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The Proportion Series · Part 3

Hem Lengths: The Four Decisions That Matter

Skirts and dresses offer a continuous range of lengths. Only four points on it behave predictably on a shorter frame.

By Petite Revue Editorial Desk

6 min read

6 min readexplainer
Three lower-body studies side by side, a trouser, a skirt and a dress, each ending at a different height above a different heel, with every hem measured down to a shared floor line.

Guidance in this article is derived from brands’ own published garment measurements. Nothing described here has been worn or tested by the publication.

A hemline is a continuous variable that behaves like a discrete one. There are four lengths worth planning around, and the awkward zones between them are awkward for structural reasons rather than fashionable ones.

The four lengths

  • Above the knee: reliable, because it ends at the narrowest visible part of the leg. Needs no help.
  • At the knee: needs the hem to finish at or just above the kneecap, not below it. One inch decides this.
  • Mid-calf: the difficult one. Works when the shoe tone continues the hem tone, and rarely otherwise.Footnote 1
  • Floor length: the most forgiving of all, provided the hem genuinely clears the floor in the shoes you will wear.

The between-lengths (just below the knee, just above the ankle) are not forbidden. They simply require the rest of the outfit to compensate, and there is rarely a good reason to spend that effort when moving the hem an inch would have resolved it.

Notes

  1. Mid-calf is the one length that usually fails for a reason outside the skirt: the shoe. Before altering the hem, try it with a boot or shoe in the same tonal family as the fabric.↩

Sources

Guidance in this article is derived from the published material below. No garment described here has been worn or tested by the publication.

  1. On this site

    Shoe shapes that keep the line long

    The shoe pairing that makes a mid-calf hem work.

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Petite Revue Editorial Desk

The editorial desk plans each issue, commissions the guides and keeps the house point of view consistent: clothes should fit a shorter frame without alteration wherever that is possible, and look considered rather than expensive.

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  • Soft claret illustrated plate with a faint outline of a dress low in the frame, used as a Pinterest graphic background.

    Petite Revue

    The four hemlines that actually work

    Above knee, at knee, mid-calf, floor

    Headline pin · 1000 × 1500

    A petite guide to hemlines: the four lengths that behave predictably on a shorter frame, and what each one needs above or below it.

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  • Warm ivory illustrated plate with faint ruled rows and small empty boxes, used as a Pinterest checklist background.

    Petite Revue

    • Above the knee: needs no help
    • At the knee: finish at or above the cap
    • Mid-calf: match the shoe to the hem
    • Floor: must clear the floor in those shoes

    Four hemlines, four rules

    Checklist pin · 1000 × 1500

    The four skirt and dress lengths that work on petite frames, and the single rule that makes each one succeed.

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