Tall Clothing-The Options Have Grown

By Krista Mayne

As a  6’1” tall woman,  I have considered my height a blessing. But it does have it’s challenges.  I struggled my whole life to find tall clothing.  When I was in high school, I basically had two choices for tall pants.  Option number one was to wear the less figure-flattering men’s pants.  Although I was an athlete, I wanted to look feminine, so men’s pants were out.  The next option was excruciating.  I would go to the mall and search high and low for tall pants.  I would try on everything but nothing was quite right.  Either the inseam was still too short, or the rise was too short, or they looked like an old woman’s pants.  I could spend all day looking for pants that were long enough.  Most of the time, I settled on pants that were a little too short.  Imagine my excitement when capri pants came in style!

Retailers are finally taking note that there is a huge tall population in this world, with stores such as JCPenney now carrying a few tall items for women.  Tall men still have more options with many retail stores creating Big and Tall sections for men.

Catalog companies such as Long Elegant Legs are filling a niche for tall clothing.  Since I love clothing, a very memorable day was when I first received my catalog from Long Elegant Legs.   I went on the biggest shopping spree of my life.  My husband nearly passed out when four boxes of clothing arrived.

The best place I have found to shop for tall clothing is the Internet.  Just do a standard search for tall clothing and you can find many pages of tall clothing stores. Specialty Web sites are creeping up for tall clothing in categories such as big and tall, plus size tall, custom-made tall, and tall maternity clothing.  Shoe companies are beginning to cater to those of us who have size 12 shoes or larger with more Internet specialty shoe stores opening all the time.

Although it’s taken a long time, we finally have options in tall clothing.  So let’s embrace our height and go find some clothes that are both stylish and long enough!