15 Dresses to Hide Belly for Women Over 50

The flowers on that kaftan are bigger than your hand, and that's on purpose. A guide from New Mexico State University Extension says larger figures look best in larger prints. That runs against the old rule about sticking to tiny florals.

A kaftan hangs from your shoulders and never touches your waist, so no seam can land across your belly in the wrong place. The danger is looking like you're wearing a tent.

Look for one with ties sewn inside at the back. Pull them snug and the back follows your shape while the front falls straight past your stomach.

In August heat, cotton voile and rayon are the fabrics to want. Both breathe when a hot flash hits.

Both can also be thin, so hold the dress up to daylight before you pay. If you can see your hand clearly through it, plan on a slip.

Wear it to the ankle with flat leather sandals and earrings big enough to pull the eye up to your face.

If you're under about 5 foot 3, a full-length kaftan can swallow you. One that stops at mid-calf shows your ankles and keeps you in proportion.

That oatmeal linen dress starts narrow at the shoulders and widens slowly to below the knee. Nothing grips your middle, because by the time the fabric reaches your belly it's already moving away from you.

This is the shape for you if you're slim everywhere except the middle. A dress sized for your stomach usually swims on your shoulders and arms. This one is sized for your shoulders and opens out on its own.

So check the shoulder seam first. Press a finger where it sits. It should land on the knob of your shoulder bone, not an inch down your arm. If it slides down, try a size smaller and see whether your belly still has room.

Weight matters more than anything else here. Heavy linen stands slightly away from your body, and it costs more. It's worth it. Thin linen and loose-weave blends go limp by lunch and fall right onto your stomach.

For a street fair or lunch outdoors, wear it with white canvas sneakers or rope-soled espadrilles. Linen wrinkles whatever you pay, so let it.

The dress and the sandals are the same black, so your eye runs from shoulder to toe without a stop. The long open duster on top adds two more lines down the front that never stop at your middle.

Those lines do real work. The Extension guide says vertical lines that carry the eye up the body without a break make you look taller and slimmer. It also warns that a vertical line topped by a horizontal one reads as horizontal.

That's why the duster stays open. Button it, tie it or belt it and you've drawn a line across your middle, right where you're widest. A contrast belt on the dress, or a cropped layer that stops at the waist, does the same damage.

Pick a sleeveless dress in matte jersey or rayon so you stay cool. Choose a duster in linen or cotton gauze to cover your arms when the air conditioning comes on. It should end within a few inches of the dress hem.

If you gave up on dresses years ago and live in one dark color from neck to shoes, this is the dress version of what you already do.

That heather-gray dress is made of the same fabric as a good sweatshirt. French terry is smooth on the outside with tiny loops on the inside. The loops give it thickness, and thickness lets it skim your stomach.

Now picture the thin T-shirt dress that looked fine on the model and clung to every inch when it arrived. The two can share a cut. Only one has enough weight to hang.

Online photos hide how thin a fabric is. Search the description for "French terry," "loopback" or "heavyweight." If it says "lightweight" or "slub jersey," expect cling.

It pulls on over your head, with no zipper or buttons, which helps on mornings when your hands are stiff. The side slits matter too. They let the hem open as you walk, so the skirt doesn't creep up and bunch over your belly.

Skip any version with a kangaroo pocket across the front. Anything sitting on your tummy draws the eye straight to it, and a pocket gets heavier every time you drop your phone in.

This chambray shirtdress came with a belt, and it's been left off. With a full stomach, the guide advises skipping belts, or wearing only a narrow one in the dress fabric.

Without the belt, the row of buttons runs from collar to hem in one unbroken line. Undo the top two and roll the sleeves to the elbow, and you've added a deeper V at the neck.

Front buttons help in another way. CreakyJoints, an arthritis patient group, says back zippers and buttons are especially taxing with arthritis and suggests front closures. Adaptive-clothing guides also suggest larger buttons, which are easier to grip than tiny ones.

Sit down in the fitting room before you buy. If the buttons gape across your stomach when you sit, a tailor can sew a small flat snap between the worst two, and the gap disappears.

One more check, from the side. A rounded upper back affects roughly 20 to 40 percent of adults over 60, more often women.

If your shoulders have rounded forward, see whether the back hem now sits higher than the front. Have the tailor pin it while you stand the way you usually do.

That rust corduroy jumper has a deep V front over a cream fine-knit turtleneck. Brown opaque tights and leather ankle boots finish it for apple picking.

The V is why it works. It opens a long, narrow panel of the lighter color down your chest, and the corduroy ribs run up and down with it.

Pick fine wale, the thin ribs. Wide wale adds bulk and catches light on every ridge.

Look hard at the front before you buy. Many jumpers come with big patch pockets right over the tummy, and those are the ones to put back. Pockets in the side seams are fine.

For the layer underneath, choose merino or cotton. If a hot flash arrives in a warm room, a thin natural knit breathes and acrylic traps the heat. When the turtleneck is too much, a long-sleeve tee in fine cotton works under the same jumper.

Corduroy grabs tights in dry indoor heat and crawls up your legs as you walk. A half slip underneath stops it.

This camel coatdress is tailored, lined and single-breasted, with buttons from the collar to just above the knee. It holds its own shape, so it doesn't settle onto your stomach the way a soft knit can.

Single-breasted is the one to buy. A double-breasted coatdress puts two rows of buttons side by side across your belly and doubles the width of the front. Skip it, however good it looks on the hanger.

Wool crepe has a dull, pebbly surface. Dull finishes like that absorb light and make the body look smaller. It's warm without bulk, too, which makes it the dress for a cold church, a funeral or a winter lunch.

Opaque black tights and knee boots suit it, or low black pumps if the sidewalks are clear.

The buttons are your test. Sit, cross your legs and look down. If the fabric between buttons pulls open into little ovals over your stomach, the front is too tight.

Go up a size if the shoulders still sit right on your shoulder bone, or keep looking.

The soft folds at the neck of that wine dress pull the eye up to your collarbone and face. Below them, the dress drops straight to the knee without a seam across the middle. That's the whole plan for a holiday party.

Everything depends on the jersey. Thin, soft knits show every bump, and shiny jersey bounces light right off the curve of your belly. Look for matte jersey with some heft, the kind that falls in heavy folds when you shake it out.

Keep the cowl shallow if your bust is full. A deep cowl stacks layers of fabric across your chest. That pushes the dress forward, so it hangs from your bust like a curtain and stands out over your stomach.

The cowl is your necklace, so skip one. Black suede pumps and a small clutch are plenty.

In a warm living room with thirty people in it, rayon jersey breathes better than polyester does.

That navy lace is guipure, a heavy lace with raised motifs, sewn over a full navy lining. From across a wedding reception, it reads as one dark, textured column with elbow sleeves, and navy suede block heels will carry you through the speeches.

The lining does most of the work. It lets the dress glide over your body instead of catching on it, and it stops show-through. Lace on its own clings and outlines everything underneath.

Check three things on the hanger. First, the lining should run the full length of the dress, not stop at the hip.

Second, it should be the same navy as the lace. A nude lining under dark lace looks like bare skin from a distance and puts every curve on display.

Third, read the fiber label on the lining. Cupro and viscose linings breathe. Polyester ones get warm by the first dance.

Guipure has enough body to hold its shape. Fine, floaty lace is prettier up close and much less forgiving, so it's worth passing on for a long day.

Look at the emerald dress from the shoulders down. A layer of matching crepe falls from the shoulder seams to the top of the thigh, over a plain sheath. The cape covers your upper arms and slides past your belly in one move.

For a full stomach, the guide suggests an overblouse. A cape dress builds that overblouse in, with no separate top to tuck, tug or fuss with all evening.

Length decides whether it works. The cape should end below your belly, at the hip or lower. One that stops at the waist draws a hem straight across the fullest part of you.

Pick a cape in the same crepe as the dress, or a heavy georgette. Sheer chiffon billows and lifts in a breeze. A cape split down the front adds a vertical opening, which helps if your bust is full.

Gold sandals with a low heel take it to an anniversary dinner. Most cape dresses zip up the back, so if your hands are stiff, thread a loop of ribbon through the zipper tab before you start. You can reach it over your shoulder.

That deep teal dress crosses over in front like a wrap but is sewn shut, so it can't gape or come undone. Down one side, from under the bust to the hip, the fabric is gathered into small folds called ruching.

Those folds catch shadow. Your eye reads the texture and loses track of the curve underneath, which is why ruching camouflages so well.

Where it sits decides whether it helps you. Ruching along the side seam works. Ruching across the center front, or a knot, twist or buckle sitting on your stomach, puts a spotlight right there. Leave those on the rack.

Before you buy, do the stretch test. Pull a bit of the skirt sideways and let go. Good jersey snaps back flat. If it stays wavy, the ruching will sag by the end of the night and stop doing its job.

For a birthday dinner, add silver strappy sandals and small earrings and stop there. Deep teal is dark and cool, two qualities that make a color recede.

The seam on this slate-blue dress runs just under the bust, and the skirt falls from it flat in front to mid-calf.

The skirt makes most of the difference. Gathers all the way around the seam puff out right over your belly, and that's the pregnant look.

A skirt that's flat across the front, with the fullness pushed to the sides or back, hangs clear of your stomach instead.

Your bust matters just as much. As estrogen falls, breast tissue often gets softer and sags. Many women also go up a bra size as body composition shifts, as Bedford Breast Center explains.

If your bust has dropped, a seam meant to sit under it may now cut across it.

So get the bra right first, then try the dress. Prop your phone on a shelf, set the timer and take one photo from the side, just for you.

If your stomach comes out further than your bust, the skirt will hang off your belly. Skip this shape without a second thought.

In rayon crepe with low taupe block heels it stays soft, and if your bust is where you're fullest, it can be the best dress you own.

That aubergine shift has no waist seam at all. It hangs straight from the bust to the knee and just touches your hips on the way down, so there's nothing to land on your stomach in the wrong spot.

Crepe is the pebbly, matte fabric it's made of, and its weight decides how it behaves.

According to Zelouf, a fabric maker and seller, light crepe flows but can be see-through and clingy. Medium weight is the most useful for dresses, and heavy crepe holds its shape best.

For a shift, buy medium or heavy, and make sure it's lined. Light crepe in a straight cut drapes onto your belly and stays there.

Dark, dull and cool colors recede, the guide notes. Aubergine, charcoal, deep navy and forest green all qualify, and they're softer next to your face than black.

Skip it if your hips are narrower than the rest of you. A shift can drop straight from your stomach and make your whole body look wider. A dress with princess seams gives you more shape.

For everyone else, this goes to the office, a funeral, a dinner out and a long flight. Black loafers by day, low pumps at night.

Look down the front of that forest-green sheath. Two long seams run from each armhole to the hem. Those are princess seams, and they shape the dress to you without a waist seam anywhere. They also draw two vertical lines past your stomach.

The fabric is ponte, a thick double knit that's usually over 300 grams per square meter, a measure of fabric weight. Its edges don't curl and it looks tailored rather than slouchy. That weight is why it skims your belly.

Read the label. Ponte heavy in rayon breathes and drapes better. Ponte heavy in polyester wrinkles less but pills more. If yours pills, take the bobbles off with a fabric shaver or brush, and never pull them.

Many ponte sheaths pull on with no zipper, which helps when your hands are stiff. If a back zipper is the only option, look for one with a large tab.

It's the dress for fall, winter and spring, with opaque tights and black block-heel pumps. In July it's too warm, so don't buy one hoping otherwise.

Here's the dress you can let out after dinner. It's a true wrap in charcoal matte jersey. One front panel crosses over the other, an inner tie threads through a slit at the side, and the outer tie knots at your hip.

It's the only dress whose waist you set yourself every time you put it on, and after menopause that counts for more than it used to.

Belly fat and bloating differ. Dr. Lorena Tinoco, an OB-GYN and certified menopause practitioner, describes bloating as gas trapped by slower digestion plus water held by shifting hormones.

It comes and goes, so the dress that fit at breakfast can pinch by 8 p.m.

So tie it snug in the morning. After dinner, step into the restroom, undo the outer tie, let the top panel slide an inch back around your side, and knot it again at your hip. Back at the table, nobody sees a thing.

Wraps can go wrong in two ways. On a fuller bust, the V can gape when you lean forward. A small snap sewn where the panels cross fixes it in five minutes.

The other problem is a shallow overlap that blows open in a breeze. Pick one whose front panel reaches almost to the far side seam.

Keep the bow at your hip with the ends hanging down. Choose a rayon blend over polyester, since it breathes better. From a Tuesday lunch to Thanksgiving, low black slingbacks or knee boots carry it.