The Tall and the Fat of It

I am here to tell you firsthand that people who are tall and fat are discriminated against in the world of retail clothing. Do you know how hard it is to find plus-size clothes in tall? Ridiculously hard. Apparently, you can be tall and thin or short and fat, but not tall and fat. It is so annoying. You pretty much need to shop online for these clothes, which sucks because you end up returning half of it anyway. Have you ever needed an outfit for an event the same day? Well, I hope you aren’t tall and fat, because you won’t be able to find one in the stores! No matter how much you pay out the wazoo for expedited shipping, you’re not going to get clothes you order online in the morning for a party in the evening, and even if you could get it, who knows if it is actually going to fit.

Now let’s talk about the frumpiness of the majority of plus-size clothing. Just because I am fat, doesn’t mean I am also 90 years old!! Lane Bryant has a decent selection of fashionable clothing in plus sizes, and they used to carry tall pants in stores, but they have recently cut back on their in-store stock of them. I even asked about it in the store, and the sales lady told me they are primarily only carrying them online now. WHY!?!??! What really annoys me is that many stores will carry plus-size pants in “regular” and “petite”, but not in “talls.” That, my friends is height discrimination!

Here are a couple other examples:

• They rarely carry shirts in tall sizes. Chances are that if I am 6 ft tall with a 36-inch inseam, I don’t have “regular” length arms. I’d be walking around looking like a T-Rex. They carry shirts in petites, why not talls?!?
• Don’t even get me started on the elusive trifecta of tall plus-size maternity clothes. IMPOSSIBLE!

When I lose weight, one of the things I am most looking forward to is shopping in “regular” clothing stores. Even though you can’t always find clothes in tall sizes, it is a lot easier when they don’t also have to be plus-size. The frustration is that when you wear a size 14 at a healthy weight, it only takes about 10 pounds and one pant size to shove your fat ass right back into plus sizes.