Our feet often cramp our style. Despite their immense functionality in keeping us bipedal mammals balanced and on the move, their aesthetic value is disputable, if not downright low.
But just because you’re dressed to make your big feet look smaller doesn’t mean you should suffer every time you go out.
A good balance between aesthetics and comfort is the operative word when you choose your outfits.
The best way to make big feet look smaller is to wear the right dress or put on the right shoes, or both.
For example, a combination of a long flowing dress or pants and a pair of high heels or blunt, rounded toes would hide those big feet.
Read more to find out how to strike that good balance.
13 Ways to Make Big Feet Look Smaller
Whether your feet are actually bigger than most people or you’re just self-conscious about their size, it must be an ordeal every time you want to leave the house.
Some types of clothes become a no-no, and you can’t just slip into a pair of sandals and hoof it out.
I put together 13 ways you can dress to hide big feet or make them look smaller than they really are.
Choose what suits you from those dressing tips and add your personal flare to come up with a unique style that’s totally your own.
1. Flared Trousers Are Your Friend
The easiest way to make your big feet look smaller is to drape them with flared trousers or jeans. Make sure the hem of the legs touches the soul of the shoes to hide the shoes completely.
In the bargain, you’ll also hide any imperfections in your legs.
The advantage of having flared jeans or trousers is that you also get to hide your shoes. So even if you wear flat shoes or sandals, you can still get away with it since your shoes and feet will be hiding most of the time.
Keep in mind that sitting down will hike the flared trousers over your shins which might reveal your feet.
2. Chunky Heels All the Way
When your feet size bothers you, then some shoes become inadequate.
Flat heels come at the top of the list. They do little, if anything at all, to hide the size of your feet or change their posture in a good way.
That means you’re left with high heels for every occasion.
It’s not the most comfortable shoe choice, but you got lots of options and heel heights to choose from.
If you can handle really high heels (6 inches and above), your big feet will benefit a lot from them. High heels push your posture up while your toes remain close to the ground.
And for the purpose of making your feet look small, opt for chunky heels and wedges over stilettos. Chunky heels are more comfortable and will help you maintain your balance.
3. Don’t Show Your Calves
Some clothes styles are designed to show more of your legs. While that might be the style you prefer, it doesn’t do much to hide your feet or make them look any smaller.
Capris, short skirts, mini skirts, and short dresses are no longer the right clothes for you.
In fact, any bottom that shows your calves or rises even a couple of inches above the top of your feet has no place in your wardrobe.
Some people recommend wearing shorts to lengthen your legs and balance the size of your feet. But I don’t believe that would work.
If you’re uncomfortable showing your feet, then revealing them will only make you feel awkward. Hide your calves and your feet with long bottoms.
4. No Skimpy Sandals
We love those skimpy sandals that don’t squeeze our feet or try to change their posture.
They’re light and easy to wear, so what’s not to like about them? When you have big feet, then the skimpy sandals do little to contain or hide the size of the feet.
If you still want to wear flats, then go for the ones that reveal little of the details of your feet. And whatever you do, don’t go for sandals with straps.
In fact, avoid any shoes with straps around the ankles. They tend to make your feet look bigger than they really are.
That said, mixing high heels with flat sandals and sports shoes is good for your feet. High heels tend to twist the feet unnaturally, which could cause health problems.
5. Accessorize to Draw Attention Away
If you still want to wear a short dress that reveals not just your feet but parts of your legs as well, then the best way to make your feet look smaller is to wear large and flashy accessories.
A wide belt with a big buckle will distract from the large feet.
It’s not the safest tactic, and it’s not easy to pull off. And you’ll need to experiment with the width of the belt until you find the right one for you.
Wide belts tend to make your legs look short and vice versa. So if you’re trying to increase your height with a thin belt, that could backfire as it reveals the actual size of the feet.
As I said, it’s a trade-off.
6. Use Blunt Shoes with Rounded Toes
Remember how I said that striking a good balance between looking good and feeling comfortable was the main goal of this guide?
This tip is specifically for making you feel comfortable. When you look for shoes, choose a style with blunt and rounded toes as opposed to pointed toes.
For one thing, pointed toes taper off at the end, which means that your toes will be squeezed in throughout the time you’re wearing the shoes. That’s uncomfortable as well as unhealthy. It cuts off the bloodstream to the toes, which causes pain and callus.
Also, make sure that the shoes have soles that support every inch of your feet. That means no foot spillover and no dangling heels.
You’d want to be comfortable in the shoes, which would reflect on your posture and self-confidence.
7. Don’t Wear Tight Skirts
Tight skirts are a great way to show your figure and feel sexy at the same time.
The only problem is that they reveal more than they hide. And when it comes to large feet, a pencil skirt emphasizes those feet instead of trying to balance their size.
But that doesn’t mean that all skirts are now off the table. Not at all. One of the best features of skirts is that they come in all shapes, designs, and sizes.
So while pencil skirts are no longer a viable option, you still have round skirts or A-line skirts.
Those skirts have the benefit of balancing your overall figure while also making your feet look smaller. Pair them with round-toed comfortable shoes to keep you going all day.
8. Heeled Boots Works Great
A lot has been said about boots. They’re stylish, and they don’t seem to go out of fashion. But if your big feet really make you feel hesitant about the type of shoes to wear, heeled boots should be a no-brainer.
They cover every inch of your feet, have comfortable, albeit high heels, and they make you look stunning.
If it were up to me, I’d recommend that you wear heeled boots all the time: morning, afternoon, and evening.
Ankle boots are usually more comfortable than knee-high boots. They’re more suitable for warm seasons, and they balance the size of your feet effortlessly.
And the larger, the better. Boots don’t look bulky, no matter what size you choose.
9. Focus on the Top
This is a tried and tested tip. You always try to draw attention away from the part you’re less confident about. If the top is the issue, enhance your bottom to balance it, and the opposite is true.
In our case, it’s the feet that we need to keep in the background. So we need to focus on the top.
That includes but is not limited to daring tops. If you’re comfortable with long necklines, they can be a great way to draw attention away from the feet.
But you can also try light and bright tops. Flashy colors and loud patterns make the top the center of attention while the large feet hide in obscurity.
Combine them with large earrings or flashy necklaces for a full effect.
10. Don’t Show Your Toes
Let’s be honest. Big feet often mean large toes.
Even when the rest of the foot is hiding blissfully inside comfortable shoes, the exposed toes defeat the whole purpose and sabotage your plan to make your feet look smaller.
Not to mention that peeping toes ruin the whole effect. They look like they’re trying to squeeze out of the tight shoes.
So it’s not a good idea to wear open-toe shoes or any similar styles. Any flats with open toes will only contribute to the problem instead of solving it.
Even high heel shoes with open toes are to be avoided.
Just play it safe and keep the toes as well as the rest of the feet happily covered in comfortable shoes that reveal little, if anything, about the size of your feet.
11. Accessorize your Shoes to Draw Attention Away
It’s one thing to accessorize your top and draw attention away from the feet with large earrings and lace frills, and it’s a different thing to draw attention to the feet area.
It’s one way of hiding the size of the feet by making the shoes look larger than they really are.
I’m talking about embellishments to the shoes that get all the attention instead of the feet.
Consider, for example, adding a large flower or a bow to the top of the shoe. It will hide the size of the shoe and your feet while adding some style to your footwear.
That said, try not to go overboard with shoe accessories. One accent is always enough to drive the point through without making your shoes look like a floral arrangement or a carnival of colors.
One hair clip on the toe area of the shoe is all you need. When it comes to shoe accessories, less is more.
12. Dark Shoes Don’t Pull Attention to Your Feet
I mentioned above that you should draw attention to the top part of the body with bright and loud colors and unusual designs.
Now, to hide your feet and make them look smaller, you should do the opposite with your shoes. In other words, choose shoes in dark colors.
You have many options here. You can go with black shoes, which are the safest choice since they go with just about any outfit you can think of. Then you have brown and navy blue shoes.
The main advantage of dark shoes is that they’re less conspicuous than the rest of your outfit. Even if you wear a black dress or dark bottoms, black shoes will be the last thing that someone will look at.
13. Wide Straps are a Good Option to Hide Your Feet
I know that I said no straps up there. But does that mean that you’ll have to forsake sandals forever?
Not at all.
You can still wear sandals that have wide straps which hide as much of your feet as possible while also balancing the size of the feet with the width of the straps.
Even if you prefer thin straps, you could still pull them off with sandals that have many thin straps. But the one rule of thumb that should apply to all sandals, no matter how thin or wide the straps, is that the sandals should fit your foot.
Don’t go for small sandals hoping that the small size will offset the large feet.
That’s not what will happen. Your feet will squeeze out of the small sandals and look even bigger.
You wouldn’t want that.
Conclusion
To make your big feet look smaller, opt for flared trousers and jeans, long dresses, and blunt and round-toed shoes. Avoid tight skirts, mini skirts, and flat sandals.
Next, you can check out this comprehensive guide I wrote on hiding other parts of your body that you may not be comfortable showing either.
I’m an expert wardrobe organizer and a bit of a clean freak. I created this website and its YouTube channel to share practical guides about laundry and organizing. My teachings have been featured in multiple large news publications, and I’ve self-published two wardrobe organizing books and an entire course on the subject.
