What to wear with skinny pants and leggings?

Skinny pants, leggings and everything in between. What’s the difference, are they age appropriate, and what do you wear with them so you don’t look like a giant ice cream cone? Here’s our thoughts…

Skinny pants are just that- pants that are close to the body and narrow at the ankles, sometimes even hugging the ankles. The newest versions have some stretch.

Leggings are more like  tights. They fit very close to the body and end at the ankle, or mid calf. The biggest difference is that they are more lightweight than a skinny pant- almost like a thick stocking.

A good way to think of it is: leggings are an accessory.  Don’t wear leggings as pants.

You can wear skinny pants with short tops, t-shirts, short sweaters and long sweaters.

You should only wear leggings with long tunics, long sweaters, long jackets, long shirts and short, but not mini dresses that are ultra short. In other words, if you are wearing leggings, don’t expose your behind. Cover it up. Take a look at what we mean…

Long Cardigan + Skinny jeans or leggings: This is our favorite look with leggings or skinny pants. Everything is so soft and flowing and looks so right. Black leggings are very slimming and work best in fall, winter and early spring paired sweaters. Don’t ever wear them with a t-shirt, or it will look like you lost your pants.
Boyfriend Jacket and Leggings: If you wonder whether leggings are age appropriate, get a load of JoJami’s mom (age 70!) She rocks this look.
Shirt Dress + Leggings: A shirt dress is long and would look really good over leggings. You can add a great belt and  big chunky fabulous necklace to perk up this look. We find it quite drab the way it is.
This gal has the idea: A long to and jacket over leggings and ballet flats. Very cool. All black makes you look taller and slimmer.
Wear leggings with a short (not micro mini) dress: This dress is a good length to pair with tights. It looks like a tunic. Take a look  at some other dresses we blogged about that are similar and would work with leggings.
Leggings with a skirt: JoJami looks great in this column of color with a skirt overtop that also has a lot of black in the pattern. The necklace also co-ordinates. See, you can wear leggings and look good after 40, 50 and beyond!

While we were writing this post we heard from a subscriber who sent us a picture of an outfit she had that she was wearing leggings with, and asked us what we thought. Here is the picture ( on the left) and here is our answer….

Answer: Thanks so much for sending us your photos. You are so youthful looking for your age and still have a terrific figure, wow! However, we are going to vote no to this outfit for several reasons.

We can see that you are trying to make this outfit age appropriate by adding the leggings.  However, although it does make the outfit  a tad more modest, the problem is that your sending the signal that you are still trying to dress too  young.The basic jean mini-skirt and printed t-shirt are saying “teenager”.

If you want to look up to date and stylish, you can wear the leggings with a long top or shirt dress.  (see above)

The white sandals are trying to tie the outfit together but is not working either.

We think you need to trade in  the skirt and t-shirt for a pair of  Bermuda shorts (above the knee) and a fitted “v’ neck top and different sandals.The white  sandals you have on will work nicely with a colorful sundress that has a white background.  Good luck!

After this reply our subscriber sent us another picture of her in a black and white bandage dress and asked if she could wear leggings with this. Our reply was no because the dress was too tight for leggings. Leggings look better with a looser top or tunic.

Finally here’s a picture of a gal in blue we pulled out of our files from a party we went to. This gal is wearing a short skirt and dark stockings in summer. They don’t work.

The skirt is too short for someone over 40, whether you wear leggings or stockings. Also this is a summer outfit and her leg covering are too dark for summer.If they would have been black leggings they also wouldn’t have worked for the same reasons.

Bottom line- don’t wear a micro mini after 40! You will look silly.