The Right Tulle for the Job: What To Wear With a Tulle Skirt

Cultivating a unique sense of style aids your self-expression, boosts confidence and generally helps you feel your best. A fashion revolution can be as easy as trying a new type of skirt.

Don't wait until the first day of the new year to make big style changes. Bold prints, bright colors and shiny accents can give everyday outfits a dose of originality, but simple-but-effective tulle can potentially top them all. Many people associate tulle with formal wear, but there are dozens of casual street-style options for what to wear with a tulle skirt.

What Is Tulle, Exactly?

Tulle is a floaty, lightweight fabric made up of tiny, strong threads. These threads intersect in a net pattern, although the holes in the net are too small to see from far away. Instead, they blend into an airy and ethereal fabric.

Tulle can be lightweight and flow in the breeze, or it can be stiff and structural. Most tulle is somewhere in-between, holding its shape but remaining soft and bouncy.

Tulle is useful for more than ball gowns, wedding veils and ballet tutus. Designers worldwide love this fabric for its unique visual impact and unabashed femininity. Some of the most iconic fashion moments of the 20th century wouldn't have existed without tulle. For example, think of the red wedding gown in "Beetlejuice," Ginger Rogers's flowing foxtrot dresses or Carrie Bradshaw's signature looks in "Sex and the City."

Why Wear a Tulle Skirt?

A tulle skirt is an underrated basic that deserves a place in your wardrobe year-round. Here are a few reasons to incorporate this piece into your rotation.

Volume

More than color or print, silhouette is what really makes an outfit pop. No matter how interesting your clothes' colors or accents may be, if every piece stays relatively close to the body in silhouette, your outfits may wind up underwhelming.

Tulle's unique net construction is the perfect antidote for a same-silhouette closet. A tulle skirt lets you add huge volume without carrying around excess weight.

Texture

Textural contrasts are another semi-advanced aspect of putting together a truly memorable outfit. Monochromatic outfits in particular need to take advantage of contrasting textures. Many common fabrics — poly-cotton blends, leather and wool, to name a few — have hard lines and heavy textures. A tulle skirt contrasts beautifully with its airy, soft net and natural flow.

Because It's Fun

Fierce fashion doesn't have to be dead serious all the time. If you ever pretended to be a ballerina, a princess or a fashion model growing up, chances are you already sort of want a tulle skirt if you're being honest with yourself. Treat enhancing your wardrobe as a way of exploring your creativity, rather than a challenge that requires research and a plan of attack.

The fun of a tulle skirt doesn't end at the checkout cart, either. Tulle floats and flounces as you move, adding way more joy than another pair of plain pants or jeans. Sometimes, the best fashion reason to wear something is simply because it makes you smile.

How Do You Decide What To Wear With a Tulle Skirt?

So, you're ready to break the rules and wear some tulle. Where do you start? Here are our five favorite outfits that showcase how to wear a tulle skirt.

1. Sweatshirt and Sneakers

Tulle for daywear is an unexpected choice, so lean into that sense of surprise by wearing a tulle skirt with everyday casual pieces. An oversized or graphic sweatshirt is the perfect cozy pairing.

A fun crossbody bag can tie into the color or print of the skirt while maintaining the casual feeling. Flat sneakers complete this look that hearkens back to 1980s style but stays firmly contemporary.

2. Leather Jacket and Boots

Speaking of the 1980s, designers in this period loved to give tulle a hard edge by working it into punk-inspired pieces. Red and black tulle provides an exciting contrast of dark colors with the fluffy or delicate associations of the fabric.

Wear a tulle skirt with a studded leather jacket and combat boots for an outfit that's fun, unexpected and surprisingly practical. You can even combine vegan leather and tulle in one avant-garde skirt.

3. Sweater and Heavyweight Tights

Tulle skirts are fun and flowy in warmer months, but you can wear them in winter as well. The light texture is a welcome break from the heavy wools and stiff fabrics typical of cold-weather clothing.

To stay warm, layer pairs of heavyweight tights and choose a fun sweater. Since tulle naturally takes up space, it can visually balance a bulkier sweater without adding a ton of visual heft to the midsection of your outfit. Contrast the knit of the sweater with fun legwarmers to add even more warmth.

4. Contrasting Crop Top

A tulle skirt and a crop top is the perfect outfit for looking like a 21st-century princess. All of the old-fashioned connotations of a big tulle skirt form the perfect counterpoint for a modern and minimalist crop top. Pairing a big skirt with a small top creates great visual balance, too. Make the look even more contemporary by adding a metallic waist belt and matching the metal to your bag and jewelry.

5. Blazer and Heels

Bored of your typical blazer and jeans? A tulle skirt adds flounce and fun to any blazer-based outfit. Tulle softens the hard line of the blazer for a chic effect.

Though this combo may seem very "Sex and the City," the silhouette has much older high-fashion roots. The iconic Dior Bar Suit combined a voluminous skirt with an arrestingly sharp-lined blazer in a blend of old and new styles.

Where Can You Find All the Tulles You Need To Elevate Your Wardrobe?

Tulle is a fashion powerhouse, bringing soft connotations and eye-catching volume to casual and formal looks alike. You don't have to break the bank with designer labels to figure out what to wear with a tulle skirt. At Kate Hewko, we love tulle pieces that inject fun and personality into everyday fashion. Browse our collection of skirts and start dressing too tulle for school.

Sources:

https://fashionista.com/2018/07/tulle-material-fabric-fashion-history

https://www.instyle.com/fashion/clothing/tulle-skirt-outfit-ideas

https://coveteur.com/tulle-outfit-ideas

https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/sex-and-the-city-tutu

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/81460