Anyone else have a short torso and high hip shelf?

[hiplockbag]

I've somehow managed to be slim for most of my life but nature put a whopper of a dent in it and gave me a bloody high hip shelf (short torso /longer legs). I seem to be a 'soft classic' which means i am a slight hourglass with smallish boobs.
I have never been vain or too bothered about my shape or weight, but always felt a bit off at school when i wore a skirt with a waistband. I felt wide and fat and uncomfortable even though i looked just fine. The skirt would fit my waist then flare out abruptly as my hip bone is so close to the ribs. Even if my waist measurement qualified as a mumsnet 'teenytiny' i still looked like a weird bottle with a short top
I mean there is no point having a small waist when that fucker is half way up your back!

I have only recently googled and discovered this basic fact and am a bit shocked, since it explains every discomfort with clothes that ive ever had. High rise bury me, but lower rise produce a hip shelf. So i didnt like jeans, or skirts, but was fine with dresses that floated in a bit at the waist and gave me a nice shape. I could also deal with a solid flat waist band where the drop was gradual with darts or flat like the band on a sweaty betty legging.

Now i am living in a world stuffed full of paperbag style waists on the trousers, huge rises and long crotches and lots of bunched elastic. Even if i find a traditional button fly the band is such that my 'shelf' comes out. And side zips seem to have gone out of fashion,unless, again, formal.

I dont want to go looking for dresses as i am not a dress person, apart from restaurants or special occasions. I like the minimal french 'undone' look with a casual bit of jane birkin thrown in and the current market sucks for me.

I don't need clothes recs specifically but i would love to hear if anyone else has this type of shape and what they do to dress it. I just want to find my tribe. I feel like most people have a longer torso and the current shapes suit them, but i am stuck here with my first world problem fit issue. Anyway, im here to chat if you can relate!

I may be back with a diagram.

I feel your pain. Over the years Ive learnt to buy clothes like mad when fashion favours me. Shift dresses have always worked for me, but they are currently hard to find.

I too have a short torso, with good sized boobs, and long legs. I have to keep trim, if I don't I look "blocky". I do wear jeans, mid rise straight legs usually with tops that come to hip length. Don't tuck tops in as instantly shortening. Dresses need to be v necked, not too fussy and skim rather than close fitting.

Your shape sounds just like mine.
I am properly adult sized but I look like a child when I’m sat at a table because my body is so short 🤣🤣

Thank you, now i feel less alone , it is crazy how i never noticed it before and just thought i had a weird relationship with clothes. Now it makes sense. The hip flares out suddenly (pleats OMG), not too far from my boobs, so it feels like there's less space for stuff to lie flat in or graduate down. Dresses would be the answer but i just don't like wearing them
What a bugger of a thing. I would love to know how to find a sort of uniform or style that would work without too much hassle, but i'd have to like it, too!

Sorry, I meant to reply to everyone not just one person:)

I’ve found my people! I have the same body shape and you have just described the exact pain I feel clothes shopping. I live in hush Aimee joggers, they seem to sit just right. And skirts that sit more on the hip. A lot of the time I upsize and wear them lower. Long vests are my freind to balance out my proportions. I will look for empire line or dropped waist or shirred waist. Tunics and leggings, a long but slightly cropped jumper with a long vest under. As I’ve hit my mid 40s my waist is a big bigger and nothing seems to fit :( thankfully I don’t have to wear anything formal! Oh and floaty summer trousers can sometimes work if the waist is right but it’s hit and miss.

I do have a uniform of sorts. In the summer I wear linen mix trousers or yoga pants, or midi skirts with sandals and cool tops/blouses. Winter its jeans or baby cords with jumpers or blouse and ankle boots. Dresses for occasions or holidays (not often).
I do size up on some things for comfort. And do like (whisper it) stretchy waistband, so they don't rub on my ribs. You know what I mean, I think.

I have bought flat waist, shirred or panel waist skirts all my life and never thought about why. Now it makes so much sense. It does create a nice, longer line.I even buy pyjamas 2 sizes up so that they slip down a bit instead of riding up to my boobs. I am drawn to tunics but don't suit them sadly.....as for joggers the old flat waist sweaty betty Gary's were great!

Sounds like you have a method, I so wish I had! I too buy a size up in jeans which often sag around my lower hips, what a faff!

It's a comfort to find others with this issue - I seem to spend a lot of time envying women with normal torsos! Like a pp I like a skirt which hangs from my hips rather than my waist, and I also prefer shorter boxy tops which don't emphasize how big my hips are. Loose dresses are my friend in summer, or tees with skirts. In winter I live in merino joggers, so easy.

I'm exactly the shape you've described.

Dresses work well for me.

I also like high rise jeans and trousers but I find I need to balance the top half with a higher neck (polo in winter, boat neck in summer). Scoop or deep v necks with high waisted bottoms just emphasise my short torso.

I also find looser tops tucked in can help with the balance.

No to pleated skirts or big gathered waists. I like skirts with a smooth, fitted waist and hip and then flare out after the hip (Jigsaw often has good shape skirts for me).

Jeans I struggle with the most and anything high rise will be up round my arm pits 😅 I’m open to any recommendations here. I’ve only ever in my life found one comfortable pair of jeans and they were seven for all man kind. They were the holy grail of jeans. I was gutted that they were stolen when somebody broke into the house! So random! I couldn’t believe it, never found another pair like them.

You sound like one of my friends. I have one friend with v short torso and one with v long torso and we have often shopped together and marvelled at how different things just don’t work for some shapes.
For your shape exactly what @Boriswentcamping said. Shame you don’t like dresses as that the obvious thing. Is there a way you can build dresses in to your style and lifestyle? Short torso mate is naturally a casual dresser but lived for years in leggings or skinnies with tunic tops. She hates the current fashions!

I have a similar 'high hip'. I feel your pain!

Yes I do! Although I didn’t realise I did until recently. I had a tummy tuck in December & now I’ve realised I have the shortest torso ever.

I have this shape too although without the benefit of a small waist. My arms, shoulders and legs are great but the entire midsection is like a square and my bum can look very flat from the back in some clothes. I’m a jeans and t-shirt kind of person and they just don’t work for me unless I want to look very straight up and down. Fit and flare dresses and sporty leggings with sweaters look best on me but when I need a style for in between I’m lost.

I'm 5ft 6 and my height is all in my legs. I have the shortest body ever!

I have to wear low rise or mid rise jeans. High rise don't fit at all! I've never been able to wear skirts - they either sit on my hips and are too baggy, or sit round my waist and are totally the wrong length.

I also found being pregnant really uncomfortable. My internal organs were totally squashed. I was 40 weeks pregnant one Christmas and was so miserable, as I couldn't eat any dinner!

I think this is me, but I’m struggling to visualise hip shelves and the like.
All I know is I have nothing but legs, that end on stupid skinny ankles but have decent thighs annd an bit of an arse and now middle age has given me that godawful abdominal fat that no fucker wants, ever. If I wear high waisted jeans, I look like I’m wearing a flag - a square of denim basically from my neck down. And it accentuates the ever so lovely pooch of my belly 😵‍💫 and my torso looks about 4 inches long as you need to tuck your shirt in with them.
If I wear skinny jeans, I can at least lengthen my torso with a shirt, and done right, minimise the thigh:ankle ratio. And my jeans don’t get wet on a rainy day. Baggy jeans make me look huge, and unlike several decades ago when baggy trousers worn with a nice little tight fitting long line top or vest looked good and accentuated my boobs and waist, now I look like a world class shot putter, minus all the athletic ability and skill.
I have no suggestions OP, but I feel your pain.

Also, I’ve often looked at long-torsoed women (Britney spears back in the day and weirdly, Trinny spring to mind off the top of my head) and wondered how fabulous it must be to sit down and have room for all your organs, rather than feel you’re being suffocated by a boob and belly sandwich all the time.

Yes I think there is discomfort because of it too, I also struggled in pregnancy and even feel full very quickly.

Maybe we should use this thread to post when we find something that works?

Ah, my people. I am very envious of those that can wear a simple vest top with paper bag trousers. I would look like ab mini quiche vol-au-vent. All advice online seems to tell hourglasses to cinch in at the waist, or tuck tops in, which makes me look totally off balance, or emphasises my wobbly tummy. I also aspire to the French chic vibe, very minimal. I'm finding empire waistlines on dresses seem to work, as they divide me into 3/4, rather than half, and skim over my tum. Trousers-wise I do leggings with oversized jumpers or shirts, maybe again because that 3/4ers me rather than cuts me in a very unblanaced half.

Diagram please as I think this applies to me - also I have “short shoulders”, in that the shoulders of tops etc really need taking in/up by 2-3 inches otherwise they sag and gape 😒

Agree re the discomfort. I felt all my organs were very squashed in pregnancy.

Thanks for joining!
I think those women, Britney etc had fairly long torso's which worked with the cropped top fashions of the time.
When I wore a cropped top when young it covered my belly button!

It does seem that trying to 'do' separates is part of the problem, so dresses are much easier to negotiate, but I have never been able to make dresses work casually, and the choices on the market now are not so great. In fact, the more higher end and higher price you go, the more the dress is likely to look like cosplay ...there just isn't anything subtle or a normal length now is there?

Also: Casual tops are always huge or tiny now and the middle ground of semi fitted has disappeared.

When seeking a solution, I once turned to dungarees and looked like a flowerpot man. Nor do I have the gravitas to pull off the female monty don look! I might try out mechanic's overalls next, see how we get on. Kylie made this cool in 1988..