A short person’s quick guide to culottes and baggy, straight bottoms of the like.

As a person of smaller stature, it gets difficult finding looser fit clothing that doesn’t distort my figure or make me look like I’m swimming in my clothes. The struggle is real! I went on a whim and picked up these rad black and white striped culottes from Zara one day. I had absolutely no idea how I wanted to style it, but I just knew that I wanted to spice up my wardrobe with a little more variety.

Here’s why these culottes stuck out to me out of the tons of others that I’ve tried on in the past:

1. Fabric tie-belt – I just love pants that have the option of a fabric tie-belt because it makes for an easy customized fit to your personal size. It gives an extra cinched touch to balance out the baggy straight-legged structure of the pants.
2. Stripes – Sure, it’s a long-debated issue of whether or not vertical stripes truly do make you look slimmer, but the fact that I’m seeing here is that these bold black and white stripes at least provide a broken-up texture amongst the one-dimensional look of solid-colored culottes.
3. Length – It is majorly important to me that culottes cut off around half-calf. Not only does it also highlight the fab shoes you decide to pair with them but it also gives the look an elongated feel amongst the bagginess since it’s still visible that you have legs under there.

On top of that, I found that wearing a fitted and preferably cropped top really works wonders in balancing out these straight-leg pants even more. For example, I wore this triangle bralet that I got from PacSun in this look. I topped off the look with a bold, vampy lip and a choker necklace for a more casual chic type of vibe.

I’m curious! How do you guys like to style culottes? Let me know in the comments below!