Marina | March 1, 2014 | Fashion |

Wearing sneakers with your dress can go two ways: it can look really chic, fun, hip and young or it can look tacky and old-fashioned. Yes, it’s a cute trend but it’s a bit difficult to pull off if you don’t know how. We’ve seen lots of celebs sporting the sneakers and dress look and the combination works great on them which usually gets us into thinking whether the look will work for us as well. Well, I say why not try it out for yourself to find out? Here are some styling tips on how to wear sneakers with dresses.

• Keep it laidback – wearing sneakers and dresses together looks best when you create a laidback and relaxed vibe. Don’t try too hard to make the combination work because it will only do the opposite for you. Wear a pair of casual sneakers with dresses that have an equally easy silhouette to get that effortlessly chic look. Most of the time, short, flirty and breezy dresses work best for this look but you can also up your sneaker-and-dress game up a bit and go for a more figure flattering dress.

• Avoid wearing anything you would wear to the gym – when putting together a sneakers and dress kind of outfit, you want to achieve a casual and chic look, not an athletic one. To make sure you don’t commit this mistake, avoid wearing a dress with a pair of sneakers that you would wear to the gym or workout in. Cross trainers don’t exactly look pleasing with a girly dress so go for off-duty brands instead like Keds, Supergas, Vans, Converse or the like.

• Try out sneaker wedges – sneaker wedges because such a huge hit last year that we aren’t so surprised a lot of women are still going gaga over them. Sneaker wedges give you the same casual look you would get from regular sneakers as well as the height boost you would get from wearing heels or wedges. The look is also very forgiving and a good pair would go well with most dresses. A quick tip to remember when wearing sneaker wedges is that they don’t do very well with prints so go for solid colors on dresses when sporting one.

• Keep proportions in mind – since you plan on wearing your dress with a pair of sneakers, it’s very important to keep proportions in mind. No woman dresses to look shorter than they are, even when they opt for shoes without heels. If, unfortunately, you weren’t blessed with long and slender legs, try to avoid wearing high-cut sneakers with a dress, especially short dresses. High cut sneakers will make your legs look even shorter and sometimes stubbier too. They’re okay to wear with maxi dresses, though, but still tread carefully when trying to pull that off.

Now that you have these tips as a guide, go ahead and try that dress on with sneakers. Who knows, it may well be your next signature look.