When we don’t like our ankles or calves
For those of us who are not fond of showing their ankles and / or lower legs, Gen Z has done us a favour! Read on…
I’m not fond of my ankles; an accident involving three breaks just above my right ankle and resulting in 11 pieces of metal being inserted into my lower leg and significant scarring made that a definite. But I suspect I wouldn’t have liked them much anyway as time has marched by. (lol!) So I’ve always been good at devising ways of not camouflaging them.
Boots are my friend and I have always had an abundance of them. Whereas many women covet sexy shoes, it’s always been boots for me, to cover my ankles. As my feet feel the cold, I can even wear them on milder Summer days. One of my go-to looks when I was younger was a short skirt with boots, often cowboy boots or motorbike boots, but anything would do. I love the contrast of a feminine skirt or dress with solid boots and enjoy seeing women adopting that style again now.
When I do opt for a shoe, I choose a chunky one. The reason I do this is because of contrast; ankles that are thicker look less so with a chunky shoe. A flat, slim shoe or fine, strappy sandal magnifies a thicker ankle and calf. This principle is related to the scale of our body and is something I go into in both a Style Direction consultation, The Style Adventure and The Vivienne Project.
Ankles can of course be covered altogether and there are several ways of doing this. Firstly, a long skirt or dress will cover them nicely. You can either go floor length and wear whatever shoe style you like, or have your hem sit above your ankle and wear an ankle boot (or longer boots).
Jeans and long pants will also cover our ankles and lower legs, but not so if they are skinny or slim fitting jeans and it’s the width of your calves you don’t like. And here’s where Gen Z has helped us out with another remedy! They’ve helped introduce the trend for much fuller legs on both jeans and pants. Problem solved!
If you don’t fancy that baggy leg look, palazzo pants have the same effect but offer a different silhouette. These are the lightweight ones that sit flat across the tummy and flow out triangle shaped from the hip bone and almost look like you’re wearing a long skirt.
Lastly (and I have to say I really like this one, thank you Gen Z) is the return to proper socks! Millenials seemed to hate the sock, and the more they could get it to disappear or pretend they weren’t wearing them at all, the more they liked it.
But now, socks are back, and special, noticeable socks are the socks to wear with everything from trainers to high heels. Think metallic, fishnet, boldly printed, chunkily woven, long, loose - you name it - socks are cool and they do wonders for hiding ankles and calves while being completely on trend. Yay!
This image has been modified using AI
Boots: they’ve been my go-to over the years