Tall girls shopping issues

[Keichan]

Hello All,

I've only recently started CD'ing and very new to this forum.

I'm 186cm or 6'1"

I find when shopping for tops or jackets that most tend to be a little too short in the torso. Some brands in XL fits ok but end up too wide at the hips and looks totally weird on my body.

Any other tall girls have the same shopping problem?

[natalie_cheryl]

Welcome to the forum! An yes this is an issue I'm very familiar with, it just takes a little more time to find the right things that fit.

[sometimes_miss]

Welcome to the world of being a girl. This is one reason why women spend so much time trying on clothes. Even average height/figure women don't fit into everything right. Go to youtube and watch any bathing suit 'try on' video and you'll see even the cutest women don't fit into everything their size. Ah the joys of being a girl! NOTHING FITS THE WAY IT'S SUPPOSED TO! AAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!

[Traci H]

It took me a bit to realize that men generally have longer torsos than woman. So a tall guy can usually wear woman's jean with little issue (I wear 12 or 14 med, no problem) you will find many tops are a bit short. Now of course as noted, the variance among women's clothes is so vast that it just reduces the overall availability to the tall cd a bit. I too struggle often with tops that are a bit short. It can be done, just that your search is a bit more strenuous. Just consider it part of being a woman and having to shop your hinder off. (Not that you want behind reduced. Most of us could use a bit more!)

[Kate's at home]

Hi Keichan,

Have you been to the Long Tall Sally website?

Have fun,

Kate

[Keichan]

Thank you all for sharing.

Being new at it, I tend to want to get out of there as quick as I can. Still feeling slightly uneasy and embrassed if I'm trying on multiple outfits and not buying a thing.

Look forward to the day when I can be more confident about spending hours trying things out

Traci - Yes jeans are not a problem, always the tops that's a little on the short side.

Sometimes makes me wonder where these 6'2" models buys their clothes!

Kate - No but will now :)

[alwayshave]

Keichan, I'm 6'2 with a long torso, so I feel your pain. So I tend to limit myself to knee length or mid-calf dresses.

[Sarasometimes]

I agree with dresses being easier to make work, I'm 6'2" as well and i found that if I look for tunic tops to wear with pants and skirts they are long enough to often times work. As you shop more you will hopefully begin to love the search as much as the actual finding of the right piece. If on line shopping works for you both JC Penney and Sears have some Tall sizes.

Welcome to the forum!

[Marie-Jo]

For your length you can expect to find that you need an additional inch, at least, to get the correct length over your back to the waist (natural waist at the top of the hipbone level).
If you want to look in more detail you can look into measures in style charts from Burda that sells sewing patterns. Downloadable here: http://www.burdastyle.com/statics/size-chart
There you will find that they differentiate between petite, standard/mature and tall pattern design. That take different (width) shapes in consideration i relation to length.
As those producers that design the ready to wear fashion do adjustments from design standards, will these charts just give a view of how big difference there is between different sizes. Then you maybe see that larger size adds more to width than to length.
Tall women have problems finding a good fit, too. One of my daughters 6' and complains about how hard it is to find fashion that fit.
Me for my part started to sew instead. Skirts for example are simple to sew. I can adjust the relatively smaller hip width/buttocks with easily instead of the excess cloth I usually find with ready made skirts. Jackets are harder to sew.

[ClosetED]

I am 6'2" and there are many things that are tough - most dresses have higher hems, showing much more leg [not a problem if you have nice legs] but at times it can become indecent. Boots don't come up as high - very tough getting real over the knee boots. And us tall people often have large feet, so need larger shoe sizes. Many women do expose a bit of belly, so depending on what style/age look you are going for, it may not be an issue. For tops that get tucked in, there may just be less material to tuck in to the skirt. I got one dress from China that is so short I have to treat it as a top and add something like opaque tights or leggings to be decent.
Hugs, Ellen

[Stephanie47]

I'm six foot even, down from six foot two. My preference is dresses and only dresses. The dresses off the rack are made for the average height of a woman. I believe that's still five foot seven. Some stores carry dresses for taller women, although from my experience that does not cover women who are six foot. I do not buy dresses that have a defined waist, which is either a built in belt or loops for a belt. Those dresses tend to look like a guy who cinches his pants and belt at the nipples. Terrible looking. I limited my dresses to ones without a defined waist; sheaths, empire waist, wraps. They gather nicely under the bosom. My figure is 42-38-40 so I'm not going to have anywhere close to a Barbie doll figures. Nor do it want one. I usually buy on eBay where many of the sellers of dresses give adequate sizing figures. If the seller lists the length from the shoulder or nape to the hem that gives me a good idea where it will hit on me. A knee length dress will hit several inches above the knee, and, a midi length will hit just below the knee. Both are a decent length for a person my age. I haven't bought any summer maxi length dresses this year, but, in the past I was able to buy some at Sears which did hit the top of my foot. I was really surprised because the average height woman who have that length sweeping the floor with the hem of the dress.

[jhasmine]

I am 6'3" and don't have issues finding nice long dresses. I think the difference may be with the figure tho. I am 33 - 30 - 32. and 137lbs now.

This dress is a medium or 7-8.
281252

[Rachael Leigh]

Welcome to the group and yes tall girl here too 6"2 and it's all about the shopping and finding the right size.
XL doesn't always mean XL either so yes shop around

[Joni T]

I'm 6'6" without heels. JC Penney's has a tall and ultra tall section in their catalogs. Ask me why I know this.
Jon

[XemmaX]

hey, fellow tall girl here. it just takes time as sizes vary from shop to shop and also being tall you have think alot more about looks and styles. long tall sally is a good place to start. if you are out then i'd suggest try always before you buy!!

[Alice Torn]

I am almost 6'6" Even guy clothes are a bit hard to find a good fit. Tops and long sleeve blouses with long enough sleeves are VERY HARD TO FIND. OR Low priced.

- - - Updated - - -

Closet Ed, yes. Dresses so short, they are more like tops for us!!! Been there! Actually cut the lower part of some dresses off, because they were so immodestly short, and MADE TOPS OF THEM!!

[Lucy23]

Hello Keichan, I'm actually a little higher than you, 189cm to be precise, although slender for a typical male with my height. Because of that I've had next to no trouble buying women's clothing and allows me to usually look for sizes similar to my normal clothes.

If I can make a suggestion, I would look for clothes that are elastic or can be stretched. When I began buying women's clothes for myself, I had already known of the difference in sizing thanks to my exgirlfriend. But I had to figure out sizing in various stores so the first thing I usually bought were tops or dresses that stretched and that helped a lot.

[Abbyru1]

I just found a company on line called Long Tall Sally's . Have not purchased anything from them yet but prices are not to bad. You might want to check them out.

[Joni T]

Re: Long Tall Sally's--I hope $$ is no object for you.
Jon

[suzanne]

Women come in so many different sizes and shapes that its sometimes quite challenging to find things that look right. Especially on my body. I am the same height as you, but my legs are unusually short, so the length of my torso is even harder to fit. So there's no substitute for shopping in person, using the fitting rooms and asking the SA her opinion. And lots of patience. I typically can only find about two dresses a year that I really love and the rest stay in the store.

[Keichan]

Thank you for all the hints and tips will definitely take them onboard.

Will probably stay away from online shopping for now. It's hard enough getting things right in store let alone online.

It's so sad that there are so many tops that I like but come up a little too short :(

Will definitely do some shopping or at least window shopping this weekend :)

[Cherylgyno]

I am 6' 6", 250 lbs. I am big for a male yet alone a female. Shopping in the mall for feminine clothes is impossible. Only place carries 36" inseam pants in the male section.
Finding bras to fit is much easier. Large lady shops carry my size. Yes I have breasts. I hope that some one will realize the lack of tall feminine clothes.

[DMichele]

Hi Keichan,
Yes, JC Penney has women's tall clothing and reasonably priced. I also buy women's tall clothing from Lands End, but it is more expensive. Good luck with your hunt for talls!

[ChrisX]

For swimsuits try long torso from J Crew, up to size 16 -- expensive at full price, but some ok sales and often available at reasonable prices on ebay.

[Kayliedaskope]

Good Lord, we have some Amazons in here! Y'all are making me feel awfully short at 5'8 ...

I used to know a lovely CD back in SAN Jose who was 6'6 in stocking feet. Of course, Danielle also enjoyed wearing 5"-6" heels on top of that, so the bottom of her hip pockets was above my waistline ...

[suzanne]

There is more variation in body shapes of women than for men. So some styles work well on a certain body type, not so well on others. So of course it takes more trial and error in finding the right look. To me that makes it more fun!

BTW, I am the same height as you and I weigh around 300 lb. I share your frustration and pain. If I find two dresses in a season that I'm happy with, it's been a great season. That represents a lot of shopping trips, but it makes the victories sweeter. And I've made friends with a lot of sales assistants.

[susan54]

In this company I am a shrimp at only 5 foot 9 but my torso is long in relation to my legs, so Long Tall Sally is absolutely the best place for things like camisoles. I also like to wear very long skirts and some of those in LTS are actually slightly too long for me and pool on the ground! Another advantage of LTS is that they are used to men trying on clothes. When they still had a branch in Aberdeen (now sadly closed) I asked how many men they got trying things on and they said it was regarded as normal - it happened most days. LTS also sometimes carry things you cannot get elsewhere like large gloves and shoes. Yes the prices may be high for many but they have fantastic sales. The other solution is to find a good dressmaker and you then get EXACTLY what you want.

[Keichan]

Thank you girls for sharing your experience.

I've done a little more trying on clothes since I initially started this thread but haven't really had much victories yet but I'll not loose heart and will keep fighting on.

One thing I noticed is that for us here in Australia we get limited styles and sizes compared to the US even with the same brand.

I was talking to a SA at the North Face and she said the US gets the same style of pants in "tall" but not us because our market is not large enough to justify shipping different styles and sizes. :( And I really liked this pants :(

Maybe a shopping trip to Hawaii is in order :D

[bonni]

Try New York & Company. They have a tall section online and in store.

[Sarah Doepner]

I'm 6'1" and tend to shop at thrift stores more than anywhere else. I've found a lot of things that fit, but it's been a labor of love over several years. I thought about doing a purge once but remembered how difficult it was to get things that fit and just decided on principle that it was a bad option. Either way you do about it, you either have to spend a long time or a lot of money. Figure the one that works best for you and you can be successful.

[Stephanie Nicole]

Go to Torrid, they specialize in clothes for larger women (and are very accepting of us also) I am 6'1 270 lbs and have found 90% of their stuff in a size 2 fits me pretty well. The only drawback is that they are on the expensive side, also look at OLD Navy a lot of their tops are on the longer side so they fit us like a regular fit top