This week in her weekly column, Flaming Nora has a big grumble about short clothes.
The lovely Amber blogged last week about small women and finding clothes to fit. When I read her words, I sympathized and empathized because I have trouble finding clothes to fit me too. Standing 5’10” in my stocking feet (well, ok, in my socks) I have problems finding clothes to fit because I’m so tall. Trousers quite often refuse to reach my ankles and jacket sleeves give up at my elbow.
“Oooh, you’re a lovely tall lady” said a woman in a lift to me the other week. I gave her a smile. I’d never seen her before, never met her in my life and yet she felt she could pass comment on my height. Don’t get me wrong - I wasn’t upset, but I was a bit bemused although you’d think I should be used to it, a lifetime of occasional comments, usually from passing blokes, with a sneer of “You’re a big girl”. I’ve never been annoyed by these comments but I’ve never understood them. Do short people, fat people, get these comments too? Is it because tall people are assumed to have a sense of humour? Do tall men get it too? "Ooh, you're a big strapping lad?"
Anyway, back to the clothes. Yes, I’ve tried places like Long Tall Sally but shopping in a specialist shop makes me feel like a freak when I'm not. I'm shorter in height than Janet Street-Porter and Jerry Hall. Where do they buy their clothes to fit? Probably not the high street, I'd guess. Fortunately, Dorothy Perkins have a tall range and often come up trumps with trousers long enough to take my 34” inside leg. But in the past I’ve had to buy men’s Levi jeans which suit my leg length well but leave a bit of an unsightly dance floor (ball-room!) at the front.
Amber’s earlier post about the difficulty of buying clothes as a shorter women and my post here about the difficulty of buying clothes as a taller women highlight what to the both of is bleedin’ obvious but to fashion shops and designers isn’t. Women come in all shapes and sizes. ALL shapes. ALL sizes. [Flaming Nora]
Flaming Nora is the editor of Corrieblog
