A Thanksgiving outfit has one real test: it has to fit at nine in the evening the way it fitted at eleven in the morning, after four hours in a chair. Three formulas pass, each with a fit rule you can check with a tape or a mirror. The general answer first, then the inch or two that changes if you are 5 ft 4 in (163 cm) or under.
Read the table, not a dress code
Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, this year Thursday 26 November. In our view, Thanksgiving has no dress code to follow. The table sets it.
At the family table you arrive in daylight and stay for the clearing up, so dress one step above a weekday: a knit and a trouser, or a dress with sleeves. Dinner out or hosting asks for one step more, which a midi with some weight does. Friendsgiving is the relaxed one: jeans, as long as they are the good pair and the top has some structure.
At the family table you arrive in daylight and stay for the clearing up, so dress one step above a weekday: a knit and a trouser, or a dress with sleeves.
At all three, choose weight that hangs and a waist with a little give. Our wedding guest guide puts it plainly: anything with a little weight hangs better all day than something floaty and thin. In our view, thin jersey clings more the longer you sit.
Formula one: a fine knit and a wide leg trouser
This is the all day outfit for most tables. A high waisted wide leg with a pressed crease reads as dressed from across the room. Our rule of thumb: a side zip and a hook and bar closure look dressed where a stretch waistband looks like a Sunday. The Sena Wide Leg Trouser has both, in a viscose blend with a 28 inch (71 cm) inseam in size S.
The knit on top: Tops That Don't Overwhelm explains why a full sleeve, a long body and a wide trouser is three decisions fighting each other. The Nell Knit Top is a fine gauge cotton blend with a scoop neck, cut close through the shoulder so it layers without bulk.
A wide leg should skim the floor in the shoes you will wear that day, with half an inch (about 1.3 cm) of clearance. If you alternate between flats and heels, cut for the flats, as the trouser length guide explains.
Formula two: a midi with sleeves, or a sweater dress
For dinner out or hosting, a midi covers the door, the meal and the photographs. Choose weight. A heavy crepe or a lined dress hangs and keeps hanging. The Marlowe Midi Dress is a square neck midi in heavy crepe with a defined waist and a full lining, and its product page lists it as midi length with no alterations needed.
Mid calf is the safest midi length and just below the knee is the easiest to walk in. Our cropped trouser rule applies to any hem: the widest part of the calf is the length to avoid.
Then the waist. A midi is really a maxi if the waist sits in the wrong place, so the seam should land at your natural waist, the narrowest part of your torso, where your body bends. Take the hem up and only the hem moves. The waist and the shoulder stay where they were, as Petite Sizes Explained sets out.
A sweater dress follows the same landmarks, with one extra rule: heavier knits hold their shape and skim, thin knits show everything underneath. If you love it thin, size up and let it hang.
Formula three: a good top and straight jeans
Friendsgiving, and the relaxed family table, want a straight leg with a high rise in rigid denim. In our view rigid denim with a little give keeps its line through a long meal where soft stretch does not. The Birk Straight Leg Jean is a high rise in rigid denim with a little give, with a 27 inch (69 cm) inseam in size S.
The hem again. A straight leg looks sharpest when it grazes the top of your foot with no break. One soft fold across the front is fine, two means they are long. The jean length guide has the inseam hem that keeps the original edge.
The top stops the outfit reading as a Saturday: a close fit, a square or scoop neck, a fabric that holds its shape. The Ines Square Neck Top or the Nell both do it.
The layer you take off at the door
You arrive cold and sit warm. Whatever goes over the outfit comes off within minutes, so what is underneath has to stand alone.
A good blazer ends where your hip bone does. The shoulder seam sits on your shoulder bone, not past it, and a single button at your natural waist gives you a shape without a belt. Our blazer edit has the mirror test for the hem. The Cato Tailored Blazer is cut shorter in the body and higher in the armhole so it ends at the hip bone, with a single button at the natural waist.
Over a midi, the Lior Trench Coat hits just above the knee, so the dress hem shows beneath it.
The numbers if you are 5 ft 4 in or under
Wikipedia defines a petite size as one designed for women 163 cm (5 ft 4 in) and under, with proportion counted as well as height. These are the numbers that move.
Lay the trousers you wear most flat and measure from the crotch seam to the hem. Our size guide lists an inseam for every size, from 27 inches (69 cm) at XXS to 29.5 inches (75 cm) at XXL, with S at 28 inches (71 cm). The Sena, at 28 inches in S, is cut to skim the floor in a flat shoe. In a heeled boot the hem lifts by roughly the heel height, so decide which shoe the day is in before you hem. The Birk, at 27 inches in S, is cut to graze the top of the foot.
A hem of fixed length lands lower on a shorter leg, so check the midi in the day's shoes: mid calf or just below the knee, with the waist seam on your natural waist, not below it. The knit and the blazer both end at the hip bone.
Then the tailor, this week. Our alteration tips are blunt: hems, sleeves and waistbands are simple and inexpensive to adjust, shoulders, armholes and rises are not. A sliding shoulder, a low rise or a waist seam at the hip are not, in our view, worth asking for this week. Ask the tailor when they can have it back.
Four checks before you leave
In order. Sit in it for a full minute, because that is the day. Raise both arms and watch where the hem and the neckline go. Hold the fabric to a window and check that it is opaque. Walk across the room in the day's shoes, a block heel if you are hosting.
Dress for the fourth hour at the table, not the first photograph at the door.
