The hourglass shaped women are blessed with beautiful curves, and it’s understandably the most coveted body shape. Meanwhile, if your torso is shorter, finding the right clothes can be challenging because your body has lots of ins and outs on a shorter frame. Let’s first fully understand your body features, and then talk about everything you need to know on how to best dress your unique shape!
Characteristics
Hourglass women with a short torso have the typical characteristics of the hourglass body type which includes full thighs, full chests and hips, a well-defined waistline and natural curves. This is also accompanied by well-balanced shoulders and hips.
However, having a short torso means that this area of your body is less than 18 inches. The good news is that you can style your clothes to mask this and further enhance your curves.
Off-the-shoulder tops
Choosing necklines for your short torso is serious business. The goal is to opt for necklines that can create vertical lines around the upper half of your body which will visually elongate your torso.
While several necklines can create an unbalanced silhouette on your body by visually widening your shoulder line, off-the-shoulder styles stand out. Therefore, a great choice for your hourglass body with short torso are off-the-shoulder tops that visually flatter your overall silhouette.
This style of top has a feminine finish that is just enough to slightly show off your chest and full bust, while also elongating your short torso. It’s a win-win situation. Off-the-shoulder tops can also be very sexy if you wear it just right.
Showing off your shoulders and collarbone has a way of enhancing your curvy silhouette, so you appear amazingly beautiful. Similar neckline styles like the deep oval and rounded necklines also work this way.
Plunging V-neckline tops
As an hourglass woman with a short torso, any top that creates vertical lines around your upper body is a huge win. This vertical line draws the eyes downwards, thereby visually elongating your short torso. The plunging V-neckline top is the perfect example of a style of top that can help you achieve this effortlessly.
With this style of top, your torso can appear longer than it actually is, while also enhancing your curvy silhouette to create a more feminine structure. The plunging v-neckline top has a super flattering elongating effect because it reveals a lot of vertical space on your upper body.
This is much better compared to creating horizontal lines that make the body appear wider. Instead, the V-neckline style draws the eyes up and down, tricking the eyes to believe that your torso is longer.
If you also want to add some volume to your chest area, the plunging v-neckline top is a perfect choice.
Straight leg pants
Elongating your short torso is not limited to only what you wear on your upper body. You can also wear specific bottoms that draw attention away from your short torso, thereby visually lengthening them.
This is one of the advantages associated with wearing straight leg pants as an hourglass woman with short torso. However, these don’t have to be tight-fitting on your body as this could be quite uncomfortable, apart from messing with your body proportions.
Instead, choose straight leg pants that go straight down to the floor and have a relaxed fit on your body. This length is important because pants that stop at your ankles or just below your knees could visually cut off your legs abruptly and that’s not a flattering look for your hourglass shape.
Meanwhile, the straight leg pants that’s just the right length will draw less focus on your torso as there’s more attention on the curvy silhouette of your lower body. Be sure to pick styles without ruffles or pleats around your hips as these could shorten your torso.
Mid-rise pants
If you’re an hourglass woman with a short torso, chances are you also have a shorter rise. With this combo, it would be a terrible idea to wear low-rise pants that will further shrink the appearance of your torso.
Low-rise pants tend to create an unflattering horizontal line around your body that makes your torso appear shorter while your hips appear wider, leading to an unbalanced silhouette.
In this case, you should stick to mid-rise pants that highlight your waist in a way that complements the shorter rise of your upper body. Mid-rise pants hit just right on your torso, and are great for creating an elongating effect.
So, this means that this is the style you need to add a few inches visually to your appearance and make sure that your short torso doesn’t appear obvious. They are also incredibly comfortable as mid-rise pants sit firmly around your waistline.
Wrap dresses
No doubt about it, wrap dresses are amazing. I can gush about them all day, especially because they work great on almost every body type. So, if you have a short torso on your hourglass figure, you can always count on wrap dresses to help you elongate your torso and show off those beautiful curves of yours.
This amazing piece of clothing is a stress-free style that works for almost every occasion, whether formal or informal. With wrap dresses, you can draw attention to your curves as they emphasize your natural waist and make your torso appear longer.
You can wear a wrap dress with gathered fabric on one side to increase the illusion of a longer torso on your body. This is one of the best ways to conceal the actual length of your torso.
Avoid empire waist dresses
As an hourglass woman with a short torso, you should avoid dresses with a high waistline, especially those that sit right below your bust area like empire waist dresses. Empire waist dresses have a long skirt that flows loosely towards the hemline and this is beautiful to look at.
However, this is not stylish for hourglass women with short torsos. The high waistline draws attention to the length of your torso, making its short appearance more obvious. The area where the waistline of your empire waist dress sits is the narrowest part of your body.
Highlighting this part shortens the distance from your neckline to your waistline, and this is not a great look for you. Apart from increasing the illusion of an even shorter torso, it also leads to an imbalance in your overall body proportions.
It can also cut off your waistline in an unflattering way.
Avoid boatneck tops
Boatneck tops are those with a wide neckline that runs horizontally and across the collarbone. Sure, this style of top is comfortable and easy to wear to various occasions.
However, this doesn’t look good on every body type, especially the hourglass body with a short torso. Rather than flatter the body, this neckline draws an invisible horizontal line across the shoulder that further shrinks the torso and makes the upper body appear wider.
Boatneck tops shorten the length between your waistline and neckline, which is bad for your torso. By shrinking the appearance of the torso, this will make your overall body appear shorter and unflattering.
This can also lead to the appearance of an uneven silhouette where the body proportions of your upper and lower body are unequal.
Avoid high-waist pants
High-waist pants make it super obvious that you have a short torso and that’s not a flattering look on hourglass women that naturally have this short torso. As beautiful as high-waist pants can be, this is not replicated when you have a short torso.
Instead, a high-waist pant that hits above your belly button will cover up a huge part of your torso, easily shortening this area. The last thing you want is a clothing style that conceals more of your torso rather than elongate this area.
Therefore, you should avoid high-waist pants and pick mid-waist pants instead. Apart from the fact that mid-waist pants sit just right on the body, effectively elongating the torso, they are also super comfortable on the body.
This means you can wear them all day without feeling weird or awkward about your appearance.
Avoid cropped jackets
To easily flatter your body silhouette and elongate your torso as a woman with an hourglass shape, you need to avoid clothing styles that visually cut off your body. A great example of this is a cropped jacket.
Cropped jackets easily showcase your short torso due to where they stop on the body. Most times, the hemline of a cropped jacket will hit at the narrowest point of your body, usually underneath your bust.
This will draw attention to this area, making your torso appear shorter than it actually is. Rather than wear cropped jackets, opt for jackets that stop around your hips as this will help to elongate your silhouette.
Cropped jackets are not flattering for hourglass women with short torsos, and it’s best to completely avoid them.
