I notice a lot of 6-foot tall women out there these days. For those who want maxi instead of midi, where do they shop?
I used Google at first, searched “tall women,” and was horrified that all the clothing sites I looked at showed ugly fashions! Please don’t do this to me. All I want is pretty skirts and dresses that reach my ankles. I know they exist, I already have some, but finding them has always been hit and miss.
Hi Johanna,
I’m not sure what your connection to the Netherlands is, apart from your Dutch username, but you could try shopping here. maybe even online at www dot wehkamp dot nl or www dot otto dot nl.
The Dutch are the tallest people on the planet, and most stores tailor to women who’re the average size of the Dutch woman, 1 m.72, over 5 ft 8 inches.
Many regular stores (Miss Etam for instance) have " long sizes" that fit six-foot women comfortably.
Dank U weel, vriendin. I know that rokken means skirts, so rokken roll! There are some really nice ones there. My problem is solved, as soon as I get a chance to move to the Netherlands. How’s the weather?
Check out Jackpot brand - it’s a German company (I think), and they tend to have long inseams. One of my girlfriends is 6’ and wears a lot of jackpot stuff.
If you were local I could tell you which shops carry it, but I’m not sure in your town. FWIW, it tends to be sold in smaller botiques, and what not, as opposed to department stores - I don’t think you’d find it at JC Penny, for instance.
I do a lot of shopping around and try on everything.
Some of my favourite stores are Sears, Reitman’s, Cotton Ginny, Rikki’s and lots of guy stores. I don’t bother with women’s jeans anymore, and most of the time I don’t bother with women’s jackets either.
My wife is 6’ 1" and dresses fashionably. She goes to Nordstrom and shops a few online clothing stores that also have catalogues. One of them has Column in the name. Columnclothing.com or something?
WordMan, now that you mention it, I’ve been very satisfied with the length of the two dresses I got from Nordstrom. (I’m 5’11½".) Sometimes they hugely slash prices, making it affordable, and their look is elegant enough to please me.
Well, my grandmother was part Pennsylvania Dutch, not quite the same thing. I haven’t yet had the good fortune to visit your fair nation, apart from the inside of the Schiphol. I keep hearing good things about the Netherlands making me want to be there. I think of Johanna as basically a Latin name, although the 4 countries that use it a lot are Finland, Germany, Netherlands, and Sweden. One of the singers in my favorite Finnish band Värttinä is named Johanna Virtanen.
I love when the catalogs and web sites tell you the length. Nordstrom is good about that. Should be simple: just measure from your waist and know how many inches you need. I’m 36 inches from waist to ankle. My longest maxi skirt is also 36 inches from waistband to hem. How about the rest of you?
I am now seriously coveting this ensemble. At 39 inches, that’s more length than I know what to do with; I’m imagining I would hike it 2 inches above my waist just to walk without stepping on it. And they discounted just enough to where I can sort of think of affording it… very tantalizing. I actually put this dress in my shopping cart. But they ought to tell you how many inches measured from the waist.
At least with an elastic waistband you can hike it up or drop it low over your hips to adjust the length. A woman I work with wanted to wear a mini for Halloween, to show off her spiderweb hosiery, but she didn’t have a mini. She showed me she was wearing the waistband under her top all the way up on her ribcage just to achieve mini length. One more reason why skirts are better than pants: the possibility of height adjustment.
While I am not genuinely tall, per se, (5’ 10" if my spine were straight, but 5’ 7" b/c it is not), I have crazy long legs w/ a 33" inseam. I have great luck @ JC Penney in their St John’s Bay tall sizes when it comes to jeans. I tried going to the Tall Girl store, and though the pants length was fantastic, the butt/hip was too long and verrrry unflattering. Love their skirts though, ankle-length means something there!
P.S. Maastricht, in the film Immortal Beloved the role of Johanna van Beethoven was played by a Dutch actress, Johanna ter Steege. I would stand out in the company of all these blondes. I named myself after Joan Baez, sort of. I’m her color.
Tall Girl is pretty good if you’re very, very tall (38" inch+ inseam). Which you’re not, but if someone who is reads this. I have the inseam problem, which means I can’t find clothes in normal stores (they’re too short), and I went there. Everything was way, way, way too long.
I’ve had horrible luck at Nordstrom, though I’m usually looking for pants, not skirts. Newport News screwed me. (They sold me something they were sold out of, sent a “please wait, and we’ll restock,” then cancelled my order without telling me. I did get my money back, they did not get my good will back.)
I actually clicked on the Google links below this thread and have emailed them to my wife. Some seem worth researching, and I have seen her get catalogues in the mail for one of them, LongElegantLegs…
I’ve gotten to the point where I pretty much just buy men’s pants. I’m fairly tall, 5’9", but my waist is very short and I need a 34-36" inseam. To be fair, though, it’s getting pretty difficult to find 28W-36L pants anywhere short of Eddie Bauer (although they do carry the odd number lengths as well as even) and it gets spendy after a while. Women’s pants are too damned short, it drives me crazy! As for skirts and stuff, I usually find it easier just to make my own, to hell with the stupid sizes the fashion Nazis want us all to conform to…
I date a 5’11" woman and she shops a lot at Nordstrom and never seems to have too much trouble buying clothes. If you’re going online, Eddie Bauer apparently stocks a lot of sizes for tall women.
Wow. I would just like to meet a woman with legs that long, if any exist! I’m nearly 6 feet tall (in metric, I’m 181 cm, Maastricht), but my inseam is only 28 inches (71 cm), and here I thought I had long legs. Gosh, 38 inches is 96 cm., that sounds like superheroine proportions. Woman by Stan Lee. They should be selling flashy lycra unitards.
Unfortunately, the site doesn’t use models, so we don’t get to see any of these 38" inseam superwomen. Except here. She is one long cool drink of water. I could go for that pretty skirt, but at 40 inches, I would have to wear it nearly up to my tits! I’m boggled how that model has a 40" hem above her ankles, but she’s really high-waisted. The boots are perfect for that skirt. This dress is lovely, but what’s with the 3/4 sleeves? Hasn’t anyone heard all the tall women complaining how they wish for full sleeves but everything becomes 3/4 on them? I’m tired of so many 3/4 sleeves all the time, I like the sweeping elegance of long uninterrupted lines. Kudos to Tall Girl for giving the waist-to-hem measurement. 38 inches on that dress, I think I’d be walking on the hem. Clearly, Tall Girl is for the really really tall girls and they ain’t foolin around. Now I know where Black Widow buys her jeans.
Thanks for all the helpful tips, everyone. Looks like Eddie Bauer may be getting a visit from me when I’m in a less dressy mood. At 36" this may be just the denim skirt I was looking for. Lycra added to the denim is a very strong plus in its favor, especially in a skirt of that length. SmartAleq, I think I will start sewing, you have the right idea.
P.S. Want a smile? Don Markstein's Toonopedia: She-Hulk
You’re thinking of 38" skirts, which are measured from the waist, not the crotch.
I make my own skirts, and have for a while now; I buy jeans in the men’s department. As for shirts, mostly I’ve bought men’s for a while now (I have long arms, and broad shoulders, so if I buy in the women’s department, I’m swimming in extra folds at the waist and it’s STILL not long enough to tuck in). But I’m learning to knit, took my first class last week, and I’m making a sweater vest that WILL be long enough!
What’s also helped is the extra pounds I’ve put on, so that my weight is a lot more proportional to my height. I don’t know why, one would think that extra waistline would make it harder to find clothes, but things fit so much better.
(For the record: 6’ tall, 38" waist, 44" around the chest when I measured to make sure the silly sweater fits when I make it, and a 33" inseam in pants.)
Corr
[QUOTE=Corrvin]
You’re thinking of 38" skirts, which are measured from the waist, not the crotch.
No, really.
Like you said, it’s scaled up proportionally. It doesn’t help those of us who are built disproportionately. I have relatively slim calves, but my tall suede boots were designed with the assumption that size 11s are big-leg girls with huge calves. So they don’t fit snugly enough and they pooch out above the ankles, unless I grasp the tops and pull up while twisting around my legs, then they seem to fit right.
Of course, we wouldn’t need to have these discussions if we were all rich enough to have everything handmade by our own couturier, dahling.
Well, if we go from my true waist to ankle it’s about 43", but since I prefer to not have my clothes hiked up just below my breasts it’s more like 40" from waist to ankle and I have a 33" inseam. So that 39" skirt sounds like it’d be just the right length for me.
I’m learning to love skirts for this reason, including the fact that I can wear skirts in a size smaller than my pants because no one seems to take into account a tall girl having bigger thighs.
I shop at Tall Girl from time to time, but it’s hard for me to find anything that fits right there. I find a lot of their clothes has a slimmer cut, while my figure is more rubenesque. I have the added trouble of actually having shoulders so it’s almost impossible to find a jacket that fits right across the shoulders and doesn’t hang on me everywhere else.
I recently bought pantyhose there that you’d think would fit, after all they are made for a size bigger than the largest ones you can buy at a department store… nope, they didn’t fit. In fact they fit worse than if I’d gone and bought a pair at the department store.
I wish!
Actually, I’m thinking I might look into how much it would cost me to get a couple of suits made. Much easier than running around like mad searching for something that fits right (jacket fits, pants don’t and vice versa ALL THE TIME and I’m not talking minor things that are easily fixed by a tailor or someone handy with a sewing machine).
chortle And now it’s not “that sweater that I made,” it’s “a one of a kind creation from an as-yet-unknown designer.”
Thanks!
Corr
(boyfriend: but won’t it look a little strange if you add extra stitches?
me: sure, it’ll be noticeably bigger around the chest, but then I am noticeably bigger around the chest.)
