- We're getting a one-way
ticket out of frump town. Let's do this. (upbeat music) Hi ladies, it's Erin and
welcome back to my channel. My mission through my channel
it's to make style simple to help you look like
the best version of you. Today I wanna talk about some of the things that you may be doing that you may not realize
is actually aging you or looking a bit frumpy. And these tips by the
way are quite specific. And we're kinda getting
in there a little bit more and we're really, you know,
we're going next level with this video. I've done a couple of
these videos already. So if you miss them you may wanna go back and watch those original videos. Those are more like 1.0,
and this is more like 2.0. So I'll put links to those videos below in the description box. But in this video, we're really getting into some of the specific details, and a lot of common
questions that I get also. The first tip I wanna
focus on are capri pants. I get a lot of questions
about capri pants. Are they okay? What length is okay? So they're so tricky because
literally anything cropped on your legs is going
to shorten your frame. You know to look as long
and tall as possible, and I've talked about this in the "Look Taller if
You're Petite" video, and the "Look Taller Slimmer" video. You wanna wear a longer
pant, and more specifically a flared leg or wide leg pant. That's gonna make you look
as long as tall as possible. So when you throw on a pair of capris you're just cutting off the leg. There is an optimal
length for capri pants. The optimal length is at
a small part of your leg. You don't wanna wear a pair
of pants where the hemline falls to the widest part of your calf. And let's take a look at
a before and an after. So here's your, before. These capri pants hitting me
at the widest part of my calf and then let's take a look
when I uncuff them a little bit so that they fall to where
my leg starts to taper toward the ankle. The length is much more flattering. So you want your capri pants
or your crop pants to fall to where the leg starts to taper, or even longer to where it hits the ankle. So if you want to wear those crop pants that's what you're going to focus on. Where does the hemline fall? Does it fall in the taper or is it at the widest part of my calf? You don't want the
widest part of your calf, you want it in the taper. So that was really bad and better. What's best is finding a pair of pants that is lightweight
breathable but also goes to that skinnier part
of your leg, the ankle. You can see in the after
here that my leg looks longer and it looks more polished,
it looks more sophisticated and it looks less frumpy. Really paying attention to the hemline of your pants, big deal. And then I did swap out the shoes also. So I swapped out the shoes
for these Mary Janes, which also cut the leg
for a more modern pair of white sneakers. White sneakers, having a total moment definitely more youthful
and also very comfortable. So don't be afraid of the white sneaker. The second thing I wanna talk about are loud printed pants. Loud prints in general big prints, oversize prints, big scale prints. When you are trying to look as modern as youthful, as sophisticated,
as slim as possible you want to avoid a loud
printed pant or shirt. That doesn't mean you can't wear them. I'm just saying, if you are
trying to achieve those goals then you want to go with
a smaller scale print. So lemme show you an example. Here is an outfit with a black tunic top, this top by the way I really
enjoy, I think it's great. And some very bold printed pants. I can totally see a lot of
women rocking these pants, there's nothing wrong with the pants. I'm just saying if we're trying
to put our best foot forward and look as sophisticated,
youthful, modern as possible we're not gonna go with these
big, giant, bold prints. Instead, we're gonna swap
these gigantic printed pants for something much more subtle. So here is an example of a
pair of pants that are printed but much more subtle, much
more sophisticated elongating. These are a polka dot
print, very small scale. You can see the difference, and how much longer I look, leaner I look, more sophisticated I look. Again, nothing wrong
with the big bold prints. It's just if we're trying
to put our best foot forward we're gonna go with smaller scale prints. The third mistake that I see women making and I also get a lot of questions
about our nude pantyhose. This one's tough. I get it. A lot of us don't feel
comfortable showing our legs. So I get this question a lot, can I wear nude pantyhose
or nude stockings? I have yet in the decade
plus that I've been focusing on style to find a pair of nude
stockings that work for me. I've tried Wolford. I've tried fishnet. I've tried different shades. I've tried shiny or matte,
and I have not found them. Now, if you found them, if you found the holy grail pantyhose or
stockings that work for you in a skin color that are basically
imperceptible to the eye. Then congratulations, and by the way, please put those in the comments below, 'cause we all wanna know what they are. Kate Middleton can do it,
she pulls it off beautifully. It's also something she has to do. It's according to Royal protocol. So she does it because she has to. Do I think Kate Middleton
would wear those stockings if she didn't have to, she wasn't a Royal? Absolutely not. If you are over 40, over
50, over 60, over 70, and you're trying to wear nude pantyhose, it's very, very tricky to not look frumpy. What can you do instead? 'Cause you're like Erin,
I can't show my legs 'cause of all the reasons
you talked about before. Here are the things to consider. Wear a longer skirt or dress. You don't have to wear a
short skirt or dress, right. And if you wear a longer one do you really need to wear stockings, if you're just showing
like this much of your leg? I mean, I don't think so. And then if you're showing
this much of your leg and you're still not
comfortable with that, like moisturize use some skin makeup like Dermablend or use a bronzer, whatever it takes to make
your legs look better to where you feel more comfortable. You could wear an opaque black stocking. Those are more modern and
more youthful, less frumpy. It can be opaque like
these, this polka dot pair, or it could be like full on tights. I happen to like a
little bit of sheerness, so you can see a contrast, but this totally personal preference. So you can see with the nude stockings and I've got the open toe
shoes, that's even worse with open toe shoes. Nude stockings, open toe
shoes, no, no, no, no, no. If you're gonna do the nude stocking please wear close toed shoes. And if you're gonna do
the black stockings, wear close toed shoe too. In general, swap the nude
stockings or pantyhose for something that's black and an opaque, you know, more sheer in fabric. So here I'm wearing, you
know, it's the same outfit. Stripe, Norma Kamali skirt,
white shell from Nordstrom, I love the shell by the
way, it's great basic. On one side, I'm wearing
the nude pantyhose with an open toe shoe and on the other I'm wearing the black
polka dots spanx type with some close toe booties. I wanted to show you
some comfortable booties. So these, they just have
like a one inch heel. These are by Everlane, very comfortable but they run narrow. But you could also do a dressier bootie. I think actually a dressier
bootie would look even better. But if you wanna wear
something that's more flat then you could go with something
like these Everlane booties that do still have a dressy feel to them. And if you want to do no stockings at all, just remember you have those
options of moisturizing. You can do like coconut
oil, you could do bronzer, you could do Dermablend
to cover blemishes, whatever you need to
do to feel comfortable. But unless you found the holy grail nude pantyhose stockings, I'd go with black for sure, black opaque. The fourth frumpy thing
that I see sometimes are the wrong sleeve length. Sleeves are important like hemlines. You know, it's another little detail that maybe we don't often talk about much and we don't take a deep dive into, but it's a detail that's
really important and impactful. So your sleeve length can
determine how your arms look. Here is an example of a bad sleeve length. This top it is cap sleeve,
it is tight fitting, and I've been working
really hard on my arms. I mean, we're talking, working
out four to five times a day. A day, I'm not the Rock. Four to five times a week. And this top makes my arms look terrible. What makes the top even worse
is the unstructured cowl neck, I cannot stand an unstructured cowl. I love a cowl with a
sweater with a thicker nit that has some heft to
it and some structure, but this like willy nilly
cowl just drives me insane. Now I wanna show you a
very similar sleeve length but with a slightly different
fit, it really works. Here is an example, this one is by BCBG, and it's a white islet top that has more of a flutter sleeve. It's really the same length almost. It's maybe like an inch longer. But the flutter and the
fact that it's not fitted and it's just a little bit longer, it makes my arms look so much smaller, you can see when you compare and contrast. Arms look so much more
spell and smaller on with the white top. And then the neck line, it's a really flattering v-neck line, wrap front, much better than the cowl neck. Really paying attention
to these little details like that sleeve length
can make such a big impact, as you can see here. I mean, you can see it when
you see it side by side. Another detail I wanna talk about, again I told you this was 2.0, we're really getting in there. We're drilling down and
really figuring out what it is to look for to really buy, you know, modern, sophisticated, youthful pieces. So one of the common details I see, especially, I don't know
why, but for clothes geared for women, 40, 50, 60, 70
are pockets on the hips, like this sweater here. It's a mock neck sweater
and a beautiful color by the way, I love this color, it's kind of like an oatmealy beige, but with pockets on the
hips, I don't get it. I really don't. I guess it's kind of like a nod to the sixties mod, that style. But all it does is add volume
to an area on a woman's body that traditionally we
don't wanna add volume to. Now adding insult to injury
with this top is the mock neck. So it's really like, it just looks so buttoned
up and closed off. So I wanna show you what
happens when we swap the buttoned up mock neck with the hip building
pockets that's along, with something that has a little bit more of a modern open neck line,
and also a little shorter with no pockets on the hip. So here's an example of a
sweater I bought last year, by Line & Dot, very affordable. It is a one shoulder
sweater in the same color but you've got this open neck line, that's super sexy by the way. Talk about like looking sexy,
but still sophisticated, this sweater is it. It's shorter, so you have more leg. It's not, as you know, it
doesn't cut you off as much. It still provides tummy forgiveness, there's still room in the tummy, and you don't have those
hip building pockets. So I see all the time, like cardigans, and sweaters, and tops
that have these pockets, and I know I get the like,
the love of the pocket. But just be really careful
when you're picking out those pieces like, are those pockets, do they blend in enough
or it doesn't add bulk to an area which is traditionally, you know a larger area for women or not? Or does it add bulk? You know. And if it does look for
something else, skip it. You don't need the pockets. Like, do you really walk around your house with your hands in your pockets
with this cardigan sweater? They're in a weird place anyway. I'm not gonna go. Well hello there. That's where your hands
would be like right here. Like on your stomach. Are you gonna do that? No, you're not. Skip that detail if it's
not doing you any favors and look for something a
little more streamlined. You also need to think about that with all of your tops, okay. So where are the details? Are the details here right on the hip or are the details right under the bust, that really sweet small spot? Look for strategic design
details, talk about that a lot. Let's recap. First capri pants. Make sure that if you
are wearing capri pants which you know will cut you off already. That the hemline of the pants falls to where your leg tapers. Two be careful with large scale prints, not only could they make
you look frumpy and older, but they also make you look bigger. Go with a smaller scale when in doubt. Number three, skip nude
pantyhose or stockings instead go for black
opaque tights or stockings. Number four, be aware
the bad sleeve length. Make sure that your sleeve
length isn't too tight to the arm and also make sure that it's a flattering
length for your arm. Number five, pay attention to details like hip building pockets. You do not want giant
pockets on your hips, it is not flattering. Make sure you look at those
details, pay attention to them and choose pieces that
don't exaggerate an area that you already feel
self-conscious about. Again, if you miss the frumpy shoe video, you gotta go back and watch that, 'cause I know a lot of us
wanna wear comfort shoes, but there is a difference
between the frumpy comfort shoe and the modern comfort shoe. Also watch the first,
"Don't Look Frumpy" video, that is full of really amazing, great, helpful, tangible style tips that will keep you
looking 10 years younger. We want our outside to
reflect how energetic, and vibrant, and youthful
we feel on the inside. So make sure that they match. 'Cause I know so many of
you, no matter what your age, you don't feel your age. You feel so much more youthful,
so much more energized, so much more vibrant. So let the outside match the inside. Was this video helpful? I hope so. If you liked it, you
wanna see more like it, please hit that subscribe button. Maybe share it on Facebook
or share it with a friend. Also I'm over on
Instagram at Busbee style, just sharing everyday outfit inspiration, if that's helpful to you. I'm at Busbee style there. Thank you guys so much for watching. You are incredible. I love each and every one of
you and I'll see you next time. Bye. (bright music)
