Claire's Picks

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Peplum Tops That Still Earn Their Place

Peplum tops got written off too quickly and we think that was a mistake. The silhouette does something genuinely useful: it creates a defined waist without clinging to anything below it, which is one of the harder problems in top dressing to solve. That matters for real dressing, the kind where you want to look pulled together without engineering your outfit around your insecurities. The key is proportion. Too much flare and it tips into costume. Too little and the point is lost entirely. We have been hunting down the versions that get this exactly right, tops where the peplum is deliberate and controlled rather than decorative for its own sake. They work brilliantly with straight leg trousers and midi skirts, anything with a clean line that lets the waist detail do its job without competition. Some are occasion pieces, some are smart enough for an office and easy enough for everything after it. The category has a reputation for being fussy. The right peplum top is the opposite of fussy. It is simply the smarter choice.

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Peplum Tops Worth Having in Your Wardrobe

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Peplum Tops Worth Having in Your Wardrobe

The peplum top does something very specific and does it better than almost anything else: it creates shape at the waist without requiring you to actually have a particularly defined waist. That is the whole point of it and it is genuinely clever. The flare of fabric just below the hip creates the illusion of a waist whether one is naturally there or not. We think peplum tops get unfairly dismissed as a trend that had its moment, when actually they are one of the more quietly intelligent silhouettes in a wardrobe. Worn with tailored trousers they look properly put together. Worn with a pencil skirt they are almost architectural. The key is finding ones where the peplum sits at the right point and has enough structure to flare rather than droop. Fabric matters enormously here. A limp peplum defeats the entire purpose. We have been pulling together the versions that actually deliver on the silhouette, across prints, plains, and occasion wear, because this is a style that rewards getting right. A well made peplum top flatters more body shapes than almost anything else we could name.

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