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Shopping 101

Tall Tips From A Tall Girl

By Jessica Brandon, B.S.
(Bachelorette of Spending)

Hello, darlings! Here we are in November, getting our sweaters, wool skirts, boots and winter coats out of mothballs. Sigh! It had been such a wonderful summer. Living here on the east coast, I only hope we don't get buried by snowstorms, thus keeping me from the stores! This month, girls, I'm going to discuss shopping for the taller crossdresser and the pratfalls involved with same. This is a topic that's near and dear to me as, at six foot two, that presents a raft of problems when it comes to buying clothes.

As most of you undoubtedly know, up until only a few years ago, women's clothing was designed primarily for females no taller than five foot seven or five foot eight, otherwise known as the dreaded "Misses" range.

For someone like myself, this provided nothing but frustration, especially in two areas: sleeves and inseams. Regarding the former, a properly fitted sleeve, be it on a blouse, dress, jacket or coat should end right at the wrist where the hand bends upwards, or no better than an inch above that point. Anything higher than that would look extremely silly, and dont give me any b.s. about quarter length sleeves, not when most of us have forearms like professional wrestlers.

As for inseams, I'll admit to being an ego tripper by saying I rarely wear pants because I love showing off my long, luscious legs. Hell, I didn't get into the crossdressing business to wear the same stuff I do as a male! Anyway, if you're in the market for pants and you're tall like me, look for an inseam of at least 31 inches, with 33 being ideal.

The standard inseam of 29 inches in the Misses range is useless to us because they end well above the ankle and that also looks silly.

Next, we come to pantyhose. For us tall girls, hosiery can be something of a pain too if you should happen to buy the wrong size. In my case, it's taken a good deal of experimentation to accurately buy the proper size for my height that not only fits well but looks good on me as well since my legs are the one part of my body that I love to accentuate. At one time, the standard size for hosiery was AB which covered (Yup! You guessed it), Misses sizes.

For a tall girl to wear size AB pantyhose is also problematical, since, even stretched to the breaking point it wouldn't fit properly, the crotch of the hose ended a good inch or more below the loins. This invited runs since the hose was stretched out of shape. And if that happened with cheap hosiery like youd find in a five and dime store (Far and few in-between now that Woolworth's are out of business), you're just throwing money away. Fortunately, hosiery makers have expanded their size ranges since they finally arrived to the conclusion that women come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from dwarfish to towering, from rail thin to elephantine. Today, my proper hosiery size is CD (Ironic, isnt it? You think these companies had crossdressers in mind when they came up with that?) which covers height ranges up to an even six feet and fits me like the proverbial glove.

There also exists a size EF, which is for big, and I do mean BIG boned girls, both the genetic and imitation variety. While not going up to six feet, EF covers weight ranges nearing 200 pounds. Even though I check in at 185, because I'm tall, that's an ideal weight for my height, I'm neither fat or thin, so it wears well. If you're curious, my brand of panythose is Resilience by Hanes, and I swear by it because it's both deliciously sheer and almost totally run resistant.

Now, we come to the shopping portion of our program: where to shop for tall girls. In my opinion, THE place to go from coast to coast is J.C. Penney's, perhaps the first major department store chain to sell clothes aimed at the taller girl. I've shopped there for years and I've yet to be disappointed with anything I've ever bought there, either by mail order or in person. From dresses, skirts, blouses, pants and suits, their clothes are both stylish and well proportioned.

Most of the other major chains, Sears, Spiegels, Lane Bryant, Ross, Fashion Bug, TJ Maxx, Filenes Basement, et. al have small selections of clothing for talls, nothing to write home about, but they do exist, and this brings up something else about shop ping for talls. Sometimes, I'll find a Misses size outfit that, much to my surprise will fit just right, especially in terms of sleeve length, and while this is more the exception than the rule, its not beyond the realm of the impossible.

Besides, a tall girl wearing a Misses sized outfit does have one particular advantage, and that's with the skirt. Consider this scenario: a pedestrian-looking 22 or 23 inch skirt for a girl of five foot seven and under ends at the knee of lower makes for an absolutely terrific looking miniskirt for a girl of six feet and taller. And if you have the legs to pull it off like I do, you can look like a million dollars without a bit of hemming. On more than one occasion, I've done that very thing and it never fails to work. I've bought tall sized suits (I LOVE suits), replaced the skirt with a Misses size one, and it makes an otherwise tame looking outfit positively sizzle! As long as you know your size and determine what will look and fit best on you, feel free to experiment (Remember to keep Shopping Commandment Number 5 when you shop) to your hearts content. Chances are you might be pleasantly surprised with the results.

At one time, for a tall girl like me or you to look fashionable, we had to have our clothes either tailored, adjusted six ways to Sunday or custom made. In the fashion world, we were looked upon as misfits or ignored altogether while designers left, right and center kissed up to the Misses. But not anymore. Those same designers came to realize that girls aren't tiny anymore, just look at the models on the runways, no midgets there, I assure you.

Now you too can shop with confidence knowing that tall girls everywhere can find clothes that look and fit great! Well, thats it for now, if you have any comments about this column, or if you want to share some shopping tips with me, I can be reached at treetop@voicenet.com. And before I forget, have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Until next month, shop not just with your heart, but with your head!



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