Ankle Boots Guidance

Hello, Cookies!
How was your week? Mine was busy and interesting and full of learning and falling leaves and having my first train ride into Boston from my new location and THE RED SOX ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES YEA BABY GO BO SOX BOSTON STRONG WOOT WOOT and things of that nature.

Some of you have been furrowing your brows about how to wear short booties so I want to make a few suggestions. First of all, don’t furrow your brow; it gives you wrinkles. Second, don’t sweat it too much about making fashion disasters happen in your cute little boots. Just consider these important guidelines, courtesy of your ever-loving PB:

1. Ankle boots break up your leg. I mean, not literally. They don’t snap your tibia, they break up the LINE of your leg. If you don’t have long legs, wear your booties with opaque tights of the same color if you’re wearing them with a skirt.

2. Because ankle boots break up the line of your leg, they make the leg look somewhat shorter and stouter. Maybe you don’t care about this. Maybe you have legs that go all the way up to your chin. If so, enjoy! Wear mustard tights and purple ankle boots and a knee length pencil skirt in a wild print and just be that girl with crazy legs (well, no, don’t actually do this, as you don’t want everyone’s eyes to be glued to your lower limbs). People of average stature probably want to avoid having gaps of flesh between their boot tops and their skirts or pants. It makes your legs look pretty stubby, even though it can be very cute to wear ankle boots with a rolled pant leg. Again, don’t get too paranoid about this. Just know that your legs will look shorter and that ankle boots with a rolled hem is a very youthful look. Not necessarily a bad thing. Keep it chic.

3. Ankle boots look fabulous with slim cut slacks like these:

I love this suited up look. Very chic. She’s a fashion model so she can show two inches of bare ankle and slouch and still look beautifully lanky and chic in her ankle boots (which I love):

The Official PeaceBang Rule about leggings (which many gals wear with ankle boots) is “If you wouldn’t wear the top alone without pants, don’t wear the top alone with leggings.” In other words, contrary to popular opinion nowadays, LEGGINGS DO NOT REPLACE PANTS. I was recently in New York City and there was such a constant parade of derrieres around me I was genuinely embarrassed, as I am clearly becoming more and more prim in my old age. But really. HONESTLY. You never saw such public buttockulosity. These gals either had not seen themselves from the rear, where they looked absolutely, inappropriately, shockingly exposed, or they were exhibitionists. And P.S.? A long cotton tunic doesn’t accomplish much with leggings except to draw more attention to one’s bum in motion. I swear that I’m going to start carrying simple cotton skirts with me to quietly hand out to the worst offenders.

You might enjoy some of the past posts about the Legging Situation. Like this one.

As far as ankle boots and skirts go, your mileage will vary according to height and stature and what kind of heel your boot has. When in doubt, maintain a through-line for the eye from boot to skirt hem for maximum elegance and professional polish. Save the college girl ankle boots-with-stockings-and-socks look for your day off. It’a bit jejeune for clergy.

Send in photos! Mwah!