The Long and Short of it

It doesn't matter how many times I read that it is vitally important to learn how to dress for your own body shape, I still find myself drawn to items and outfits suited to the tall and willowy types among us. The problem here being that I am five foot three and (due to excessive peanut butter eating at university) slightly on the doughy-side. I am currently rectifying the second issue, but still there is no way on earth that I will ever find myself growing those extra inches (as well as getting rid of some genetic curves and pretty much changing my body shape completely) to be able to wear the the clothes I crave.

I covet the wardrobes of Alexa Chung and Daisy Lowe, Chloe Sevigny and even Keira Knightley (although not the hats) but deep down I know that I just couldn't emulate their style. And what makes the problem worse is that both my best friend at home and my flatmate at university are both tall and thin and could totally wear the clothes that I spend my time window-shopping for.

What I need is some short fashion icons, so I've been having a ponder and

seeing who I can come up with that doesn't have legs that go on forever. The Olsen twins are my height, they do make some serious fashion mistakes from time to time and end up looking like they were caught in an explosion in a charity shop, but generally they look pretty good. And pretty individual - especially to say there are two of them.

I saw a lovely photo of Rachel Bilson the other day; she was wearing a body-con dress and looked fantastic. Plus, she managed to bag Adam Brody (and let him go, but we won't dwell on that) so she must be doing something right, although she does often look a bit too all-American-girl-next-door for me. (Said photo would be shown here if it weren't for the fact that it keeps crashing my work computer.)

And how about Zooey Deschanel? She is a good three inches taller than me, so would that put her out of the running to be a style icon for me? Do I even need a style icon? Mainly I just need to program myself not to fall in love with clothes that would look so incredibly wrong on me. I wonder if any willowy girls have the opposite problem and tend to plan what to wear if they ever find themselves short and cury. If such a person exists and wishes to trade outfit ideas then they know where to find me...