I’m the Height of Fashion; In These Jeans

Jenilee wrote an incredibly strong post on Tuesday. If you missed it, I recommend heading back here to read it. Being 5 inches shorter than Jenilee, I haven’t had to deal with nearly as much backlash and commentary in public settings as she has. It definitely still happens. To put a little more perspective to it, if I am out and about alone I rarely hear anything. If I am rolling with my family or other tall friends, we almost always draw some sort of negative comments.

Most recently on my trip to Austin I made it until the very last day. Literally as we were leaving the hotel I heard “Did you play volleyball?” Ugh. To be completely honest these are the best type of “tall” comments to get. It’s not an insult, it’s just presumptuous and ignorant. I think the next in line for me is “Are you a model?” Again, I will admit this one is flattering, but still also just not necessary because it’s strictly because of the height.

Looking at the big picture, I rarely if ever get upset when people say things to me because I have watched the things people say and do to Jenilee and there is no comparison. I get so excited for festival season in Wisconsin (Summerfest, Germanfest, Bastille days). When I think about it further I realize this will inevitably bring some nasty scenario. For example, last year we were at Bastille Days as some gentlemen thought it would be okay to come and stand next to her and try to grab a picture. Triggered. It doesn’t take long anymore for me to react when hearing the things people say to her.

It’s funny, on one hand she does have people telling her she overreacts at times, but they don’t get to. Because its her feelings and her reaction to have. The tables have now turned. She sometimes has to tell me to cool down in situations because instinctively I want to defend her. Honestly, how do people think these things are okay to do? Would you walk up behind a bigger person and take a photo, someone with a disorder or disease? These are all things people can’t control so you surely shouldn’t be treating them different. Trust me when I say I could keep going with this post. We aren’t here to drop this much heaviness on you for one week, so I will save the rest for another day. I’ll leave you with this: pay attention to how you are treating people, and be kind.

Now I have quite the funny story for y’all. I’ll give a brief backstory first. Jenilee and I typically have to schedule out some shoot days extremely far in advance, because our schedules are nuts. On these days we traipse through the city trying to find all kinds of different backdrops to get multiple outfits done in one swing. We have been getting bored with using the same spots so we just hopped in the car for these shots with no plan in sight. We saw the train tracks and thought “that could be fun!”

I grabbed the shots of Jenilee first and as she was using a train as a backdrop it slowly starts moving. It moved far enough so it was completely out of the background, so we moved further back and grabbed the exact shots we wanted. A Union Pacific driver drove past once and looked at us but kept going so we switched places for my turn. Jenilee told me I should sit on the train car. I was like nah, I’ll do better. I am going to stand on it. Cue a different driving coming down the tracks, and her panicking. I casually got down and said, “oh grab a picture of me sitting too,” as she’s trying to run away. We were promptly but kindly told we couldn’t take pictures on Union Pacific property. Luckily, we had already gotten the shots. We get that it is probably a safety issue but it was too cool not to risk it!

It isn’t quite as hard for me to find great denim as it is for Jenilee, but it is definitely still a struggle. Not necessarily because of the height, but the height + curves combination. We heard that Height of Fashion was dropping some new denim and immediately knew they would be amazing. Natalie designs each of her pieces with a thought, care, and passion for the right fit and it certainly shows. Nat choose the dark denim for me (link here) and they fit like a glove. The length is great, the stretch is ideal, and the rise is high where it belongs. If these pictures don’t portray how easy they are to move around in then nothing will. I can’t name another pair of jeans that I could scale a train in while also wearing heels.

On of Nat’s main goals is to keep tall fashion sexy, fun, and on trend and wow is she nailing it! We haven’t spotted a drop of frump in her line yet. Knowing her goal, i grabbed this saucy olive blouse, my rattan purse, and the heels that just keep showing up. If you are looking to try out some new denim, this is your place! Or if you happen to need a bomb blazer (for $52!!) or lace top (for $22) see here, and here. And stay tuned, there might be more!

Dear Nat, thanks for making Jenilee and I feel like our best selves in these jeans!

Outfit Details

Jeans, Top, and Heels are linked above!