What to Wear Over 50 If Your Hips Are Wider
If your hips are wider, getting dressed can feel tricky in a very particular way.
Pants fit in the hips but gape at the waist. Skirts pull in places you don’t want them to. Tops that fit your shoulders suddenly feel too short or too tight once they hit your hips. And after a while, you start defaulting to the same outfits because experimenting feels exhausting.
Here’s the good news: wider hips are not a problem to fix.
They just require clothes that understand balance and proportion.
When your outfit is built with your hip line in mind, everything feels easier. You stop tugging. You stop second-guessing. And you stop feeling like you need to “hide” part of your body to look put together.
Let’s talk about what actually works, and why.
The Goal (This Changes How You Choose Clothes)
The goal is not to make your hips disappear.
Trying to minimize them usually leads to:
Longer, heavier tops
Extra fabric piled on top of fabric
Outfits that feel bulky instead of balanced
The real goal is to:
Create balance between your top and bottom half
Let your hips exist without being the focal point
Use structure and line to guide the eye
When balance is right, hips stop feeling like “the issue,” even though nothing about your body has changed.
The #1 Rule: Balance Starts Above the Hips
Most women with wider hips focus all their energy on the bottom half. But what happens above the hips matters just as much.
If your top half is too soft, too small, or too flimsy, your hips automatically feel larger by comparison.
That’s why:
Stronger tops help
Structure matters
Intentional volume up top is your friend
You don’t need to shrink your hips. You need to support them.
What Tops Work Best
1. Tops With Structure Through the Shoulder
Shoulder structure balances hip width beautifully.
This doesn’t mean shoulder pads. It means:
A crisp shoulder seam
A jacket, blazer, or knit that holds its shape
Sleeves with some presence (not limp or collapsing)
When the shoulders are defined, your hips feel proportional instead of dominant.
This is one of the fastest fixes you can make.
2. Tops That End at the Hip Bone (Not On It)
Length matters more than most women realize.
What usually doesn’t help:
Tops that end exactly at the widest part of the hips
Long tops that cut the leg line and add visual weight
What works better:
Hip-bone length tops
Slightly longer tops that skim past the hip without clinging
The goal is to avoid stopping the eye right at the widest point.
If a top ends exactly where your hips are fullest, it draws attention there. If it ends above or cleanly below, the eye keeps moving.
3. Tops With Vertical Lines or Open Necklines
Vertical elements help elongate and balance.
Great options:
V-necks
Split-neck blouses
Button-downs worn slightly open
Long necklaces that create a clean vertical line
These details pull focus upward and create a longer line through the torso, which naturally balances wider hips.
4. Tops That Skim Instead of Cling
Clingy fabrics tend to grab at the hip area and exaggerate width, even when they technically fit.
Better fabrics:
Cotton poplin
Linen blends
Ponte
Interlock cotton
Heavier knits that hold their shape
If the fabric can move past your hips instead of wrapping around them, the outfit instantly looks cleaner and more intentional.
Bottoms That Work With Wider Hips (Not Against Them)
5. Straight-Leg, Subtle Bootcut, or Soft Wide-Leg Pants
You don’t need to live in skinny jeans if your hips are wider.
These shapes tend to work better:
Straight-leg jeans
Subtle bootcut
Soft wide-leg pants with drape
They create a straight visual line from hip to hem, which keeps outfits from feeling top-heavy or bottom-heavy.
6. Mid-Rise or Contoured Waistbands
Very high-rise styles can sometimes exaggerate the hip curve, especially if the fabric is stiff.
Look for:
Mid-rise or moderate high-rise
Contoured waistbands
Fabrics with a little give, not rigidity
Comfort matters here. If you’re constantly adjusting your waistband, the pants aren’t doing their job.
Skirts That Feel Easier (Yes, Really)
If you’ve avoided skirts because of your hips, it’s usually because of the cut, not because skirts don’t work.
Better options:
A-line skirts
Bias-cut skirts
Skirts with movement and drape
What usually doesn’t help:
Pencil skirts in stiff fabrics
Heavy pleating right at the hips
A skirt that moves instead of clinging actually softens the hip line beautifully.
The Power of the Third Piece
A good third piece can completely change how hips read visually.
What works:
Jackets worn open
Blazers that hit at or just below the hip bone
Structured cardigans with a clean edge
Worn open, these create vertical lines that frame the body instead of spotlighting the hips.
What to skip:
Long, floppy cardigans that collapse at the hips
Anything that adds bulk right where you don’t want it
You’re framing your outfit, not hiding inside it.
A Simple Mirror Test That Helps
When you try on an outfit, ask:
Do my shoulders and hips feel balanced?
Does the fabric skim past my hips or grab them?
Does the outfit feel intentional, or am I adding layers to feel safer?
If you keep adding fabric to feel comfortable, something underneath needs adjusting.
A Reality Check (Because This Matters)
Wider hips are not a styling flaw. They’re just a proportion.
When clothes are chosen with balance in mind:
Your hips stop feeling like the focal point
Outfits feel lighter and easier
You stop overthinking every mirror glance
If dressing still feels hard, it’s usually not about one piece. It’s about how everything is working together.
That’s exactly why I created The Style Refresh Blueprint. It helps you understand how to balance proportions, choose better shapes, and build outfits that support your body as it is now, using what you already own.
No trends.
No body blaming.
No pressure.
Just clothes that finally feel like they’re on your side.
If you had to guess, do you usually struggle more with tops fitting your hips, or pants fitting your waist and hips at the same time?
Stay gorgeous!
