I have seen Sex and the City 2 twice already and still cannot believe how 5’3” Sarah Jessica Parker, a.k.a. Carrie Bradshaw, looks like she has the legs of a 5’10” supermodel.  She is one of those petite women blessed with extremely long legs. 

Short women with long legs?  A tall petite?  It sounds sort of like a fashion oxymoron, which is by definition a figure of speech in which 2 contradictory words are placed together for effect.  Aren’t all short women supposed to have short legs? Au contraire.

Look at Sarah Jessica.  Granted, she is known for her skyscraper heels, a guaranteed way to make toned legs look like they go on forever. Her sometimes eclectic, always fashion savvy alter-ego Carrie Bradshaw breaks petite fashion rules on a regular basis, but she follows some pretty basic guidelines to create the illusion of height on camera.  Wear it really short or wear it really long. 

 Carrie wears her skirts or dresses short, well above the knee, or she wears long dresses that drape all the way to the floor. From the Halston Heritage white jersey dress she wears in Sex and the City 2’s first scene to the short electirc blue pleated dress also by Halston Heritage (featured below) or her Dior newsprint dress, Carrie shows that the shorter the dress, the longer the leg looks. 

The long black Emilio Pucci evening gown worn to Smith’s movie premiere proves that one color story from head-to-toe always makes a petite woman look taller, sexy and glamorous.  One of Carrie’s most controversial outfits is the Zac Posen purple and gray crinoline skirt (rumored to be the bottom half of a ballgown) paired with a J’Adore Dior cotton tee shirt.  Believe it or not, this unusual combination backs up the petite principle that a short top paired with a long skirt divides the petite figure at uneven points for a body lengthening effect. 

 Petite fashionistas take note.  Even if you don’t particularly care for Carrie Bradshaw’s style, this “all leg or no leg” approach to petite fashion seems to really work.  You don’t have to be in the middle of the desert to pull off the mirage of really long legs.