How to dress when you are tall

I have had an article on the site on how to dress when you are petite, but have never tackled the opposite: how to dress when you are tall. Let’s do that today. Anyone over 5ft 10 or 1.78 meters is considered tall and dressing when you are tall comes with its own set of challnges, even though you have fewer limitations as petites.

Please note though that these are only lose guidelines. Every body is different, so trust your own instinct and see what works for you.

Dressing challenges for tall women

Although being tall can be a real plus when you are dressing, you may still find it difficult to get your outfit in balance. In general as a tall person you will want to achieve the following:

1. Get your outfit well proportioned and create a flattering silhouette
2. Getting properly fitted clothes.

1. Create a nice silhouette

If you are tall, you may need to work a little harder to create a nice balance in your outfit. Often, you will want to give it more shape.

Here are some tips to achieve a flattering silhouette:

• Work with strong blocks of colours to help define your body and break the strong vertical line.
• Get clothes that give your body a clear shape like some of the below suggestions.
• Wear tops with round necks.
• Choose blazers with waist definition.
• Opt for A-line skirts.
• Although you can wear many kinds of trousers you will look particularly good with trousers with a slight flare.
• Wear tops over your bottoms.
• The current peplum style works very well for tall women and gives you more shape.
• Bell sleeves will give extra shape to your arms.
• If you like to tuck in your tops, combine with a longer tailored jacket or blazer.
• Wear long chunky necklaces, which bring attention to your centre.
• You are one of the lucky ones who can wear capris without any problems, but they will still decrease your nice long legs. Combine with shapely tops!
• You will also look good in maxi dresses, but make sure they have the correct length. Of course these will make you appear very tall.
• If your arms are long too, you can go wild with lots of big bracelets.
• You can wear heels or flats. Most tall women will look best in shoes with shaped heels, like kitten heels.
• Large bags look good on you as well.
• Avoid: formless three-quarter length jackets, straight dresses, dropped waists, cropped tops, turtle necks, tiny bags.

2. How to find clothes for your long arms and long legs?

Being tall means that you cannot always find clothes that fit properly in the shops. Here are some tips on how to get clothes that fit correctly.

• If you can’t find shirts with the right arm length, you can buy them with double cuffs and then wear them unfolded
• Otherwise, if sleeves are too short, have them taken in to halfway length.
• If dresses are too short, just use them as tunics or wear over pants.
• Find stores that sell trousers with long hems. Zara is often good for that.
• Shop in stores that are especially created for tall women, like Long Tall Sally or Banana Republic’s tall women section

Famous tall women

Famous tall women include Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jane Fonda and Michelle Obama.

Nicole often emphasises her height in dresses, which is a choice all tall women can make. But she looks more in proportion when she adds more shape to her looks as shown below.

As a tall woman, it’s really up to you what you decide to do. You can emphasize you tallness even more or use some of the tips above to tone it down a little and create more shape.

Some of the looks from the pictures above can be shopped below.

These are just some of my tips. Perhaps you are tall and have a few to share as well? Also, do you like to emphasize your tallness or do you follow some of the tips above and like to appear a little shorter?