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Fundamental, Rectangle, Style tips · April 30, 2023

21 Most Flattering Ways to Dress Flat Chest

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Got flat chest? The key to flatter your shape is to create the illusion of volume. Here we have 21 tried-and-true styling hacks that will look the best on you!

Table of Contents

  • Styling goal
  • Blouse with a bow
  • Tops with front frill panel
  • Dresses with ruffles
  • Tops with blouson styling
  • Layer with light colors
  • Crew neck tee
  • Cowl neck sweater
  • Turtle neck sweaters
  • Double Breasted Jackets
  • Bolero-style cardigan
  • Jackets with breast pockets
  • Tops with draping
  • High neck sleeveless top
  • Infinite scarf
  • Wear layers
  • Bodices in brighter colors
  • Tops with horizontal trims
  • Avoid tight tops
  • Avoid low-scoop neck
  • Avoid deep v-neck
  • Stay away from corset

Styling goal

The best way to dress the flat chest is to wear clothing with designs to direct the attention away from your chest and break up the space. Designs like bows or ruffles are the most flattering because they can add dimension to your chest. 

You can also draw eyes to another area of your body using creative ways to distract others from noticing your flat chest. It’s worth noting that many women with flat chest have toned arms, a big asset of the body. Therefore, when you considering the most flatting clothes for flat chest, you should not only camouflage the small bust, but choose style that can accentuate your shapely arms.

Blouse with a bow

The easiest way to flatter the flat chest is to wear decorations near your breasts. A blouse with a big bow is one of the most effortless ways you can use to add volume to your chest. Because this is a classic design, you can wear them with jeans for every day casual style, or wear them with dress pants or pencil skirts to go to work.

Tops with front frill panel

21 Best Ways to Dress Flat Chest

If you want to enhance a smaller chest, opt for tops with frills. This is another easy way to add volume to your chest and make them visually look bigger than they actually are. Choose those with an entire panel of frills in the front!

Dresses with ruffles

Ruffles are not only one of the girliest designs, and they also add volume to your chest quickly.

You can go with any blouse or shirt with ruffles in the chest area to create the illusion of a fuller chest.

Tops with blouson styling

This kind of top can easily create a volumizing effect, thus they look good on women with a smaller bust! A blouson top generally has an elastic hem that sits at your waist to create a blousing effect with the excess fabric. 

Layer with light colors

One of the best ways to dress women with smaller busts is to layer the clothes. This works especially well when you wear light color layers. This will create the illusion of more volume in front of the chest.

Crew neck tee

Crew neck is one of those higher necklines that flatter women with a small bust because they draw more attention to your face instead of your chest. Any tops or dresses with crew neck can achieve this effect to a degree.

When you wear a crew neck tank top combined with cut-away sleeves, it not only makes your bust less noticeable but also accentuates your toned arms.

The reason is that cut-away sleeves are one of the best designs to draw attention to your arms.Women with flat chests typically have toned arms, so this is a win-win because it highlights your strength and hides your weakness.

Cowl neck sweater

21 Best Ways to Dress Flat Chest

Just like the turtle neck, the cowl neck is also a high neck mostly seen in knits or sweaters.

The difference is that the cowl neck is bigger and looser, which means it drapes down on your chest and can form another layer. Because of the layers, they can create dimension to the chest and the illusion of fullness.

Turtle neck sweaters

21 Best Ways to Dress Flat Chest

A turtle neck sweater is an essential item for women with a smaller bust in the fall and winter. Because the neckline is high, the sweater will be drawing attention to your face and your small chest will become much less noticeable.

Choose a turtle neck with cable knit, instead of a ribbed sweater. The chunkier the knits are on the sweater, the better they serve the purpose of adding volume to the chest.

Ribbed sweaters in general are not your best friend, because they cling to your body too tightly and highlight the fact that you do not have much curve.

Double Breasted Jackets

These are the best jackets for women with a flat chest, because the double breast design is a classic way to add volume to your bust.

In fact, this style is much easier for girls with smaller busts to wear than for women with big breasts. Typically, women with full breasts, tend to feel restricted by the double-breasted design in these. On the other hand, this is heaven-sent for less endowed girls.

Bolero-style cardigan

A bolero jacket is open front, collarless, and crop length.

These create visual fullness for women with smaller chests. This kind of jacket is a wonderful style to layer over a dress or a sweater. There are different types of bolero jackets you can choose for the occasions you are dressing for.

Not only can you style them with your casual outfits, you can also wear them for special occasions, such as mother-of-the-bride or mother-of-the-groom.

Jackets with breast pockets

Jackets or coats with breast pockets should be the wardrobe staple for women with flat chest in winter.

The reason is pockets are great ways to add dimension to your chest. Opt for jackets or coats with thicker fabrics such as wool or cashmere, because those will enhance the effect.

Tops with draping

21 Best Ways to Dress Flat Chest

Draping in any tops you wear is a great option to flatter women with flat chest.

The reason is draping can create volume in your top, which will create an illusion of a fuller bust. The more layers the draping has, the more volume it can create in front of your chest. It is key to make sure the draping is in front of your chest. You can opt a top, or a layering piece to wear over your dresses or camisoles.

High neck sleeveless top

A high-neck top will fully cover up your chest, making your flat chest much less noticeable. If the high-neck top is also sleeveless, then they at the same time will also be directing attention to your arms. Double win for women who have flat chest but nice arms.

Infinite scarf

21 Best Ways to Dress Flat Chest

The Infinite scarf is one of the most trendy items in recent years, and you can totally take advantage of this trend.

Why?

Because they can create plenty of fullness for you!

In the winter, wearing a longer scarf to add fullness to the front is a great style solution to cover up your chest. Infinity scarf is the type of scarf that has the form of a loop without ends, thus the name “infinity”. It is typically worn around the neck, covering your chest.

While a regular scarf can also be worn around your neck, an infinity scarf is designed to create more volume in front of your chest.

Wear layers

21 Best Ways to Dress Flat Chest

A great way to dress less endowed women is to layer smartly.

In the spring or fall, you can wear a sweater over a shirt or T-shirt.

It will create the fullness visually!

Layering is an art. While there are numerous ways to layer, the key to flattering a smaller chest is to make sure your outer layer has plenty of volume.

By wearing a sweater over an under layer, it can make your top half look fuller, and thus create the illusion of a curvier shape.

Bodices in brighter colors

We all know that bright colors expands and dark colors shrinks.

Quite often we see women with smaller chest wear black tops or sweaters, in an effort to make their bust less noticeable. However,that doesn’t serve the purpose of enhancing your chest.

When you wear lighter colors, they have the expanding effect, which are in turn more flattering for smaller bust.

Tops with horizontal trims

21 Best Ways to Dress Flat Chest

Anything horizontal is flattering on women with a smaller chest.

These draw eyes from left to the right and create the illusion of volume. Even though the goal is to make your top half look fuller and curvier, it is also important to keep you entire outfit in harmony by choosing the bottom that goes with with your top.

Because most horizontal stripes have contrasting patterns, it is key to wear them with a bottom in solid colors.

Avoid tight tops

21 Best Ways to Dress Flat Chest

They will only highlight your small bust. If your goal is to direct attention away from your chest, then stay away from anything that clings to your body. This includes any tightly fitted tops or any body con dresses.

Avoid low-scoop neck

Low necklines generally are a disaster on women with flat chest. Since they will greatly draw attention to your breasts, they will only accentuate the fact that your chest is bony.

Avoid deep v-neck

21 Best Ways to Dress Flat Chest

Similar to low scoop neck or U neck, any deep V neck is also not your best friend, unless you don’t mind drawing attention to the flat chest. Like any other low neckline, deep V also has the same effect to highlight your small bust.

On the other hand, it’s ok to wear a V-neck pull over if it is a shallow neck instead of deep.

Stay away from corset

Corset is one of the most feminine designs ever invented. However, these look better on women with full bust because the boning provides support for the big breasts.  On a girl with a small bust, a corset just makes it more obvious that there is not much to support.

Posted In: Fundamental, Rectangle, Style tips

Hello there! My name is Chi Li, 5'2", founder of PETITE DRESSING, the clothing line for women 5'4" & under. Are you petite and have you been frustrated with what to wear?
This is an issue few truly understand and even fewer brands truly address.
Being petite myself, I have been writing about fashion for short women since 2016 and my brand petitedressing.com has touched the lives of millions.
My styling concepts for petite women not only focus on the perfect fit but also on flattering & elongating the petite frame for a lean silhouette, optimizing the proportions.
Shop my clothing line here.

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