even if I had worn a dress with a straight hemline, the notched booties create a leaner looking leg.

BUT, this dress also helps elongate the leg and you can see how I styled it NINE ways here.

We have a little more leeway when wearing booties with jeans. However, you can see that the tiny V-sliver of an ankle that shows between the hem and the booties is flattering. Note: Even if I wore “sock” booties, I would not wear them with these jeans. I chose to keep the photos cohesive.

DON’T FALL FOR EVERY BOOTIE TREND

Trends in clothes and shoes come and go. Just like all colors don’t work on every complexion, not every bootie style works on all body types.

I think it’s best to leave some of the other bootie styles, like the sock bootie or those with tall straight shafts that sit above the ankle bone or higher to the ladies with straight or skinny legs. But if you decide to try them or want to make those you already own more flattering, keep the “elongating” principles in mind. Wear them with tights or pants of the same color. Another option would be to find booties that are close to the color of your skin like these in the center photos above.

Before you go feeling sorry for your curvy self, thinking, “here’s another thing curvy women can’t just pick up and put on”, we’re not alone. Petite women have the same style challenge. A petite figure needs to create an elongated line too.

Check out these posts from Jessica at Petite Style Script and Audrey of Putting Me Together.

It took me a while to figure out why I didn’t like the way certain booties looked on me. But when I realized that all the ankle boots I reached for over and over again had a dip in the front it made sense.

Notched shaft booties are harder to find, but I’m hoping that in the future more brands will offer better choices each season.

In the end, I always say wear what makes you feel good. But I feel better when I know I look my best. While nothing I wear will make me look like I’m 135 pounds again, I chose styles that flatter me even if that means I can’t hop on every trend.

So if you’ve wondered why you can’t pull off ankle booties or just “don’t like them” and you know you have a thick, curvy or muscular leg, try a notched shaft bootie and tell me if it makes a difference.

Unfortunately, all the booties pictured here are no longer available but I’ve found a few I’d be willing to add to my shoe wardrobe.

Similar to my favorite Born boot || Western Inspired || Deep-V || Dress Bootie Option || Open Toe || Open Toe Dressy || Leopard Print || BEAUTIFUL Nude Color || Flat

Wear a booties close to your flesh tone. I found out my skintone is called tortilla as indicated by these booties. ;-D

Two of my favorite booties this season are THESE and THESE

Be cute and confident!

Paula