How to Wear Heels With Pants

Pant length and shoes
Gabriel Olsen / Getty Images

You've probably seen women wearing a range of pants lengths with heels, but what's the appropriate length of pants to wear with heels?

Tips for Pant Length With Heels

Pants come in all types of styles and fits, including straight legged, wide legged, skinny, cropped, ankle, etc. Certain styles have certain guidelines, but there are two golden rules when it comes to pairing pants with heels. The pants shouldn't cover the entire shoe, and they shouldn't touch the floor.

Wide-Legged Pants

A pair of pants that grazes the floor might look chic on a six-foot-tall supermodel, but if you're like most women, that extra fabric will only weigh you down and make you appear shorter. It's also completely impractical: your heel could easily get caught in the pants, the hemline could get ruined and it also looks a little sloppy, which is especially important to consider in a professional atmosphere.

With a pair of long, wide legged pants, it's best if the hemline hits the middle of the heel or about an inch from the floor. The tip of the shoes should peek out. Not allowing your pants to drag on the floor gives a clean, professional, and flattering appearance as well as a long and lean silhouette.

You might own a pair of wide legged pants that you wear with flats. The pants are the proper length, so it looks flattering, but that look doesn't translate when you take the same pants and pair them with heels. The pants hit your ankles, the entire heel of the shoe is visible and the pants look too small.

The best way to solve this problem is by buying wide-legged pants to wear exclusively with heels.

Straight and Skinny Pants

Straight and skinny pants are a different story. Straight pants that are too long can bunch up around the ankles, at the back of the shoe or over the bridge of the foot and look sloppy. They're long pants, so you want them to hang straight rather than gather at the top of your foot. Straight pants should fall just below the ankle, only slightly touching the top of the foot and the back of the shoe.

Skinny pants shouldn't bunch up around the ankles either. Depending on the pants' material and what kind of look you're doing for, you could roll the pants, do a French cuff, or avoid this predicament altogether by having them hemmed to hit just at your ankle.