Do knee high socks make you look taller or shorter?

My school uniform demands plain white socks, and it is optional to wear them knee high. I was just wondering if knee high socks make you look taller or shorter.

The answer to this depends on a couple of factors:

1) Your leg shape.
If you’ve got skinny or average legs, white knee socks would likely make them look longer. More round ’stumpy’ legs worn with white knee socks wouldn’t change much or might even look more round and dumpy.

If you do have a wider leg shape (or even if you don’t) over-knee socks pulled just to mid-knee or slightly over will disguise the shape of your calves and give the impression of a longer overall leg length. It would require the skirt to be worn short enough to leave a decent gap between the top of the socks and the bottom of the skirt (which might be a problem if your legs are actually short).

If the school doesn’t approve of over-knee socks, you can always just fold the top down to below your knee when in classes and pull them back up outside. My ex girlfriends done this at school, because over-knee socks were banned. I don’t have a picture handy, but this was from the same school:

http://file040b.bebo.com/15/original/2008/04/01/13/3606178296a7318016366o.jpg

Right away you can see the girl in the middle wearing tights looks shorter, even although the actual shortest is sitting on the far right. Even although the front row are sitting down here the legs look quite long. You can also see the tops of the socks have been folded down there, but apparently they all pulled them up outside to be more fashionable.

The other factor is…..

2) your skirt length.

If your skirt is knee length or just above, the lack of visible leg between the top of the socks and the bottom of the skirt will do nothing for making you look taller.

Ideally, you want at least a few inches of leg there – doesn’t have to be revealing or anything, just enough to make a clear border of skintone between the white socks and the darker skirt.

If your skirt isn’t short enough for over-knee socks, then don’t do it – you’ll end up looking like your wearing white tights – not a very good look! If your skirt is longer go for socks that end just a bit below your knee to leave a few inches, or if its not going to work just stick with the ankle socks, or even knee socks pushed down around the ankle to give a slight ‘baggy sock’ look as is popular in japan. Don’t go as extreme as how they’ve done it in this photo, but you’ll get the idea plus it helps these girls naturally wider short legs look longer:

http://japandesu.com/culture/jhsg2.jpg

Another example from Japan, this time with a longer skirt and straight socks:

http://www.geishablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/kyoko1.jpg

…as you can see the skirt length is pretty long, and the girl does have pretty short legs, however leaving a few inches between top of the socks and the skirt gives an impression of a reasonable leg length. If the skirt was just a few inches shorter, it would give the impression of a very long leg.

A high waisted skirt, and a nice fitted shirt or top (or dress) carries the illusion all the way up the body

Finally, although your school probably prefers flat shoes, if you can get away with a very slight small heel, it’ll make a big difference.

Hopefully this helps

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