Whether you have a little, older, teen, or senior girl, we want to help you and your family have a memorable portrait experience by sharing family photo outfit ideas for styling girls. From choosing your girls’ outfits and colors to cute shoes and accessories, these tips will help them look their best and feel comfortable and confident!
Color & Design Ideas for Family Photo Outfits
Light, Neutral Colors for Your Girls’ Outfits
We recommend selecting light, neutral colors for your girls and family’s outfits because they photograph softer, complement skin tones, and make your images look more high-end! Bright, bold, or neon colors create unflattering skin tones and distractions in your pictures.
Solid Colors & Simple Designs for Your Girls’ Looks
Instead of busy prints and logos, we suggest choosing solid colors and simple designs for your girls and family’s outfits. Small, complex patterns (like tiny striped, plaid, or checked designs) can be distracting and create unusual colors in your images.
How to Coordinate Your Family Photo Outfits
The goal of coordinating your family’s outfits is to break up the colors and shades so you’re not all wearing the same color on top and bottom. The more you can mix it up, the better! Most moms pick their outfits first and then build the rest of the family’s outfits based on that. When styling your girls’ outfits, we suggest choosing colors that coordinate with your outfit and making a different coordinating color the “dominant” color in each of their outfits. For your family’s accessories, each person could tie in coordinating “accent” colors from one another’s outfits that pair well together. That way, all the colors would look connected and cohesive!
For example, you could wear a long, flowy mauve dress with a light silver necklace (making mauve your dominant color). Your spouse could then wear a powder blue solid, collared shirt with tan khakis (making powder blue his dominant color). Your daughter could then wear a white dress (making white her dominant color). Your sons could then wear a sky blue, white, or light gray solid, collared shirt with tan khakis (making each of their dominant colors sky blue, white, or light gray). That way, all your family’s outfits would coordinate and look connected, making your photos look more high-end! Also, feel free to tie in coordinating accent colors from the other outfits with each person’s accessories, adding even more visual interest to your photos!
For more information about what colors to wear, how to coordinate your family’s outfits, and family photo outfit ideas, feel free to check out our blog post, “Gorgeous Color Palettes for Fall Family Photos.”
Styling Your Girls’ Photo Outfits, No Matter Their Age
From your little girls to your seniors, these family photo outfit ideas for styling girls are for a variety of ages, and they’ll help your girls look their best, flattering their features and helping them feel comfortable and confident!
Little Girls (6 months-5 years)
We recommend that your little girl wears light, neutral, and solid colors with simple designs. A dress, skirt, dressy top, or tutu always looks stunning! Simple frills, lace, and sparkles on dresses, skirts, or tops create a fun touch too! For shoes, she could wear small ballet flats, sandals, or booties. Also, cute accessories will add more visual interest to your photos! Some of our favorite little girl accessories are:
- Pearl necklaces/bracelets
- Fresh flower crowns/bouquets/baskets of flowers
- Headbands
- Hair bows
- Diaper covers
- A light-colored blanket for her and your family to sit on
For example, your little girl could wear a vanilla blush dress with white and cream pearl bracelets or a white dress with white ballet flats and a vanilla blush, blush pink headband.
Older Girls (6-12 years)
Like with little girls, we recommend that your older girl wears light, neutral, and solid colors with simple designs. Dresses, skirts, dressy tops, jeans, and dress pants create a gorgeous touch! For her shoes, she could wear ballet flats, sandals, and dress boots. As always, she can never go wrong with cute accessories, such as:
- Necklaces/bracelets
- Fresh flower crowns/bouquets/baskets of flowers
- Belts
- Earrings
- Headbands
- Hairbows
- A light-colored blanket for her and your family to sit on
For example, your older girl could wear a flowy white dress with a light gray sweater or a vanilla blush dress with a basket of white flowers.
Teen & Senior Girls (13-18 Years)
Like with younger girls, we recommend that your teen/senior girl wears light, neutral, and solid colors with simple designs.
Say Yes to a Dress or Skirt
Dresses and skirts are flattering on all body types, bringing extra movement and dimension to your family photos! Maxi or floor-length skirts and dresses create the best “twirl factor” and add more elegance to your photos, especially your walking ones. Shorter, cocktail-length dresses or midi skirts photograph beautifully, too.
Flattering Her Features
Recognizing the areas your teen/senior girl may feel self-conscious about and choosing flattering silhouettes and colors will ensure she loves how she looks and feels in your photos.
- Flattering Her Arms: On camera, skinny straps or strapless dresses make arms appear bigger. So, we recommend avoiding those if she’s aiming for slimmer-looking arms. If her dress has short sleeves (or no sleeves), consider incorporating a cute jacket, blazer, cardigan, or chiffon shawl into her look. Three-quarter-length sleeves also create an excellent slimming effect on all arms, so try looking for an option with a longer sleeve.
- Flattering Her Waist: If she’s aiming for a slimmer-looking waist, we suggest she wears an empire waist dress, a high-waisted skirt, or high-waisted dress pants or jeans.
- Flattering Her Legs: If she’s aiming for slimmer-looking legs, we recommend she wears a longer skirt or dress, neutral-colored dress pants, or jeans.
Her Shoes
Heels elongate girls’ legs and force constant tension in the calves, making them look more toned. Closed-toed heels look great on camera because they carry the line of her leg down to her toe. Ballet flats are also beautiful while making her feel more comfortable. If her toes show in a peep-toe shoe, we recommend that she schedules a pedicure before your session. She can wear closed-toed ballet flats, heels, tall dress boots, or heeled booties to keep her feet warm during colder weather.
She could even choose not to wear shoes for some photo spots, adding a cute look to your photos!
If she wears heels for your 45 or 75-Minute Outdoor or Studio & Outdoor Portrait Experience, don’t forget to bring a pair of flats/flip-flops for her to wear when she’s walking from place to place so her feet don’t get sore.
Her Accessories
Pairing an accessory or two with her outfit will bring more visual interest to your family photos. We suggest choosing one or two accessories that don’t compete for attention when paired. For example, if she goes with bolder earrings, she can try selecting a humbler necklace or maybe even no necklace. We also recommend that she matches her accessories with the style of her dress. For example, if she wears a more casual dress, she can pair it with a small, cute necklace and stud earrings instead of a large pearl necklace and dangly diamond earrings.
Some of our favorite accessories for teen and senior girls are:
- Necklaces/bracelets
- Flower crowns/bouquets/baskets of flowers
- Belts
- Earrings
- Rings
- Scarves
- Chiffon shawls, cardigans, jackets
- A light-colored blanket for her and your family to sit on
Styling Your Girls’ Outfits for Colder Weather
Here are some helpful family photo outfit ideas for styling girls when the seasons change and temperatures drop, helping keep them warm while elevating your photos! During colder weather, we recommend that your girl pairs a dress or skirt with warm tights and a cardigan or wears long dress pants or jeans with a cozy sweater or sweater vest. For shoes, she could wear closed-toed, leather ballet flats, heels, long dress boots, or heeled booties.
Dressing your girl in layers and warm accessories will help her stay warm during your family photos while adding more visual interest to your images! Some of our favorite cold-weather accessories for girls are:
- Hats (pom-pom hats look super cute on little girls)
- Mittens
- Scarves
- Shawls
- Dress or jean jackets
- Sweater vests/sweaters
- Cardigans
- Boot cuffs
- Statement coats
- A light-colored blanket for your girls and family to sit on
Optional Outfit Change Tip (for 75-Minute Family Portrait Experiences)
If your family has a 75-Minute Family Portrait Experience, you can include an optional outfit change in your session, adding more variety to your family photos! If you decide to incorporate an outfit change, we suggest your girl arrives in a formal outfit and packs a casual one for later in your session. It’ll help your family photo session end on a more comfortable, relaxing note! Also, we recommend coordinating the outfit she wears to your family session with the outfit change she brings so all the images in your gallery and blog post (if you choose to have a blog post) will pair well together and look cohesive!
Little Girl Optional Outfit Change for a Vanilla Blush & White Family Photo Outfit Idea
If your little girl wears a vanilla blush dress with ruffles and a bow to your session, she could pack a white and vanilla blush dress with a headband and a bow. That way, the two outfits would coordinate while capturing elegant and slightly casual portraits all in one session!
For a more casual portrait experience, if she wears a slightly casual white and vanilla blush dress with a headband and a bow to your session, she could bring a lacey, white romper. That way, the two outfits would coordinate and complement one another, making your family photos look editorial with a casual style! To capture a formal and casual look, if she wears a vanilla blush dress with ruffles and a bow to your session, she could pack a lacey, white romper for an outfit change.
Older Girl Optional Outfit Change for a Navy & White Family Photo Outfit Idea
If your older girl wears a navy solid, collared dress to your session, she could pack a white and navy dress with a bow. That way, the two outfits would coordinate while capturing elegant and slightly casual portraits all in one session!
For a more casual portrait experience, if she wears a slightly casual white and navy dress with a bow, she could bring a long white dress with a jean jacket. That way, the two outfits would coordinate and complement one another, making your family photos look editorial with a casual style! To capture a formal and casual look, if she wears a navy solid, collared dress to your session, she could pack a long white dress with a jean jacket for an outfit change.
Teen/Senior Girl Optional Outfit Change for a Vanilla Blush & Blush Pink Family Photo Outfit Idea
If your teen/senior girl wears a vanilla blush dress with a white sweater to your session, she could pack a blush pink and white dress with a flower print. That way, the two outfits would coordinate while capturing elegant and slightly casual portraits all in one session!
For a more casual portrait experience, if she wears a slightly casual blush pink and white dress with a flower print to your session, she could bring a white dress shirt with olive dress pants and a tan belt. That way, the two outfits would coordinate and complement one another, making your family photos look editorial with a casual style! To capture a formal and casual look, if she wears a vanilla blush dress to your session, she could pack a white dress shirt with olive dress pants and a tan belt for an outfit change.
One Final Note
We hope these family photo outfit ideas for styling girls will help your girls have the best portrait experience and feel comfortable and confident! Feel free to email us at Jenn@JenniferHallPhotographyLLC.com if you have any questions.
We believe children are some of God’s greatest blessings and treasures; love and cherish them 🙂 Love you lots!
