The return of the waist

So full swishy skirts with tight belted waistlines are set to be all the rage this summer. Good news if you have a waist, bad news for those of us that don’t! Where there’s a will there’s a way though.

• All but the perfectly waisted should avoid full gathered skirts in heavy fabrics ie. denim. They’ll make you look like a tent. Go for light cottons or linens, maybe even layered skirts.
• Big bold prints are good but make sure you pick out one of the main colours in the print with a solid coloured top. The darker the better.
• Waists that aren’t born can be made. There are loads of big belts around. If you’re not blessed with a shapely waist never ever wear a waisted swishy skirt without a belt, you need to be wearing it with a nice wide belt – the wider the better, which will reduce the width of your waist. Avoid skinny belts like the plague unless your emphasising a teeny tiny waist.
• Length is also crucial with this one – above the knee is not for the faint hearted. Your best bets are just on the knee or just below (usually the thinnest part of your leg). Longer lengths are best kept for swishy cocktail party type affairs.

The waist is also making a return on trousers. Quite a hard one to pull off, look for the following to make those high waisted trousers a big hit rather than a hilarious miss:

• Deep waistbands.
• Absolutely no way choose tapered or skinny leg shapes.
• If they’re wide legged they need to be a snug fit around your waist, hips, bum and the very top of your thighs otherwise they’ll look like clown trousers.
• Curved front pockets will break up the long expanse up to your waist.
• Be careful with back patch pockets, the wrong shape or the wrong size and they could end up making you look like the back end of a bus.
• Best to look for a yoke at the back.

Happy waisting!