For women 178 cm / 5′10″ and above
Clothes designed for the Tall.
Not clothes designed for others with just longer hems and longer sleeves. Every piece will start from a tall woman’s proportions.
Sleeves to the wrist. A waist at your waist. A midi that stays a midi. Trousers to the floor. No more compromises.
Why nothing fits
Made for someone else.
Most clothes begin on one body: a sample of average height. Every other size is that body made bigger or smaller. Rarely taller.
When a shop does make a “tall” version, it usually adds a few centimetres to the hem and the sleeve, and stops there. But height isn’t only in the legs. It’s in a longer back, a lower waist, longer arms, a longer reach between shoulder and elbow.
So the waist seam lands under the ribs. The shoulder sits inside the shoulder. The sleeve ends where the pattern says, not where the arm does. And tall women learn to roll, push up, tuck in and make do.
One pattern, two women
The same dress, twenty centimetres later.
Put a dress drafted for 165 cm on a woman of 185 cm and it doesn’t simply look short. Its waist rides up, the sleeves stop above the wrist, the hem lands somewhere it was never meant to be.
Adding length at the bottom doesn’t fix the middle. The pattern has to start from her.
What tall women live with
Eight small compromises.
None of them is a disaster. All of them, every day, in every shop, add up to never quite feeling dressed.
Sleeves
End above the wrist the moment you reach for anything.
Pushed up, so nobody notices.Waist
The seam sits under the ribs. The dress has its waist; you have yours.
Covered with a belt.Hems
A midi turns into a knee-length. A maxi turns into a midi.
Bought anyway.Trousers
Stop at the ankle bone. Cropped, by accident, every time you sit.
Worn with boots.Shoulders
Set for a narrower frame, so the seam sits inside the shoulder.
Sized up, and swimming.Jumpsuits
Too short in the body. They pull at the shoulders all day long.
Given up on.Details
Darts, pockets and knees placed for someone else’s body.
Ignored.Choice
The “tall” range is a few basics, in black, online only.
Settled for.
“It fits, except for the sleeves. And the length. And the waist.”
- 1A sleeve drafted for a shorter arm. It ends where someone else’s wrist would be.
- 2The body of the knit, too short to meet the waistband when she moves.
- 3The hem, sitting high. The proportions are right for a different woman.
We don’t need clothes made longer. We deserve clothes made for us.
Tallerance is a clothing label for women 178 cm and above.