I’m 5’3” and These Are the Low-Maintenance, High-Style Outfits I'm Wearing All Summer

Slip dresses—long, mini, silk, linen—are trending this summer, and petites look best when the style is worn at midi length, with fabric cut on the bias so that it skims the body. This dress is the closet (!) workhorse of your summer wardrobe, so versatile that it looks right with practically any warm-weather shoe, as long as you keep it fancy (think leather sneakers and designer sandals).

Linen separates for summer are as non-newsy as florals for spring, but summer 2023 is seeing a new crop of brands making lightweight (and machine-washable) linen separates in so many shapes that it's simple to find a silhouette that you're comfortable in. If you're proud of your abs, wear a crop top with matching pants or a button-front shirt open to a bra top. If you're loving your legs, wear linen shorts. And if it's super hot, wear short sleeves, shorts and decide to love your body as much as you love cool linen's inevitable wrinkles.

Coming in hot—big chunky shoes in bright colors. Petite women have been clamoring for the always-sold-out Saint Laurent Bianca shoe in basic black, since it's sexy, adds over three inches in height and is pretty much walkable for such a high heel. Now we're seeing iterations of that shoe all over the tonal (and price) spectrum. And here's the best part—a super-colorful chunky shoe is so visually aggressive, it looks good with a basic neutral or a bunch of other bright shades.

Here, 5'2" style influencer Karen Wazen is wearing a baggy pair of cargo pants puddling at her feet and a jean jacket so cropped, it's like a denim shrug. This improbably attractive combo is all about proportion, since the high-waist pants elongate the leg and the jacket is so short, it lets us see a a bit of Karen underneath. The cropped jacket and the cargos are the trends here, and the way she puts them together is a lesson to remember for petites—when wearing oversized shapes, let a bit of your waist or neckline or calf or something be visible, lest you look like you're a pile of messy laundry that's gone mobile.

We're not mad at the many two-piece dresses we've seen this summer, since they're tailor-made for the shortie. They lift the gaze to the midsection (which ranges from a sliver of skin to a full-on bare midriff). In this nude-tone example, the V neckline further draws the eye upward, making the wearer look sleeker.

While an oversized blazer might seem too much fabric for petites, we're liking it with a pair of shorts and heels for a leggy look. Extra style points if the button-front shirt or T-shirt you wear underneath the jacket and the shorts are the same color, since that will look extra pulled-together. Another shorts style to try with a roomy jacket? Bike shorts that reach mid-thigh—the oversized blazer hides any booty you don't want up in everyone's face, except in Pilates.

At the end of the day, we all just want to be loved. And to be comfortable. Probably the latter more. So we're thrilled to see flowing lightweight caftans, the most no-hassle garment ever created, be on-trend this summer. And as petites, we see that it's a totally wearable look, as evidenced here by petite German stylist Gitta Banko. A bright flowing tent dress and gladiator flats, plus a big bag, look utterly charming. While we'd tame the dress a bit for an evening out by adding a wide belt and carrying a large clutch, we're stanning the daytime casualness of this no-belt look. Just so long as you're not tripping over the hem, the look is golden.