I’m tall, so why do I have to wear heals with jeans?

It’s an age old complaint: clothing designers don’t make clothes for women. I have no idea who they’re making clothing for, perhaps their boyfriends, but it certainly isn’t the average female.

Sorry guys, but I have bumps and curves and most women I know do. What’s worse, I’m actually tall. Yet, I still have to wear high heals with my jeans, just so they don’t drag on the ground.

The most common complaint that I hear from women is about the length of pants. It’s like the clothing manufacturers seem to think that because you’re a larger woman that you’re not just tall, but you’re very tall.

Confession time. I’m a little obese for my size, weighing in at near on 100 kg (220 lbs). I am also 5 ft 8 in tall (172 cm). Okay, for my height, I’m not just a little obese, but I’m working on it. But here’s the real situation: for women in New Zealand, I might considered to be one of the tall ones, but I’m actually one of the average dress sizes. (New Zealand has a large Polynesian and Pacific Island population which are genetically larger boned. I fit right in, because I’m by no means considered petite.)

So… If I’m an average dress size, you would think that I would have no issue in finding things that fit. WRONG! My most common issue is the hips and waist. If it fits in the hips, it’s too tight in the waist. If it fits in the waist, it’s big for my ass. Occasionally, I get the opposite. It fits the hips, but my waist seems to be 6 inches too small and I need a belt just to ensure the pants don’t fall off when I walk.

But let’s bring this back to why I started writing this little rant in the first place: the length of pants.

Most women I know who wear the same dress size as me are considerably shorter than I am. No matter what they do, they need to get their new jeans tailored. If they didn’t, then they would need to be wearing shoes that add at least 10 inches to their height so their jeans don’t drag on the ground. For someone my height (who is a good 4 inches taller than the average female in New Zealand) those longer jeans are great because it means that I can actually have my ankles covered — I love it.

However, recently I replaced my worn out jeans with another pair of the exact same brand, style and size. Hmm… Something has changed in their patterns, that’s for sure. The new pair fits exactly the same of the old pair did around the waist and hips. However, the new pair are a good 2 inches longer than the old pair. So much for wearing my jeans with my sneakers. Nope, out come the healed boots — not too bad an idea because I really like my boots and wear them a lot — but even my 2-inch heeled boots are too short for the new jeans. I might be forced to wear the 3-inch pair all the time now.

The length of pants, however, is not an issue for just women. My 15-year-old son must also face the pant length issue. He’s easily 6 ft now (in fact, I think he might be over 6 ft), but he’s also a skinny weed. Just to get the length in the pants for his school uniform, we must purchase men’s small pants. Regardless, even they’re nearly too short, but anything larger and they fall down around his knees. (It was absolutely hilarious to watch him jump around the house trying to work out which pair of pants he could wear to the trampoline centre where he wouldn’t be aloud to wear a belt to hold his pants up. He tried on every single pair of pants that he owned… His school pants were the best shot he had, but even they fell down when after he made a jump at the centre. Perhaps I shouldn’t have written that, but it was hilarious to watch. Poor guy.)

Even my daughter struggles with pant lengths, but for the same reason I do. She has long legs, just like me, and even at the age 11, she still taller than most women we know. (In another two or three years, she’ll likely be as tall as me, if not taller. I was my full adult height by 14.) But even her jeans drag on the ground.

I just don’t get it. Clothing designers seem to be fixated with insanely tall female figures, but the men are expected to be short and fat. Someone please, explain this to me.

Rant over. Back to your regularly scheduled program.


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© Copyright, Judy L Mohr 2017

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