Do These Shoes Make Me Look Skinny?

Daily Outfit, 4/4/11

Spring still hasn’t quite sprung in Oregon, so I’m still combining my brights with black.  Today it was citron and teal with black:

And it was a combination I actually rather liked.  I wore my black-skirted Mossimo “2-fer” dress (Target) under a citron and white abstract-patterned cardigan (Target) with a multi-colored scarf (Ann Taylor Outlet), black shoes (Kenneth Cole Reaction – thrifted), and a black bracelet (Macys).  I'm also wearing my Kenneth Cole trench (via Ideeli).  The tights were a last minute addition, but think they were a good choice in that they are some of my favorites and they pick the teal in the scarf up quite nicely.

But, the question of the day is not whether or not these tights were a good choice (I believe they were).  No, the question of the day is: Do these shoes make me look skinny?

These shoes are chunkier than I usually wear and took a little getting used to.  I thought I would try them though because I think they work with this outfit, but also I read somewhere (The Sartorialist, I think) that it is a good idea for larger women to wear a heavier shoe to help balance their heavier bodies.  And that a delicate shoe on a larger woman just makes her look larger. 

I have to be honest; this is not something I had ever consciously considered before.  But, I do think maybe I am subconsciously aware of what my shoes do to and for my body.  For example, I do prefer my skinny jeans with boots because in that instance I do think they help to balance my thighs, but I wore skinnies and flats on Saturday and really liked that look.  Was that a no-no?  Were Saturday’s shoes a miss?

What do you all think?  Do you select your shoes based on your body type?  Do you think a delicate shoe makes a woman look bigger?  Does a heavier shoe help balance a heavier torso and/or thigh?  Is this something I should be putting more thought into?  I’m very interested to hear what you all think about this.

Happy Monday, All!

Gracey