If I could change 1 thing because I’m tall it would be…

Why not bigger tree houses?  We need bigger tree houses to better suit our taller bodies!

I’ve actually thought a long time about this…a long, long time and I’ve wanted to write about it but it’s a difficult and personal thing for each individual.  Someone that is 5’10” is going to want something much different than someone who is 7’8″. And the difference between males and females is also going to vary greatly as well.  I think what I personally would like to change is going to be very, very different than say, a guy that’s 6’10”.  But I guess we’ll see.

The more I thought about this the more I couldn’t narrow it down to one thing.  I can think of one thing that I want more than others, but there are multiple things that I want.  Typical female…I moved my list around so many times although my #1 stayed the same.  Here goes!

If I could change 1 (okay, more than 1) thing because I’m tall it would be:

1.  Airline Seats–now I know this one is obvious but I wouldn’t actually change the width because I fit fine in the actual seat.  It’s the distance between the seats needs to be longer!  My knees are right up against the back of the seat in front of me.  And if the jack-hole in front of me chooses to recline in their seat…I’m going to be a very unhappy passenger.  Or, the airlines could save the bulk-head and exit row seats (provided we can assist in the event of an emergency) for passengers over 6’2″ AND NOT CHARGE US EXTRA!!!!

I chose this for my number one because I travel a lot.  I spend so much money on extra leg-room and checking my luggage that my trips become much more expensive than I’d really like them to be.  An extra $25-$45 for the leg room both ways and then another $20-$25 for my bags, we’ve now added another $100-$150 to my already expensive trip!  Yikes.

Who has extra cash?  Apparently me…

2.  Tall Clubs International—TCI (Tall Clubs International) is such an important part of height awareness and they have so much to give as a social club and as a charity, but unfortunately the group is dwindling.  The club began in 1939 and there are still approximately 50 clubs throughout the Unites States with nearly 2,000 members however there was a time when the active membership was nearly 5,000.  I’d like to help get TCI back on the map with some beefed up membership and more active members but I’ll be honest, even I haven’t been very active myself lately.  Life tends to get in the way.  More membership, more advertisement, more sponsors…we need to get more activity!

My 6’4″ friend Megan who is a former President of Tall Clubs International and of course, Moi on the left.

3.  Clothes–okay, let me be a little more specific because personally I don’t have a terrible time finding clothes however there are 2 categories of tall people who need help with clothing:

• Tall, plus sized-this combination is nearly impossible for women to find good, quality, and reasonably priced clothing.  Most women can’t spend $100 per shirt or $150 per pair of pants.  That’s simply too much for the average woman so there needs to be better availability of tall, plus-sized clothing as well as better pricing.
• Clothes for the super tall-allow me to explain further.  I have a friend, Chris, who is 6’9″.  He shops at 1 store for almost all of his clothes.  1 store!  I don’t know how he does it.  For those men and women over 6’6″ with inseams over 38′, they need specialty stores that also aren’t horribly expensive and they also need greater access to these stores.

This is Chris and these are actually his hats. Wait, that’s not true. He really wears hats like this to distract people from his 6’9″ height. Okay…that’s not true either.

4.  Height Awareness-I’d like to change some perceptions that people seem to have about tall people.  We all play basketball, we are all freaks, tall women only want to date taller men (okay, for those of you that read my last blog yes, I am searching for a tall guy but that doesn’t mean I haven’t dated shorter guys in the past.  Don’t judge) and all the tall men only date women under 5 feet.  We all get labeled somehow.  We’ll I’ve come up with a few examples of things I’d like for people to know that it’s NOT okay to do or say.

• It’s not okay to come up behind me when I’m not looking and stand back-to-back with me while your friends take your picture.  You might get punched, seriously.
• I may or may not have played basketball and unless you know me, you probably should be careful what you ask.  Is it okay to touch a pregnant women’s belly?  Consider my feelings like that pregnant women’s belly…tread lightly.
• To point and stare at me as I walk by is downright rude.  Learn some manners (unless you are under the age of 8, then it’s acceptable)
• Thinking you are funny by saying something clever like ‘How’s the weather up there’ or ‘What’s up shorty?’ is really your way of indicating your very low IQ
• Please don’t ask me to compare hands with you.  Yes, my hands are probably bigger.  I’d also wager that so is my brain.
• No, my parents aren’t tall.  They are very short, I’m a mutant.  Who can explain science?

My family! All right…my dad is really tall, so is everyone else in my family.

So there you have it.  4 things that I would change and I KNOW I didn’t touch on some topics that others would want to change.  I wonder how much would actually change if I could at least get my wish with the first 4…..hmmmmm, I think I’ll go ponder that for awhile.

So you think you’re tall? And special? Why….yes!

That’s Neri (my upstairs neighbor in front!). See, I AM that much taller!

Yeah, I think I’m tall too. At least I think I’m taller than most women until last night when I went to a movie.  Let me re-phrase that.  I went to a movie with my shorter neighbors (sorry guys, but you are shorter than me).  We decided to go see Dark Knight Rising since we had some Groupons or Living Social Deals that were about to expire.  We get to the theater and while Randy waited out in the hall Neri, Leah, and I made a trip to the ladies room prior to the show and that’s where I saw her.  She was probably my height or maybe, just maybe, a smidge taller than me!  Say what!

We met eyes in the mirror, then quickly looked away.  Then just as quickly we met eyes again.  I felt as though we were doing that weird guy/girl dance of flirting, but we weren’t.  We were sizing each other up but trying to appear as though we weren’t.  You see, that’s what us tall girls do.  It’s so rare to be able to look someone of our same sex in the eye that we want to stare but we don’t want to be caught!

I looked her up and down trying to determine where she got her height.  Was she all legs?  Torso?  Properly or weirdly proportioned?  How did she dress?  Does she like being tall?  Did she stand up straight?  Should I talk to her?  Should I mention ‘our’ heights?  I wonder if she’s looking at me?  Should I smile?  Oh, this is awkward!

She washed her hands while I was still waiting in line and as she passed I stood up a little straighter and tried to catch her eye.  I didn’t say anything to her and I don’t think she would’ve wanted me to.  She walked with a little hunch in her shoulders as if she didn’t like her height and she didn’t even glance up as she walked past.  Too bad, I wanted to give her a big smile.

I wanted to shout out to her, ‘Stand up straight!  Embrace your height!  You are special!  Let your height make the world notice you but make the world love you because of YOU!‘

*Sigh*

I won’t get on my soapbox about this topic because then I’ll rant and rave about how awesome and amazing it is to be tall.   But I will tell a little story about the picture below:

I toast all you TALL women out there!

This picture was taken on my 39th birthday this year.  A friend of mine was visiting from Iowa and I took her to the drag show at Darcelle’s in Portland, OR.  Why am I toasting?  I felt amazing that night!  And here’s why:  I’m tall and I felt beautiful.  I bought the dress from Long Tall Sally and the little sweater cover-up as well.  When I walked into the room at Darcelle’s and while we were being seated, I had multiple drag queens ask me where I got my clothes!  I don’t think you can get a higher compliment than that.  So you can see, my night started out with an ego boost and my night only got better from there.

The point is, whatever you’ve got whether it’s height, beautiful hair, great eyebrows….whatever, you’ve got to make the most of it.  Regardless.  You’ll feel beautiful, you’ll radiate beauty and everyone wins.

Okay, I did end up on my soapbox.  Getting down now….

What was I thinking?

Who wears stuff like this? Apparently I think that I do.

You see this jump-suit.  I ordered it.  Yes, I did.  I know, what was I thinking?  Well, let me tell you….

It’s a Tuesday.  I worked a long day at work and I came home where I proceeded to clean, do laundry, go grocery shopping and complete a bunch of mind-numbing chores that allowed me to justify having a glass of wine.  (I did keep it to one glass)

After I completed my chores and I sat down on the couch to drink my glass o’ wine I obviously needed to do something…and shopping online seemed to be the perfect accompaniment to this activity.  I found this jump-suit at a Tall Clothing website called Tall and All.  I’ve never ordered from there and I’m hoping that this suit fits although where I’m going to wear this…I’ve no clue.

I can’t promise that I’ll post pictures because I’ve no idea what this is going to look like but in the event that anyone out there has never heard of the website Tall and All, check it out. they even have latex pants.  And no, I didn’t order those.

 

 

 

 

A new tall clothing store?

I was ‘researching’ tall shopping online as I usually do, strictly for the blog of course, and I have come across a new website for tall shopping.  Perhaps it’s always been there and I never noticed it, perhaps I didn’t look hard enough (yeah right), or perhaps the fact that they sell normal-people clothes as well caused me not to look at their clothing line closely.  Huh…  Any of these things could’ve happened but I’ve now found them and I could be in trouble.

This is my sleuthing hat I wear when I do my research!

They are a UK based company.  It seems like many of the really good tall stores are Canadian or UK based.  Yes, I know of a few stores in the US but the foreign companies have some really cool clothes!

The company’s name is “New Look“.  The one thing I noticed is that the pants and jeans are only 35 inches long.  I wear a 37 inseam so 35 is a bit short but that doesn’t mean that I can’t find clothes here.  It doesn’t always have to be about the pants.  I love finding shirts and sweaters that I can change up by layering.

I contacted the company and they immediately contacted me back.  I love that personal touch! Rebecca (the awesome contact) gave me a few links to show everyone how they could ‘rock the glitter and glam’.  (love that phrase from her)

Long-sleeve sequin dress

Slinky cape dress

Sequin collar chiffon top

Lace one-shoulder dress

Twiggy colorblock coat

I can tell you that I will be ordering this knit dress that is so cute and will be awesome with leggings and long sleeves.

Oh, one more thing.  Right now there’s a sale, 25% off of partywear.  You can’t go wrong with a deal like that.

I LOVE shopping!!!!

Bongo Review: Mail Forwarding Your Tall Purchases

First of all, I’m going to do a quick plug for my other website, but only because I’m giving something away free — if you want to win a free, sexy-as-all-hell leopard print dress, name it in my competition!!)  OK, I’m done — on with the post 😀

Those of you who live in the US and UK might not realize it, but life as a tall person gets MUCH harder once you step outside either of those countries.  Why?  There are only a handful of companies making products — especially clothes — that fit talls, and shipping them internationally is a nightmare.  Did you know many companies not only won’t ship internationally — they won’t take credit cards from those whose billing addresses are outside national borders!  Last time I checked, my Visa card worked just the same as any other.  Grrr.

Us folks in parts of the world that don’t have tall stores have to find sneaky ways of getting what we want — one of those is mail forwarding.  I recently started using a service called Bongo and it’s pretty good, so I thought I’d review it here.

How it works: you prove your identity to Bongo and pay them $5.  They then give you a fake address in the United States.  You give that address to stores, pretending to be an American, they ship to Bongo, and Bongo send your package to you.  If the store won’t accept non-US credit cards (sigh), Bongo will make the purchase on your behalf for a 10% fee.

I signed up with Bongo months ago, and we got off to a rough start. I bought some sandals with Zappos (I know they’re awesome for Americans, but they’re scared of moths, shadows, and anything outside the borders of their own country).  I had the shoes delivered to my fake US address (Bongo’s warehouse), went to ship them and – !!! – they would have cost $100 to ship.   Being a totally calm and productive person, I calmly returned them and resolved to be a more cautious buyer of shoes stormed off in a righteous huff and kept thinking about those dumb shoes for six months.

Times changed, and with it the Aussie dollar’s value (yay!).  I came back to Bongo and reappraised my options.  For $100 I could have my shoes, no strings attached.  But it was slightly cheaper to get a minimum 3 month subscription (@ $15 a month) and pay the reduced member price of $45 shipping.

Confused yet?  Yeah, I know.

Aaaanyway, then I started thinking about maybe shopping for some other stuff while I had this 3 month window already paid for.  A good friend and stocked up on makeup from Nars that, for no good reason, carries a 100% plus premium here in Oz.

So, the deal with Bongo: it’s not cheap.  It’s definitely a luxury service and I won’t be paying them $15 a month as an ongoing thing.  They also charge to return products, as I found out to my considerable annoyance with the shoes.  $40 to return an order to Zappos?  !!!!!  However, we saved a huge amount on makeup which about covered the cost of the subscription, and I got my pretty size 11 shoes, so if you’re serious about your internet shopping it’s a pretty good idea.

Bongo are one of many mail forwarders, but I haven’t tried any others — if you have, or if you’ve had a different experience with Bongo, please leave a comment!

Anne Shea is the founder of the Sarah Vain and Tall clothing line: find her at www.sarahvainandtall.com/blog