Your Black Booties Guide
Your first thought of wearing booties can often be a little intimidating. Booties have the reputation of making you look short and even stumpy. Since these booties cut you off at the ankles, it doesn’t give your legs that long, lean look. This is true for black booties, brown booties, and every other bootie color.
What you pair the booties with makes a huge difference. In this post, we will focus on just black booties. I’ll share how to wear brown booties in a separate post; they deserve a post all their own because I have so many brown bootie outfit examples.
Why Black Jeans & Black Booties are the Perfect Duo
If the title of this post intrigued you enough to click through I’ll get straight to the point. The simplest way to wear black booties is with black jeans. Black jeans are universally flattering. They work for women who are curvy, slim, or average. Black is slimming and with the right fit can make you look taller and slimmer. And, when you pair black booties with black jeans they create one long lean line. This combo will make you look taller, leaner and not to mention very stylish.
I’m not saying that you can’t wear black booties with blue jeans or a skirt but this black on black combo is definitely the simplest.
The style of black jeans is very important. Make sure you go with jet black, don’t buy a light wash or faded jean. Don’t buy black jeans with any odd wash or with embellishments. Just stick with plain black, distressed is optional. I like distressed jeans because they add a little interest and texture to an outfit.
If you want to show off your black booties opt for black skinny jeans. You’re able to cuff the hem just slightly so they expose the booties. You don’t want the skinny jeans to go over the booties or be bunched up against the booties. This will make the outfit look sloppy. You’re going for a sleek crisp look, so make sure to buy the right length.
Instead of cuffing your jeans you could go with the ripped style of jeans. These style of jeans have the hem ripped off, this works is the jeans end right at the bootie. Or you could opt for a black boot cut jean but this hides your cute black booties so only wear bootcut jeans if you don’t care about showing off your booties.
Once you have the perfect pair of black jeans, you need the perfect pair of black booties.
Finding Your Perfect Black Booties
The booties I’m wearing in these outfits are from Cole Haan – and you can still buy them online! They are perfect, I love them!
When shopping for your perfect pair of black booties these some questions you need to ask yourself.
- Do you want a heeled bootie or flat?
- If you do want a heel, what style of heel? Skinny, block, stacked?
- What heel height do you prefer?
- What fabric are you looking for?
- Where will you primarily be wearing them?
- Do you want a dressy or casual style?
- Is this an investment bootie or are you looking for something affordable?
- Classic or trendy?
- Will this be a cold weather boot or do you also want to wear it in the spring and summer?
I know, it might seem like a lot of questions but these are all important things to consider. You should know the answers to each of these questions so you get the right black bootie for you and you don’t buy something from impulse or waste money.
Additionally, when searching for black booties make sure to avoid anything slouchy and flat. I don’t care how cute they are, they are just way too hard to pull off and you’ll look short for sure. I would avoid them.
Avoid any black booties that end too high. The most flattering black booties are the ones that end at the skinniest part of your ankle. This is especially important if you’re planning on wearing your black booties with anything else other than black jeans. If they end higher than the skinniest part of your ankle it can make your legs look stumpy and thicker than they really are. If you’re super tall and have model legs then this doesn’t apply. I sure can’t get away with it.
How to Wear Booties with Jeans
OK, I already mentioned that the match made in style heaven is black jeans and black booties. So that takes care of the bottom half of your outfit so what about the top half? The options are endless because the bottom half is a dark neutral. You can essentially wear anything on top and it will go.
These are just a few outfits I put together so you can get an idea of how easy it is to wear black booties. These are all fall outfits, I don’t wear black booties in the spring or summer, I usually wear brown booties in the warm seasons.
Pair black booties with a plaid shirt and layer a pullover knit sweater. I love this booties outfit because of the large contrast between the white and black. The plaid adds some fun pattern instead of going with a solid color.
You can pair your black booties with a stylish utility jacket and white t-shirt. In this outfit, the jacket is definitely the focus! It doesn’t take much to put together a stylish fall outfit.
If you’re in a pinch and it’s not that cold yet just throw on a plaid shirt and cuff the sleeves for a carefree fall outfit
As you can see a layering is key. In this outfit I paired the black booties and black jeans with a white t-shirt and layered on a chambray shirt that I left unbuttoned. One of my favorite ways to wear chambray, the contrast is so chic.
If you don’t have time or don’t want to think about your outfit but still want to look stylish, pair your black booties with a t-shirt and blanket scarf. I love blanket scarves, you can wear them so many ways and keep you cozy warm.
What is your favorite way to wear black booties?
Stay Stylish,
-V
