Summer weather is in full effect now, which means the options for what bottoms to wear is as wide as it’s ever going to be during the year. From standard jeans to mid-length skirts to short shorts there’s a ton of choice for what to wear. And because here at Socks4Life we’re all a little detail obsessed, we like to make sure our outfits all match, or at the very least that our flip flops don’t clash too much with our gym shorts.
A recurring theme you’ll see throughout this guide is to create contrast between your bottoms and your shoes. Our first example demonstrates this idea of contrast really well. Flared pants have come back in style in the last few years and that’s great especially in the summer, they’re breezy and airy and help keep you cool. They can also make your legs look shorter than they are since they cover so much more of your lower legs and feet. The easiest way to fix this problem is to wear a shoe that gives you a lot of lift, like a wedge or a pair of casual heels. These can actually make your legs look longer since the flare hides most of the shoe.
Some advice we can give that’s very similar to our advice for flares is for culottes. The short cut and wide flare is great for hot weather, as well as making you look like you’re about a foot shorter than you actually are. Match your culottes with anything to give you some height and you’ll be golden.
Just watch out for shoes with thick straps that break up your legs into distinct, separate shorter sections.
Another piece of fashion that has gotten popular has been the jumpsuit. Jumpsuits can come in a lot of different styles, so we’ll break it down into two broad categories: wide-legged and slim-legged. Our advice for wide-legged jumpsuits is exactly the same as for flared pants, something with some lift to make you look taller. With slim-legged jumpsuits we recommend matching them up with a very minimal shoe, depending on how slim the fit is exactly. You want something that lets the hem of the pant sit without being interfered with by your shoes. So a very minimal flat or a simple pair of heels would work well here.
A look that hasn’t really changed much in the last 50 years is the combination of crop pants and flats. It’s a dead simple look that still looks classic. Flats when worn with cropped pants don’t do anything to take away from the figure cut by the pants while still allowing for some personality to show through when it comes to color and accoutrements.
What should you pair up with a mid-length skirt? Pretty much anything you want. They’re like the David Bowie of summer bottoms: There are definitely some things they look better with, but there’s not really anything they look outright bad with. Everything from sneakers to formal-ish heels looks good here, although we will say, continuing with the David Bowie analogy, boots with mid-length skirts is a little more Tonight rather than Ziggy Stardust.
So there you go, our quick guide to how to style your summer bottoms with your summer shoes.