One of the practical issues when you wear elevators is that they DO have some impact on the type of pants or jeans you might wear. It is not as great an impact as you might think (unless you are going for 4” or 5” elevators) but there are some general lessons you need to understand, specially if you haven’t really done much height addition before.
General points about trousers
By and large, 2” and 3” elevators have very little impact at all on what you wear on your legs. You would instinctively think that you will have to buy 2” or 3” longer pants inside leg but usually, I find, you don’t! Even in fact with my 4” boots it seems to make not a great deal of difference: it may be because I tend to buy jeans longer anyway, but when I am dressing and walking around barefoot I am always surprised at how little different it is after putting on my elevators and how all of a sudden there is not 4” of boot exposed with a hem flapping way up my leg. It is more the case that different style of boots go with different trousers. So if you are a novice, make sure you try out your new boots with your jeans etc – and look carefully in the mirror that they are not now just a tad too short. In some professional situations, the fit of your footwear and the hem may be more exacting – so you have to take this into account. Shoes rather than boots are a different matter to some degree, and I will devote more time in a future article to these – there are greater demands on the exact nature of how you look and these Can be met with elevators but you just need to take more care. So in general with those situations, if you are committed to adding height, start buying your pants a little bit longer (an inch, max two for a 3.1” or 8cm elevator).
A warning!
Many of you have seen the truly appalling ‘full length shot’ sight of celebs in red carpet situations who add height wearing clumpy great boots or trainers with tux or dinner jacket. Unless this happens to be a trend (very occasionally it comes in to fashion) avoid it totally. It draws total attention to the footwear and in not a good way. There are some specifics to be aware of.
The back of the boot and your hem
When you wear elevators, however long your pants, you will find that at times and with some styles more than others, the pants will ride up at the back specially when you are sitting. And they can then hook up over the back of the boot. It looks uncool unless it is a specific fashion (the jeans tumbling over big boots haphazardly HAVE been a fashion trend in fact, but let’s leave that to one side right now). When this happens unintentionally, it draws attention to the heel area and while this is not necessarily a problem, I have always found it best to follow the line that was intended and casually look down after being seated, specially in a chair like at a bar or restaurant, and pull the hem out of the boot to drape it back over the boot. It’s just commonsense and is no issue. So make sure your pants are generally long enough to avoid it happening in other situations, and you can do this just by trying it out in private – sit down, move legs, stretch, stand, walk, sit at a table for 5 mins etc. I have one pair of pants I just love and the boots tend to ride over the hem, but I am used to it now and used to correcting it. And when they are hanging right they look very good.
Skinny jeans
I love my skinnies but have found in my quest for totally max height that I now wear less of the really skintight, super stretch ones I like than just slim cut. North Americans wear much looser jeans than in the UK or Europe where many guys wear second-skin jeans a lot and they are still fashionable. Now you CAN wear these with big elevators but it is a certain look and takes a certain style – one look that is very common in Northern Europe, specially in winter, is great big army type boots with very tight skinnies. Look at a group of lads in a bar and if someone said “they’re all wearing elevators”, well you wouldn’t be slightly surprised. Huge boots even with no elevators have big thick soles and heel areas anyway, and that of course is useful for us. A style like that that is current means you can indulge your desire to add height in a way that doesn’t look like you are adding height against the prevalent trend.
Keep your eye on style trends
What I have said about skinnies is important for another reason. Whatever age you are, if you are adding height, keep your eye on general fashion trends even if it is not really totally your thing. The reason for this is that new trends can allow you to indulge in more added height or a more easy way of wearing stuff undetectably. And age is not now as important as it was unless you are going for high or extreme fashion. A decade ago or so, flared jeans were in fashion for the first time since the 60s/early 70s and these were sensational for hiding heroically massive height addition – I wasn’t wearing elevators then (I couldn’t find anything I liked) so it was all big boots, zip at side, left undone, masses – MASSES – of lifts rammed into the boot! And of course one huge great pair of flares covering the lot. It was the highest I ever got with lifts. And I was just so sorry when the style faded out.
The lesson of this? There will be changes in style that come along – some will be great for height adders. Others not. But unless you to some degree keep your ear to the ground you will never know.
