Sleeve Types to Slim Your Arms and Shoulders

I’ve had this topic on the back burner since we discussed flattering necklines. As you might guess, sleeves and necklines are both important factors in how we style our shoulders and upper bodies. Broad shoulders and muscular arms are often features of our bodies we wish to diminish to create more feminine lines in our upper body. Lucky for all of you… I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve to help do just that! (Sorry, I really couldn’t help myself)

Without much more of an introduction, let’s proceed to the list of sleeve types and with each one we’ll look carefully at how it affects the lines of our bodies. The list is longer than you may expect, as you probably have noticed by now, I like to be thorough so we’ll look at everything. Since I don’t have about half of these in my wardrobe, I’m going to be pulling all the examples from the web. It’ll be both fun and educational… get excited!

Spaghetti Straps & Tank Tops

So spaghetti straps aren’t technically a sleeve (so no pictures for you!), but worth mentioning. As was mentioned in our necklines discussion, thin straps often serve to accentuate size and bulk through contrast rather than reduce it. Save spaghetti straps for under layers on your favorite looks. For bare arm/shoulder looks, wider tank top straps should be a preference. They will break up the width of shoulders much better than their thinner counterparts. See how compared to a spaghetti strap, my shoulders appear a bit less bulky? Tanks for noticing!

Sleeveless

Sleeveless styles feature… you guessed it, no sleeves! This style creates a vertical line right where your arm and shoulder meet. The length of this line is what the eye notices as the “size” of the top of the arm. If you have muscular/built shoulders, this will be a longer line, reinforcing the appearance of a large upper arm and shoulder. Obviously, this is not what we want… avoid sleeveless looks unless you are comfortable with this effect or are able to minimize it through other style choices such as deeper cut neckline.

Cap

Cap sleeves are the shortest of the actual sleeve types, serving to “cap” the top of the arm. The important thing for us to notice when considering cap sleeves is where the bottom line of the sleeve falls on the arm and also the angle that it creates. Cap sleeves can range from only slightly longer than sleeveless, all the way to what you would consider a “short” t-shirt length sleeve. Shorter cap sleeves will make shoulders appear wider or full size by creating a horizontal line across the full width of your shoulders where the tips of the sleeve fall (blue line above). Additionally, just like the line that “decides” the size of your arm on a sleeveless style, the location of edge of the sleeve in cap styles will dictate how large your arm appears (red line above). If this falls right across the thickest portion of your arm, your upper arm will likely look bigger. With longer cap sleeves, there are happy sweet spots on your arm. Try to find cuts that make our blue shoulder line fall lower and angle of the red arm line closer to horizontal than vertical for this style to be most flattering. It can be tricky however, I usually shy away from cap sleeve types or use them layered under other things. 

Short

Short sleeves we are all pretty familiar with as they are common on most t-shirt styles. Though the length may vary slightly, the edge of the sleeve will usually hang horizontally. Short sleeve styles are fairly neutral as far as flattering your upper body, just be sure the sleeve is not tight around your upper arm as this will certainly emphasize the upper arm.

Puff

Puff sleeves, living up to their name, puff out at the shoulders. The extra volume makes shoulders quite literally larger. Obviously, this is not a desired feature for a part of our wardrobes if shrinking shoulders is our goal. So, you may ask, are all hopes of ever wearing this style gone in a puff of smoke? If it is a style you adore (I find it quite cute on the right person myself), stick to subtler puffing and try to find styles that perhaps just puff up a little rather than out, this will minimize any widening affects. If you have smaller arms and shoulders, have fun with puffs, you’ll likely be able to rock the look!

Butterfly

The next style to flap its wings onto our list is the Butterfly sleeve. Loose fitting and flowy, butterfly sleeves tend to give a whimsical and ethereal look to a top, especially with lighter fabrics. This is a style that is truly ideal for larger arms and shoulders as bulky lines are lost in folds of the sleeve itself. Lengths can range from short (left) to usually about halfway down the arm (right).

Bell

A bell sleeve is a sleeve that flares out towards the wrist. The flare can start immediately from the shoulder or at any point along the sleeve. This creates the shape of… ding ding! You guessed it, a bell! Much like a buttery sleeve, you will benefit from losing the line of your arm as the sleeve flows down. Additionally, the extra visual “weight” of the extra fabric lower will balance out a bulkier upper body. Be careful with over doing a bell sleeve however, it’s easy to ring your way right into a 70’s throwback or renaissance faire look if you’re not careful. Keeping it contemporary, subtle, and elegant will make the bell sleeve a great look for you.

Leg of Mutton

Yep… you heard right… Leg of Mutton.  Also from my research, it is sometimes called a Juliet sleeve (which sounds much more romantic). This style, in all of its glory (left), is a puff sleeve on steroids. In much more subdued incarnations (right), it can achieve a cute romantic look, worthy of a star-crossed lover. Again, same rules apply here as the puff sleeve… if you want to take a bite of the Leg of Mutton sleeve, keep the horizontal poofing to a minimum or try to find styles with a poof lower on the arm. Lighter weight fabrics will help reduce the shear weight of the style so it doesn’t appear too visually “heavy”. 

Bishop 

Characterized by a billowing sleeve captured usually at the wrist by a more form fitting cuff, the Bishop sleeve has similar benefits to the other looser sleeves we have looked at. The one difference is that Bishop sleeves eventually come to tighter end point… be aware of the location of this point and whenever possible this should be a thinner point on your arm. I wouldn’t make Bishop sleeves a staple of my wardrobe, however for some variety they offer a more creative and feminine look than an average sleeve.

Raglan

Raglan sleeves (sometimes called baseball sleeves) are a particular cut of a sleeve where the sleeve itself extends to the neckline of a garment. This style of cut creates seams which will create the appearance of a longer arm (elongating the arm helps to create a slimming effect), while also breaking up the shoulder line, another helpful feature to shrinking broad shoulders. 

Dolman

 A Dolman sleeve is a style of cut where the underarm portion of the sleeve connects to the rest of the garment much lower than other sleeves which connect around the armpit. Though the depth of where this seam begins can vary, it creates a more voluminous sleeve that drapes down off the arm. The dolman sleeve masks the true shape of the arm. Again, larger arms will be concealed and appear smaller in comparison to the wider opening. With this style you do however sacrifice a more defined waist, which isn’t a bad thing just something to be aware of. Loose fits like this pair well with form fitting bottoms such as skinny jeans or leggings. They also offer a great palette for accessories.

Half, Three-quarter & Long

These are really just referring to the length of any type of sleeve. Half sleeves hit at about the elbow. Three-quarter length hits about mid forearm (suspiciously about three-quarters of the way down your arm). Long sleeves are the full length of the arm to the wrist. Three quarters length sleeves are often touted as the most flattering of the lengths and at least on me, I tend to agree with that claim. The length covers the upper arm, while highlighting your wrist, the slimmest part of the arm. Long sleeves can easily be pushed up or folded over to a three quarter length as an option too.

One point worth noting when considering sleeve length is that lengths subconsciously guide the eye to that level, long or three-quarter sleeves draw subtle attention to the hips, similarly, half sleeves hone in on the waist while short sleeves on the bust. This being said, sleeves just call a bit more subliminal attention to an area but don’t really change your body’s lines.

Whew! We’re done! Hopefully now with a greater appreciation for all that sleeves offer in styling options. I’ll leave you with one final bit of advice: If you want to wear styles that we’ve discovered are less flattering (there are many gorgeous looks out there in this category), just be sure that you are doing other things like deepening a neckline or using dark color to deemphasize in addition to balance out the effects.

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Cheers, Kayci