First, let's talk about dresses. I was a bridesmaid for the first time last summer, and I get to be a bridesmaid again this upcoming summer. When I was shopping for a dress for last summer's wedding I went to Forever 21. First off, let me tell you how much I hate that store. Sure, it's cheap, but I hate the sloppy fashion it promotes. However, I had not developed hate for the store at the time so I picked a bunch of cute dresses to try on. The dress style for women recently is either to have a long maxi dress, or a dress that comes to about mid thigh. I thought, "Hey, no problem. These mid thigh dresses will hit my mid thigh as well." WRONG! The dresses barely covered the bottom of my butt cheeks, if I was lucky (Can I also rant that short Mormon girls get away with murder? They buy a mini skirt and it comes to their knees. They buy a mid thigh dress and it comes to their knees. I digress). What's more frustrating is that these dresses continue to be popular in addition to becoming shorter and shorter. Today I stumbled on this dress... Yes, they categorize it as a dress. I could wear it as a shirt.
Now this has nothing to do with being tall, but here's my other annoyance with short dresses. At the beginning of winter my house got a magazine from Express. It was promoting their new winter line. I love flipping through clothes magazines, but as a sat flipping I noticed that all the men's clothing looked winter appropriate, but the women were still stuck in short dresses. The only difference in dresses from summer to winter is that they now had sleeves and came in darker colors. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but my legs are not space heaters. They get just as cold as the rest of my body in zero degree weather. Please fashion designers... give me winter appropriate dress options.
This brings me to my next fashion frustration. I know many of you are thinking, "Liz, the dresses above are fine in the winter. You just need to buy tights." I have two things to say to you. One, tights have never kept my legs warm. Cold air just goes right through them. Second, tight designers are tallist (definition: prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination against tall people, especially women). I LOVE fun tights. Just like I have the opinion that life is too short to wear boring socks or underwear, I also think life is too short for only nude colored tights. About two years ago fun tights became really popular. I worked in retail at the time and I got so excited when new tights would come in the shipment. Much to my dismay, the fun patterns only fit girls between the heights of 5' and 5'10". Yes, I know tights are stretchy, but fun tights don't always have give, and it's never fun to wear tights that don't come up to your crotch and rub against your thighs all day.
My third fashion vexation involves pants. Short people often complain about their pants touching the ground. I would kill for a pair of pants long enough to touch the ground. Instead, I get pants that barely cover my ankles. I know pants come in Talls, but there are not enough of them. I often get told, "Oh, you can order our tall jeans online..." Online shopping never works for tall people. There is no guarantee that the pants will be as long as you need them. Please, provide them in stores so I can try them, buy them, and wear them all in the same day.
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| Story of my life |
I would also like to know why name brand stores only carry pants up to size 14. Fat or bulky people like fashionable, name brand pants too.
Finally, shirts. Over the break I went shopping at Buckle. It's an expensive store, but I finally found long sleeved shirts that cover my whole arm! This never happens! Coats, blouses, and cardigans are never designed for tall people. Either the sleeves are too short, or the length isn't long enough to cover your midriff. My shirts always get stretched out from either pulling down the sleeves, or pulling the shirt down to cover my stomach. I always have to cuff the sleeves on my blouses because they are too short to wear down. It's exhausting.
I just want to be able to wear the clothes that everyone else wears. I don't want to tuck, pull, and fidget all day because my skirt isn't long enough, my pants don't cover my ankles, or my shirt isn't long enough to hide my stomach. Bottom line, the fashion industry needs to pay more attention to tall women. Tall women already slouch enough to try and fit in to the crowd. Don't make us slouch more out of embarrassment of clothes that don't fit.
