The long and the short of it....

While changing my closet from winter to spring this past week, I was surprised at how many items needed to go. I love having a ton of tanks as I am a layerer extrodinaire. My collection was large but half of them needed to go. The length of many were way too short, perhaps left over from the day of higher waisted pants. I'd held onto them way too long. And away they go. I have replaced them all with 27 inch models and never have to worry about escaping flesh. Something to keep in mind when changing your closet over.

You can find the newer, longer tanks just about anywhere but the one below is from Victoria Secret, comes in 12 different colors and sells for $14.50.

While on the topic of length, let's talk shorts.  Any magazine, catalog or fashion website you look at, you will find a bevy of short, shorts.  And not just tailored shorts, but cut-off denim shorts.  While Heidi Klum and friends, may look fantastic wearing these beauties with platform shoes to run to the grocery, this is not the norm.  Similar to those shown below, the True Religion cut off shorts are $172 and are not what most of us should be wearing.

The under 25 crowd is who should be looking at this style as something more than a good laugh but those of us older than that (and comfortable with our legs)  might want one more go of the denim cut-offs as well.   If this is the case, look for something a little longer, less ragged.  And wear it with a cute tee or 3/4 sleeve floral blouse and flat sandals.  Leave the Chanel jacket and pump pairing for Hollywood.  These Joes Jeans cut offs are $139 and leave a little more to the imagination.

For those of you that want the shorts but would rather something a little dressier than the denim, tons of cute options out there.    The first pair below are from Elisabeth and James for $225, the second pair from Bliss in Fremont, WA.  for $78. 

And finally, pants.  For some reason or another, pants can "shrink".  Whether its the wash, weight gain, or alien abduction, shrinkage does occur.  When sorting through your closet and finding pants that have not been worn in awhile, try them on.  Seem to be a tad too short, get rid of them.  Pants that are too short are NOT considered cropped.  Say this two times out loud.  Floods are NOT cropped.   Very important always.

Here you will see a pair or cropped pants next to some flood pants.  Although the cropped pair aren't the greatest, you can see which are worse.  While you are looking in your closet, make sure to check your man's at the same time.  They don't seem to have the inner flood warning that most women come equipped with.  Perhaps its a failure to ask for a second opinion.  For a cute, cropped look, Martin + Osa's "Zip Crops" for $69. 

Just something to keep in mind when sorting throught last years spring/summer items and stocking up on items that may be missing from your wardrobe.  Moral of the story, length does indeed matter.