This futuristic look is not for the faint-hearted! But get ready, because high-end designers are dabbling in it and it’s making a splash in the latest Vogue magazine.
I promised you a sneak peek at some more peplums from my collection, and this silver top is a favourite. If you follow my blog you will be well aware of my penchant for metallics and bling, and this top proved to be a traffic-stopper. I found it in Dotti, on sale for $20.
Where a peplum has to sit
The perfect peplum starts at the waist and flares out to the hip bones.
That sentence is the entire rule and it is worth slowing down on, because a peplum is the single most shape-dependent garment there is. Sitting a couple of centimetres out of place, it does the exact opposite of what it is meant to.
It must start at your natural waist. That is the narrowest part of your torso, usually an inch or so above your belly button, not where your jeans sit. A peplum starting on the hip adds width precisely where you least want it.
It must finish at or above the hip bone. A peplum that flares out and then keeps going to mid-thigh has become a very short skirt worn over trousers, which is a different and much harder garment.
The flare wants structure. A peplum in something limp collapses instead of standing away from the body, so you get the extra fabric without the shape it was supposed to create.
Get all three right and it is one of the most flattering things you can put on, because it defines the smallest part of you and then skims straight over everything below. Get any one of them wrong and it is unwearable, which is why people either swear by peplums or refuse to go near them.
Metallics in daylight
I’ve paired this shiny number with Sass & Bide faux leather jeans and my favourite new Wittner shoes, which you’ll be seeing a lot of.
Silver has a reputation as an evening colour and it does not have to be. What makes metallic read as going out is nearly always the company it keeps. A metallic top with a satin skirt and a sparkly heel is a party outfit. The same top with something matte and everyday is not.
Faux leather jeans are an interesting choice next to it precisely because they are also a bit of a statement, and the reason it holds together is that they are matte black. One shiny thing, one dark solid thing. If those jeans had been metallic too, the whole outfit would have been armour.
A silver top behaves like a neutral once you accept it. It goes with black, navy, grey, white, denim and every other cool colour, and it is a genuine shock against warm colours if you want that. Treat it as a texture rather than a colour and it stops feeling like a special-occasion garment.
Buying a peplum secondhand or on sale
At $20 on a sale rack this was worth the gamble, and peplums come up constantly in op shops because so many people buy them and then find they do not sit right.
Which is good news, provided you try before you buy.
Put your hand on your waist first, then hold the top up and see whether the seam lands there. This takes two seconds and rules out most of them.
Check the flare from the side, not the front. From the front a peplum always looks fine. The side view tells you whether it stands away properly or just adds bulk.
Sit down in it. A structured peplum can ride up and bunch when you sit, which you will not discover in a changing room where you only ever stand.
Look at the fabric weight. Hold it over your arm, if it flops straight down it will not hold a flare on your body either.
Peplum, or the alternatives
If a peplum genuinely does not suit you (and for some shapes it does not, however well it is positioned) there are two garments that do the same job with less risk.
A wrap or faux-wrap top. Creates a waist through the diagonal line rather than through added volume. It flatters almost universally and it is far more forgiving of where exactly your waist falls.
A fitted top with a belt. Sounds too simple to count and does most of the same work. You get the waist definition without any structure standing away from your hips.
The thing all three share is that they define the narrowest part of the torso, which is the actual objective. The peplum is only one way of getting there, and if it is not your way, nothing is lost.
And the bra straps
The bra straps peeking out is a faux pas. I will have to do something about the bra collection!
Since I have raised it, the honest answer is that this is nearly always a bra problem rather than a top problem. A wide-set neckline needs either a multiway bra with straps you can cross or move inward, a strapless one, or clear straps at a pinch, and the reason it catches everybody out is that most of us own one bra shape and expect it to serve every neckline we own.
If you own three good bras rather than seven mediocre ones, make the third a multiway. It solves this permanently and costs less than replacing tops you cannot wear.
(From August 2012, when peplums were everywhere. The $20 Dotti top is long gone; the fit rules are not.)
If there is something in your wardrobe that looked wonderful in the shop and wrong at home, the answer is usually where it sits rather than what it is, and that is a very quick fix in a styling session.
“He fills my life with good things.” Psalm 103:5.