To find the best prom dresses for pear-shaped girls, it is important to first understand the pear carries weight in the bottom half and therefore needs styles that create a balance for its natural shape. In this detailed guide, we’ll first take a deep dive to understand your unique features, and then walk you through the most flattering prom dresses for your body type,
Characteristics of the pear shape
Are you sure you’re a pear shape? Styling your body to make your pear shape appear more feminine and elegant is possible when you know the areas to downplay and those you should draw more attention to. Here are key characteristics to look out for:
- Well-defined waistline
- Narrow and sloppy shoulders
- Wider thighs and hips compared to the upper part of your body
- Small bust and waist compared to your wider hips
- Thick thighs
- Typically have a smaller bust
These key features are the biggest signs that you’re a pear shape. Therefore, your prom dress styles should be about accentuating your upper body and defining your waistline. Also, more than a few styles will help you create a slimmer silhouette and add a few extra inches to your height.
It’s all about drawing attention to flattering aspects of your body and creating more volume around your shoulders to achieve a more proportionate figure. These prom dress styles are perfect for the pear shape and will make you stand out.
Strapless A-line dresses
Most pear-shaped women have a natural tummy bulge as weight gain is usually seen around the midsection first. Therefore, there’s a need to choose prom dress styles that can help to conceal this seamlessly.
One style that does this is the strapless A-line dress which draws attention away from your waistline. This dress is perfect for your pear shape as the strapless style draws attention to your neckline, shoulders, and arms.
Naturally, this means that there’s less focus downwards. Therefore, the strapless A-line dress is perfect for creating the illusion of a slimmer waist and elongating your overall body frame.
No doubt about it, this remains a top prom dress style for the pear-shaped woman who wants to look and feel elegant and comfortable. Make this look even better on your body with the right accessories. Statement necklaces around your neckline will beautify this area.
Asymmetrical dresses
Asymmetrical dresses typically have a slanted neckline or hemline, an attention-grabbing design that makes this a top prom dress style for the pear shape.
What makes this prom dress appealing to the pear body type is that the slanted hemline helps to camouflage thick waists, which is a major feature of this body type. Your thicker waists are wider than your shoulders, giving a pear shape that is uneven on both halves.
However, with an asymmetrical dress, you can create a more proportionate and overall balanced look all thanks to the slant style. Most asymmetrical dresses have a one-shoulder bodice style which helps to give your neckline a broader look.
While the asymmetrical hemline works to draw attention to your nicely shaped legs, the neckline style does a great job of beautifying your neck area. Combined, this is all you need for the illusion of a slimmer silhouette where you appear taller.
High-low dresses
Wearing the high-low dress as a woman with a pear shape is one of the best ways to show off your legs and create a slimmer silhouette. The high-low dress is exactly as it sounds, with a shorter hemline at the front and a longer one at the back.
This is similar to the slant hemline style in the asymmetrical dress but the high-low dress is even more stylish for you. The major advantage of this style of dress is how it draws attention to your legs while reducing the focus on your waistline.
This makes your hips appear slimmer while you can enjoy an elongated appearance, especially if you’re a petite pear shape. Every woman with wide hips and a narrow upper body will love the streamlined look you’ll get with a high-low prom dress.
Flowy tiered dresses
A tiered dress is a top choice in this list of prom dress styles for the pear shape because it gives off a comfortable and elegant vibe on the wearer. The tier represents several layers on the dress, moving progressively from the waistline to the ankles.
This style is the perfect camouflage for a muffin top that could make you feel self-conscious about your bigger midsection. Wearing this in a darker color will also help to create the illusion of a slimmer silhouette, which is great for minimizing your hips.
This slimmer silhouette helps to balance both halves of your body so they appear more proportionate and hourglass-like. The flowy style is also perfect for giving your waist more definition and minimizing your waist.
So, if you don’t mind revealing your arms and neck, you can wear this in an off-shoulder style that gives you a classic outlook. This is perfect for every pear-shaped woman looking to dress her best for prom.
Sheath dresses
Sheath dresses give off a delicate feminine vibe that makes them a top choice of prom dress styles for the pear shape. They have a close-fitting silhouette that hugs the body comfortably in a way that emphasizes your natural curves.
It’s a great idea to play around your curves as dressing for your body shape is all about drawing attention to your assets and minimizing attention on concerned areas. Therefore, you’ll love how the sheath dress gives you a more elongated body frame and balances your overall silhouette.
Since there’s less attention on your waist, this smoothens your body to reveal a slimmer body frame. You can wear sheath dresses with patterns as this will make your outfit look a lot more interesting.
Patterns are also great for adding more volume to the upper part of your body, especially around your narrow shoulders.
Print X-line dresses
The X-line prom dress takes the shape of the letter X, giving a free-flowing style around the body of a pear-shaped women. This creates an amazing and flattering silhouette, similar to the effects from an A-line prom dress.
The X-line prom dress style has a balancing effect on the body proportions as the slimmer style on your upper body helps to create a more streamlined look. Therefore, this leads to a curvier body outlook that gives the illusion of an hourglass shape.
Meanwhile, you can be sure that you’re not sacrificing your comfort as the X-line dress is not clingy or figure-hugging. Instead, it skims over your shape and camouflages tummy bulges.
My top choice for this style of dress is one that comes with a print design as this gives the upper half of your body a busy look that emphasizes the curvier silhouette you need.
Bateau neckline wrap dresses
The bateau neckline is an open neckline style that creates the illusion of broader shoulders and adds more volume to the upper half of the body. This comes in handy for the pear body shape which has naturally narrow shoulders that are not proportionate with the wider hips.
With a bateau neckline wrap dress, you can easily balance your body proportions by increasing the volume of the upper body and slimming your lower body. The wrap dress is a versatile prom dress style that offers the benefits of comfort and femininity for pear shaped women.
A wrap dress with this neckline will also create the illusion of a bigger bust which enhances the feminine figure that’s flattering for your body type.
Off-shoulder empire waist dresses
One of the most effective ways to make your muffin top disappear visually is by wearing an off-shoulder empire waist dress. As a prom dress style, it’s absolutely beautiful and doubles as a creative way to create a flattering silhouette on your pear body shape.
One of the major concerns on the pear body is the stomach bulge that can look really weird beneath any dress or top. However, if you’re self-conscious about it, you can easily draw attention away from this part of your body with an off-shoulder empire waist dress.
The neckline style sits comfortably on your shoulders while the empire waist dress creates a waist-cinching effect below your bust line. This is the perfect combo to create the illusion of a taller frame, especially around your nicely shaped-legs.
Square neck A-line dresses
Create a Cinderella-like outlook with a square neck A-line dress that shows off your slender neck and encourages an overall slimmer silhouette. This is a worthy alternative to the strapless A-line dress if you’re not a fan of showing off your shoulders and arms.
The square neckline is just as effective in making your shoulders and neck appear very flattering and elegant. It reveals just enough to keep you looking breathtakingly beautiful. With the A-line silhouette, you can enjoy a flowy style that comfortably skims over your wide hips and minimizes them.
So, with a square neck A-line dress, there’s less attention on your midsection area and hips. To get the best out of this prom dress style, look out for those made with breathable fabric like cotton or linen.
Deep v-neck dresses
Balance your smaller upper body with a deep v-neckline on your dress that draws attention to your face. The V-neckline is one of the most flattering necklines out there for the pear body type.
One reason for this is that it complements your narrow shoulders. Rather than shrink them further, the deep v-neck adds more volume around them to balance out your narrow shoulders and make them look more proportionate with the lower half of your body.
The deep v-neck dress can be A-line, wrap style, x-line or sheath, depending on which fits your preferences best. However, what’s common with all these prom dress styles is that they work seamlessly with a deep v-neckline to create more space around the top half of your body.
Avoid tube dresses
It’s easy to confuse tube dresses with strapless dresses since they both have no straps or sleeves. However, the major difference is where it wraps around the upper part of your body.
Strapless dresses usually have a curvier and relaxed fit with a fitted bodice that extends above the bust area. However, tube dresses don’t have as much support as strapless dresses, as they have an elastic band at the top and bottom.
Since this is less structured, there’s a high chance you’ll spend a better part of the day adjusting your tube dress so it doesn’t fall off. You should avoid tube dresses as this style creates an undefined waistline and the uncomfortable tightness leads to an unflattering silhouette.
Another downside to tube dresses is that they are quite restrictive, which can hamper your movement. Stick to dresses that don’t make your silhouette appear shapeless and awkward.
Avoid bodycon dresses
Figure-hugging styles are a huge no for women with a pear body shape and that’s what makes the bodycon dress an unflattering choice for prom styles. Bodycon dresses are designed to cling tightly to the body, which highlights every bump and curve at every point.
This also means that they will emphasize areas that are big, especially if you have a muffin top and wide hips. Therefore, it will be difficult to hide this tummy bulge on a bodycon dress and that’s a one-way ticket to creating an unflattering silhouette where your stomach appears bigger.
Meanwhile, this also emphasizes the narrowness of your upper body compared to your lower body, bringing your disproportionate body frame into focus. So, let’s face it. No one wants to wear a prom dress that emphasizes this while leading to restrictive movement due to the tight fit.
A bodycon dress on a pear shaped woman will instead increase their level of discomfort and self-consciousness, with a full view of their flaws. Therefore, it’s best to avoid bodycon dresses.
Avoid dresses with a loose top
A loose top on your prom dress will make your top half appear bigger. Some pear-shaped women tend to go for this style as a way to hide tummy bulges or give their upper body more volume.
However, the effect of this is that it hides too much of your curves, so you end up having a shapeless figure that’s not appealing in the dress.
