Except that if you’re short you can hem or get 'em hemmed. No amount of wishing is going to turn that 30 inch inseam into 34 inches.
I hear ya on the clunky shoes. At 5’10" I really don’t need the extra height, but shoe designers everywhere seem to want me to tower at 6’2".
And shopping for clothes is about the most mind-numbingly boring, spirit-sapping business I’ve ever been involved in. I used to get excited about new outfits. Now I’m like an old lady puttering about and bitching at the Abercrombie and Fitch displays. How can a girl stay warm during the winter with her legs and belly hanging out?
I do have a friend who seems to be the perfect size. She’s 5’2" and has pretty long legs for her height, and she seems to constantly be showing up in the nicest outfits she just happened to see at such-and-such a place. It would take me years to build up her wardrobe for myself.
Man I feel like I’m pimping. Two mentions of this book this week. This book has a section on tailoring. Step by step instructions on how to alter your own clothes. A breakdown of how the “sizes” work(for a lot of manufacturers at least) and how to alter them safely. A whole section on customizing existing clothing, based on the “average” size standards, to a specific set of measurements.
I either have altered, or alter, most of my nice clothes. I get compliments on them. It’s not really that hard, and the book makes it even easier.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do about the problem.
Enjoy,
Steven
From a guy’s perspective:
I’m 6’1" and weight 225 pounds. It’s mostly muscle (with a layer of fat, yes. I don’t run like I’m supposed to.) and I’m built very broad. “Built like a stump,” “built like a fireplug,” etc. In fact, my waist size is the very largest available in most normal stores…42 inches.
Unfortunately, “most normal stores” seem to be dropping their 42 waist pants, and maxing out at 38 or 40 inches. Big & Tall, you say? Feh. They usually cut their B & T clothes like burlap bags, and it ends up looking like I’m wearing a tent.
I am not a tall, willowy, V-shaped-torso man. I used to be a linebacker. I’m THICK, people. I have muscles. I have huge, tree-trunk legs. I need shirts that aren’t cut for a waif. I need pants that are made for the normal range of humanity, not just the skinny, chicken-legged Abercrombie and Fitch models.
Ogre, you sound like you don’t really need clothes at all…c’mere and I’ll show you…
/hijack
I’m six feet of curvy female. The clothing manufacturers are invited to attempt to kiss my lily white ass so that I can kick them in the jaw. I can buy pants that are just barely long enough when I’m standing up, but they will not form around my butt. (I am the white J. Lo. I know it. Now I want pants that don’t expect my butt to be flat, thanks) Next, shirts with sleeves that are long enough AND fit me. They either fit me nicely and are 3/4 length sleeves or I wear guys shirts that are essentially large sweater textured bags.
Sewing my own looks real good as soon as I have thirty seconds of spare time to learn what I’m doing.
My husband’s in the same boat. He’s taller by a few inches and heavier by a couple dozen pounds maybe, but he’s got the same waistline and build, and has run into the same problem with stores. I wish I had some advice, but he’s struggling some too.
As for Big and Tall, he’s not quite big enough and not quite tall enough - if he finds some style he likes, it has to be in the smallest size and is not always available.
Medea’s Child, let this post represent me emphatically nodding.
Its the same way for me too.
Are there any people who those fit?
On me, the ribs are too long, so they (a) buckle over, creating a weird looking lump where the top or bottom is doubled, (b) create a lump somewhere in the center adding a ring around some part of my anatomy that doesn’t really need a ring around it, and dig into my skin at the top and bottom, or © refuse to bend at all, so they dig into my skin a lot at the bottom usually. When your torso is shorter than the ribbing, it isn’t pretty. It ruins the corsetty look.
I also have the URL for corset patterns. I really will make one one day.
Thanks, y’all (and thank YOU, MC! wink wink). I’m usually just forced to trust to luck. I’m usually able to find SOMEthing on any given day if I go to enough stores.
I’ve also noticed, DeniseV, that GAP online carries larger sizes. I generally like GAP trousers because they tend to be cut generously.
I sympathize - I really do. Because I have the misfortune to be both 5’2’’ AND a size 22. Ever try to find professional clothes in petite sizes in the women’s section (aka “The House of Polyester”)? Yeech!
Maybe I SHOULD just give up and go naked in public - THAT sight might just convince the clothing designers to market clothes for a wider range of body types, lest they face such a horrifying vision again! 