Having the pear-shaped body means you tend to have a curvy bottom half and smaller top half. The key to dress the pear is to create a more balanced silhouette. Knowing your body type is the first step to getting the perfect wardrobe essentials for your pear shape. This is the ultimate clothing guide to help you choose tops, dresses, jeans, coats, sweaters, pants, skirts, and shoes that will highlight your best features and draw attention away from your imperfections.
Table of Contents
Characteristics
- Wider hips compared to your shoulders and bust area. Usually, your hip is the widest part of your body
- Narrow shoulders that are usually sloping
- Well defined waist
- Small bust
- Slender and nicely shaped legs
- Upper body is mostly smaller than the lower half of your body
Celebrity examples
Below are examples of celebrities with pear body shapes.
- Shakira
- Christina Aguilera
- Eva Longoria
- Paris Hilton
- Rihanna
Below are the best clothes for pear shapes.
Below are the best outfits for pear shapes.
Tops
Belted tops
One of the best features to look out for when shopping for tops for the pear shape are those that highlight your slender waist. By highlighting this part of your body, you can create a curvier silhouette that will give you a more feminine outlook. A great way to achieve this is with a belted top. This has an automatic waist cinching effect that will look amazing on your body frame. If the top doesn’t come fitted with a belt, you can easily convert any other top to a belted one by including a belt of medium width.
Wrap tops
Draw attention to your waistline with a wrap top and the results will be even more spectacular. Remember how your slender waist is one of your best assets? Well, with a wrap top, you can emphasize this beautiful asset without sacrificing your comfort.
All you have to do is look out for wrap tops with plunging necklines and be sure to find one that is a comfortable fit. The secret is to wear a balanced wrap top, not too loose and not too tight. You can easily adjust it to achieve a fit that suits you.
Off-the-shoulder top
As a pear-shaped woman, there’s a high chance that your shoulders are not naturally prominent, and wearing the wrong top can overwhelm the top half of your body.
However, you can drastically reduce the chances of this happening by wearing off-the-shoulder tops. This top will make your shoulders stand out by accentuating your collarbones and enhancing the lines around your shoulders.
This supports the illusion of a slender neck which helps your silhouette appear more balanced. So, don’t be afraid to show off your lovely neckline.
Jeans
Bootcut jeans
Stand out with bootcut jeans that are perfect for adding more volume to the bottom half of your body so that you have a more even silhouette. It’s easy to fall in love with bootcut jeans because they work great for your shape, especially as regards balancing your body.
However, don’t go for just any bootcut jeans. Be sure to check out the width of the flare first before making your choice.
The goal is to pick bootcut jeans with a moderate flare at the bottom so that you have the right amount of bottom heavy feeling on the bottom half of your body without completely throwing your body off balance.
Adding volume subtly to the bottom half of your body helps to highlight the beautiful natural curves of your pear shape.
High-waist mom jeans
One of the most interesting fashion trends in the 21st century is the mom jeans and the good news is that this works great for the pear body shape.
Rather than wearing low-rise jeans that will give you a straight and uncomfortable silhouette, opt for high-waist mom jeans that have an incredible elongation effect on your body.
This might seem like an old-fashioned style but the high-waist feature makes it look awesome on your pear shape.
Cropped jeans
You can enhance your pear body silhouette with cropped jeans which will definitely turn heads. This works by drawing attention towards the lower part of your legs, resulting in the outlook of curvy hips and an elongated frame that encourages a balanced silhouette.
However, the length of your cropped jeans should be around your ankles. If this is too short, such as being at your calf, this will drastically shorten your appearance and have the opposite effect on your body frame. Cropped jeans at the right length will lengthen your body.
Pants
Wide leg pants
Wide leg pants will help you show off your natural curves without drawing too much attention to your wide hips. It offers just the right amount of balance to ensure that your top and bottom half have a more balanced proportion that works with your overall body silhouette.
The best type of wide-leg pants for the pear shape are those in dark colors that drape downwards from your hips.
You should also opt for high-waist styles as these are incredibly flattering for your figure by creating the illusion of a taller body frame. they also accentuate the smallest part of your waist so it can give off an hourglass silhouette.
Structured bootcut pants
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate bootcut pants a solid 8, making them one of the best choices out there for pear-shaped women. It’s the pants to look out for if you want to create a more balanced silhouette for your body type.
One feature you would absolutely love about bootcut pants is how they fit snugly around your thighs and hips. Then, they have a gradual flare from this point to your ankles.
With this, a structured bootcut pant will draw attention away from your wide hips and give your legs more definition to create a proportionate silhouette.
Straight leg pants
If you’re not a fan of pants that have slight flares, you can try out straight leg pants with a tailored outlook.
This is a magical style of pants that helps to create a more streamlined look on your pear-shaped body frame.
The result is usually the illusion of elongated legs and an easy way to balance out your body curves. Make this work even better for your body shape by choosing only those with high-rise or mid-rise waistline, especially as these are also more comfortable.
Dresses
Fit and flare dresses
Fit and flare dresses usually have a high waistline and it’s exactly this feature that works its magic on pear-shaped women.
Having a higher waistline means that this dress can perfectly highlight the curvier part of our body while acting as the perfect camouflage for your heavier bottom-half.
So, they are a bit fitted at the top half to give a curvier silhouette while the flare doesn’t hug the curve of your bottom. With this, there’s less attention on your wide thighs and butt, ensuring that you have a more proportionate silhouette that’s incredibly flattering.
Empire waist dresses
The first fact here is that as a pear-shaped woman, you naturally have a thicker waist area compared to the top half of your body. Therefore, your dress choices shouldn’t draw so much attention here as you will appear wider and your silhouette will be disproportionate.
With an empire waist dress, you don’t have to worry about this. This style of dress features a high waistline right below your bust and that’s the perfect position to create a lengthening effect on your torso and legs.
To ensure that you really maximize comfort, you should opt for empire waist dresses in chiffon materials that have an elegant texture and design.
Wrap dresses
Unlike layered dresses that make your thighs look bulkier, wrap dresses are an amazing alternative for pear-shaped women that will like to create a flattering silhouette for every occasion.
Apart from the balancing effect they have on the hips and thighs, wrap dresses are known for enhancing your best features and making your assets stand out subtly.
How is this possible? Well, this is all thanks to the cinched waist and structured shape that flows seamlessly with your curves.
Skirts
Panel skirt
Just as the name suggests, this style of skirt contains strategically placed panels of fabric sewn together to create a flared silhouette.
As you may have guessed, the panel size and length matter as this needs to be just right to provide the perfect amount of balance to your wider thighs and hips.
Choose a panel skirt with medium-sized panels that are narrower ate the waist and gain more width towards your hips. This helps to create an hourglass silhouette and accentuates your waistline.
A-line skirts
Another skirt style that absolutely works for the pear shape is a streamlined A-line skirt which is quite efficient in creating the illusion of an hourglass figure on your body frame. This skirt which takes on the shape of the letter A is the perfect silhouette to tone down the wideness of your hips and thighs, ensuring that this is balanced with the top half of your body.
Another major feature here is the flare towards the hemline which helps to make your waist appear smaller. This increases the illusion of longer legs on the lower part of your body and will definitely make you stand out beautifully.
Midi skirt
While some people would recommend mini-skirts for pear-shaped women, this is not a completely good idea.
The length of mini-skirts can be discouraging for this body type because this may draw more attention to your wide hips and thighs. It may also not be completely comfortable.
However, a worthy alternative to this is a midi skirt which is a longer version. Midi skirts don’t draw attention to your thighs and they have a more structured appearance that flows naturally over your curves.
Sweaters
Horizontal-striped sweaters
Sometimes, it’s good to spice up your sweaters with patterns and prints that truly bring them to life.
However, this has to be done the right way to avoid creating a not-so-flattering effect on your body.
A good idea is to try out horizontal-striped sweaters with stripes that sit around your bust, shoulder and neck areas. The advantage of this is that it creates the illusion of being wider in the top half of your body. Since you naturally have wider hips and thighs, adding more volume to your upper body will help to balance your body proportions.
Sweaters with tie-waist
Tops with ties that knot at the side have always been flattering for the pear shape. However, this is not limited to tops alone.
You can rock sweaters that have tie-waist and stop right at your hipline. This is very flattering for pear-shaped women, especially when it features a v-neckline.
You can also choose sweaters with voluminous sleeves if this is to your taste as this will add volume to the upper half of your body.
Long cardigan
Form a continuous invisible visual line from your shoulders to the hemline by rocking a long cardigan. Usually, this should stop right after your kneecap and shouldn’t be too tight on your body frame.
A recurring theme with most clothing recommendations for the pear shape is to look out for styles that help to balance your figure. This is one of the best things you can do for your body type as this will give you a more structured and feminine outlook.
So, if you want to ensure that you have a more proportionate silhouette, you should include a few long cardigans in your wardrobe.
Coats & Jackets
Cropped jean jacket
Two amazing things that a cropped jean jacket can do for your pear shape is to create the illusion of an hourglass figure where you have a curvier silhouette and highlight your narrow waistline. This is what makes the cropped jean jacket a must-have for your body type as the results are a flattering silhouette and the opportunity to rock a jacket that won’t go out of style anytime soon.
The short length of the cropped jean jacket is just right to minimize attention on your big thighs and wide hips. Therefore, it accentuates your curves and gives you a sophisticated appearance.
Wrap style coat
Wrap tops, wrap dresses and now wrap style coat…you should get the idea. This is one of the most flattering choices for pear-shaped women and comes highly recommended.
Choose wrap coats that have a three-quarter length as you want to highlight your defined waist and give the illusion of a curvier figure.
Also, this rule is not set in stone as you’re free to incorporate your specific preferences when choosing your wrap coat. It could be plain or with a few subtle patterns. Another major focus is the belt as this is the one with the most effect on your body. It cinches your waist and gives you a more glamorous look.
Trench coat
Another super flattering coat style for pear-shaped women is the trench coat with its elaborate upper body details and shoulder straps. The elaborate upper body details helps to add more volume to this part of your body, so it appears more balanced compared with your lower body that is characterized by bigger thighs and hips.
Also, the shoulder straps are perfect for broadening your narrow shoulders which further enhances your upper body.
Shoes
Over-the-knee boots
Another amazing and stress-free method of creating the illusion of longer legs on your body frame is by rocking over-the-knee boots.
At first glance, this may seem a little too much but that’s absolutely not true.
This style of boots can easily add more length to your legs and they don’t have to be slim heels. It’s a better alternative compared to ankle boots as this abruptly cut off the visual lines of your legs and will make your legs appear shorter.
Neutral-colored shoes
If you love colors like ivory, brown or even nude, today is your lucky day. An amazing way to complete your outfit and make sure that your look rocks your world is with the right pair of shoes. You can achieve this with neutral-colored shoes that blend perfectly with the color of your skin.
This is perfect for creating the illusion of longer legs since it’s difficult to tell at first glance where your legs end. Your legs would look like they go on forever.
Another huge advantage of this is that neutral-colored shoes are not selective when it comes to pairing with different colors of outfits.
You can easily mix and match them, and you’re ready to get on with your day without worrying about pairing the wrong colors.
Open-toe wedged shoes
Wedges shoes are another winner for pear-shaped women. Although you may have slender legs, this can be accompanies by thicker ankles.
You can find the perfect balance for your legs through open-toe wedged shoes that make your legs look slimmer and longer.
Also, since this is an open-toe style, this won’t give our feet a boxy appearance that will be too bulky for your pear body type.
Pair this style of shoe easily with your bootcut jeans, wide leg pants and wrap dresses.
Ready to spice up your wardrobe with clothing styles that truly reflect your beautiful silhouette? Then it’s time to get shopping.
