HOW TO PAIR SUMMER SHOES WITH SKIRTS AND DRESSES (DOS AND DON'TS!)

hello everyone welcome back to my YouTube channel I hope you're all well today we have a do's and don'ts Style video I know these always go down so well especially when they are revolved around Footwear Footwear is one of those things that I think is probably the biggest conundrum in our wardrobes it's something that I think makes or breaks the outfit and also makes and breaks the comfort of your day how you're feeling the confidence you project um so shoes are really an essential piece to the outfit So today we're particularly concentrating on how to pair shoes or not to pair shoes with dresses and skirts I think more so even than trousers pairing them with um dresses and skirts in the summertime can be difficult so the aim of this video is not to tell you what not to do um you can do whatever you want in your wardrobe as long as you feel confident and happy but if you're not sure where to go and not sure where to start and don't feel confident and happy within your choices and pairings then this video hopefully will help you out a bit so I've got four different types of dresses and skirts and I think to be honest rather than going on with millions of different um versions of a dress and skirt these things succinctly summarize some different kind of shapes and styles so let's get into my first don't and my first type of skirt so I'm starting with this skirt so this is actually from my collection with naked fashion so many of you may have actually purchased this skirt it's a really really nice summer piece that can take you from day time to kind of casual evening so nicely and I just love the knot detail on it I think we might have a few of these left but maybe not so many different sizes I'm not sure I'll link it below as with everything where possible so you can see if you are interested in it now the this is just kind of Representative of a shorter style mini skirt a slightly a line or a straighter fit skirt rather than a kind of poofy skirt but to be honest I think this kind of covers all mini skirts and what I would and wouldn't do when styling a midi skirt and pairing it with different shoes so firstly I would avoid a ballet flat like the one I've gone for here for a couple of different reasons I don't think this looks absolutely awful and I think this is kind of going to be a theme throughout is that this Footwear is so nuanced and it's so much in the small details and I'll show you that in my next tip or thing actually it's all in those tiny tiny details and that's why it is so hard because you could be wearing one style of ballet flats and they look great in another style and you're just like why is this off so the reason I think this look is kind of slightly off for one the black shoes just feel a little bit too heavy we're in the summer now you've not got any balance on with the black on top so if you wanted to wear the black shoes you'll probably get away with this look with a black top on top but I still don't fully think the shoes work so one is the color of them they feel a little bit heavy two I think is the shape of them so we've got this very feminine delicate ballerina style against a pretty feminine dainty skirt now the two together create not really much contrast it's both kind of that delicate and delicate and it just feels a little bit um tweep I know some of my us audience maybe don't know what Twi means but basically I would describe Twee as being kind of overly cutesy and quaint looking so it's quite nice to have a bit of contrast within your outfit and I think they're just delicate ballet flats that aren't really doing that for me here and the final thing is this Mary Jane style across it does just seem to be cutting the foot a little bit and just kind of breaking the ankle and when you're thinking about the most flattering ways to wear things I think you don't want all your leg on show and then for it to be cut top around the ankle you need that slightly more streamlined effect and it is so subtle but I think not having the strap here would would do that but we've still got the issue maybe surrounding the ballet flat in general and the color so what summer shoes would I go for with this instead I would probably pair these with more of a sandal something kind of simple and minimal and I think that then provides a contrast against this feminine skirt maybe something a little bit more of a minimal Style just to have that two contrasting types of styles but they don't feel too contrasting so you can see in the cutaways that I've gone for this lighter shade of sandal with this two minimal straps these shoes are very easy to wear very comfortable as well and like I say they're contrasting the more minimal Style just sits nicely against the skirt as does that lighter shade it's in keeping with the rest of the outfit and we don't have any color imbalance now you might say but this shoe has a strap across yes it does um the same with the Mary Jane but I'd say with a sandal it's so different because you can see your foot going right down to the end through those straps whereas the Mary Janes just kind of stop short whereas with this you can kind of see that continuous line the lighter ankle strap doesn't feel like it's breaking up your leg as much and you still get that kind of flow right down to the bottom of the foot so I did actually just want to touch on something else with a shorter skirt don't feel like you can't wear loafers because you might think oh they're a little bit too chunky and heavy with a mini skirt there are ways to do this and this is what I was talking about in the kind of subtleties and nuances and just tiny tiny details making a huge difference so with my first look I've got um these black shoes on so these are some black chunky loafers from Suzanne very as I say chunky and then on my other foot I'm wearing um these white loafers from Todd's now they are both relatively chunky loafers and I do feel like that kind of chunkiness is a nice contrast against a more delicate skirt like I was saying before however there are a couple of little details within these shoes that make the white ones feel a lot more wearable than the black so the first and most obvious is the color I think the lighter color just kind of lifts the outfit in keeping with the tones and doesn't feel too bottom heavy whereas wearing the whole black shoe on the bottom feels very bottom heavy particularly in summer I love a black chunky loafer in winter but I think in summer it's nice to kind of have that lifted feel with the lighter shade so that is kind of number one however there are some subtle differences within the shape of the shoe one is that the toe on this white Todd's loafer kind of pulls down a lot more than the Suzanne loafers which have this um quite prominent stitching around the front hopefully you'll be able to see in the close-up cutaways the difference so although it's tiny details that kind of flatter elongation as opposed to the less elongated and slightly deeper makes a big difference and then the same again with the kind of heel shape so we've got that chunkier heel on the black loafer whereas on the white loafer it sits very um kind of flat to the ground so we don't have that big bulky chunkiness that we do with the black um also the same just around the side very very tiny detail but with the Todd's loafers it kind of were the what would you call this the what is this what is this front bit called the lip what is this called I can't I think anyway this front bit of the shoe you can see that it goes right down it kind of comes in on itself and goes right down whereas this one doesn't go as far down on the sides so in turn making it a little bit chunkier and giving it that heavier chunkier feel there's nothing wrong with this at all I'm just talking about in terms of styling with our mini skirts look for those subtle details that maybe make a loafer feel a little bit more elegant than something really really chunky and dark and heavy so hopefully you can see what I mean by these subtle details hopefully this is going to help you with those because I appreciate that seeing those can be really difficult so let's move on to the next piece we're talking about dresses now now these dresses are really popular at the moment I'm seeing loads around and they're actually so useful and particularly if you live in a climate that's not roasting hot I wore this the other day it's a soft goat cashmere sleeveless dress I like cashmere because it doesn't make you feel too hot when it's warm and the sleeveless gives it that kind of nice summery feel there's lots of these long knitted dresses around with the sleeveless and I just personally find them really useful um I know they're not for everybody so let's just take the shape of it in that case something maybe long a dress that kind of flares out a little bit at the end it's not fitted or tight and it's pretty long so what do we do with that when we're styling it so this dress is quite casual I actually wore a really similar look to this the other day I've gone for an oversized Blazer over the top I want to keep it kind of dressed down smart casual kind of look and so trainers just feel like a natural thing to put with this comfortable easy to walk around in all day and also fit the idea of this not being like a boiling hot summer's day but just kind of a nice mild day I would go for trainers that said um I think it's very specific what kind of trainers go with this or more specific so the first thing I wouldn't do is go for these chunky trainers I've tried it on with my new balance chunky trainers and because we've got a lot of fabric gathered around the ankles and we've also got a lot of fabric on top as well with the Blazer adding these very chunky trainers in which I've mentioned many times before just feels a little bit too overwhelming with the fabric and as I say it's all about these tiny details so here you can't see the ankle really because the shoe takes up so much of that space Also you have a lot of the kind of laces and chunkiness on top feeling very bulky and again kind of closing that gap between the ankle and just looking making it look very very bottom heavy considering we've got a lot of fabric with the dress swimming around the the bottom and that is the beauty of styling really is that you can still wear the pieces you want to wear I still want to wear trainers on this occasion but it's just knowing what style of trainer to go with this dress so you don't have to avoid things completely it's like with the loafers it's just knowing exactly what shapes to pair with other things so I've gone for My Adidas sambas they don't have to be sambas but the concept of these trainers is that they're much Slimmer to the ankle they've got um a kind of lower dip around the sides so that it feels a lot lower down and in turn you can just see that small bit of ankle and that tiny bit of ankle makes all of the difference it just provides that point of contrast on your body where you can see a bit of skin against the fabric and it gives that kind of optical illusion whereas before you were just seeing all Fabrics so just those tiny details and that tiny bit of ankle makes such a huge difference to the way this looks and the way the dress dress sits on the body and it just feels so much more elegant just because you can see that tiny bit of ankle and because the shoe itself is a lot kind of flatter more simple and more streamlined and so with that being said I think as a ruler of thumb in general for spring summer shoes if you want to go for those slightly heavier things like a loafer or a trainer then I think maybe opt for slightly Slimmer versions than you would do in Autumn winter okay let's go back to skirts now and I've gone for this linen blend one from my collection with naked again it was just a coincidence actually that I pulled out these two skirts but I did want to demonstrate a kind of long lineny skirt this one also has the side slit up which I do think makes a difference to styling as well but I did just want to show this kind of slightly more A-line shape of a skirt so with this especially with the linen we're wearing a lot of linen now it's summer or spring summer I did want to kind of demonstrate what I think works best with things like long linen skirts so I've got the same top on I got here I have had this top for years and years I got it from under the stories and I knew it would be a really really useful piece and at the time it was really quite an expensive purchase for me and I was oven and ring it and I decided to go for it and I've had it and kept it years later and worn it every summer so it just shows that good well thought out purchases can last you a really long time anyway I've paired it with the skirt got a very nice summery linen light look on it and I also think this is perfect for Holiday evening so how could you style it for Holiday evenings do we wear a heel personally I would avoid a heel with this um I just think it feels too dressy and so the particular heel I've gone for is something very very tall it's metallic it's bold it feels quite heavy and I just don't think it sits nicely with the linen which is inherently very very relaxed I think sometimes we can go too contrasting with our Styles and that's why you should be careful again it's very very nuanced we want a little bit of contrast but probably not too much that they're kind of two extremes and I just think these two like a big a big chunky heel with linen just is jarring for me it doesn't sit nicely it doesn't have that relaxed flow that linen does although I absolutely love these Heels by the way these are from Massimo Duty last year but I just don't think they pair nicely with the linen they just feel too chunky and heavy especially with the slit up the side we want something a little bit lighter to fit in with the whole look instead what I would go for you can still go for the metallics if you want to I paired them with these ancient Greek gold flat sandals these still provide that evening feel you could even go for something with a very small kind of subtle kitten heel even just avoid that really tall heel with anything like this I would say so I would go with these flat sandals they still give it that evening lift that metallic feel to bring it into nighttime also works for daytime but the flatter more delicate sandal just feels like it fits so much nicer with the style of skirt okay so this may come as a shock um to those of you who think I never ever wear color it is not true in the summer time especially on holidays that is when I like to kind of go a bit crazy and wear something a little bit brighter and more colorful or more fun I did this last year with quite a few pieces I had some similar sort of things on my holidays last year and it just feels so nice to have that change and I will always be a kind of minimal girl but you know sometimes you just have that burning desire to wear some color and some print um and I just find that summer and holidays is the ideal way to do that and to kind of satisfy that craving so I've got this amazing dress son here from Hunter Bell it's just this kind of ruffled dress and I will definitely be taking this on holiday with me this is like the perfect holiday evening dress however with this again being very delicate mini Ruffles I think you have to be quite careful with the shoes so my first look I paired it with my Hermes sandals and I just feel like these are too chunky with this pretty dress like I say we like a bit of contrast sometimes but this just feels too much of a contrast I think these shoes need something a little bit more minimal and sleek and something maybe a little bit chunkier and boxier to balance them out whereas this dress is very very pretty and feminine and I think the short skirt doesn't look right with these very chunky shoes it's a little bit like the first example with the black loafers and the mini skirt I just think it's a little bit too jarring too heavy especially with the strap around the back and I just feel like it definitely makes me look shorter and is not as flattering on the leg instead what I would go for is something um like these more delicate sandals from Tiki's also those gold ones I just had on before would look really nice with this I just wanted to show something different um you could go for these kind of neutral colored shoes they also I think to note if you have got kind of fun dresses like this and I want to tone them down a little bit I think neutrals are a really nice way to do that to pair them with like a neutral sandal and bag they just kind of give it that slightly more relaxed effortless feel and I think these shoes do that they still in keep with the dress they're quite pretty and delicate but the neutral just sort of keeps them grounded and more toned down and a little bit more natural and effortless like I say so I definitely would go for something slightly more delicate and lighter rather than the chunky heavier ones so I really hope that helped thank goodness I didn't show you more examples because I feel like I've been talking enough now if you enjoyed this video please please please subscribe and can't believe where we're at with subscribers at the moment it is mind-blowing and but thank you so much if you have already subscribed I also just want to say thank you so much for a lot of the comments I've been getting in previous videos it is so lovely for me to read the kind of supportive comments that the majority of you give I think anybody who gives a negative comment is not a follower whereas I just feel like we've got so many nice people I feel so lucky that I've got so many nice people watching my videos because I know that um being online can generate a lot of hate of course we all know that so I just want to say thank you very much to all of you for just being so so nice I know I don't need to thank you for that but it's just something I've kind of noticed recently and been talking about with Tim that um we've just got such a nice group of followers following us on here and leaving comments and talking to each other and helping each other with styling advice and I just love that that is kind of what I do and what we've built on here so thank you so much um and I'm going to stop talking now and see you in my next video bye

Channel: Lydia Tomlinson

Views: 265,510

Keywords: summer shoes, dos and don'ts, style dos and don'ts, shoes styling

Id: sTe45qHoJls

Length: 18min 56sec (1136 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2023