Someone on the internet said once that tall girls don't get to do cute, and I think that's true. Sure, we can be striking, imposing, ferociously beautiful, but cute? Incongruous and impossible.
We have a lot presence, us tall girls. It's about handling physical might with grace and strength rather than slouched shoulders and a desperate attempt to be more like our friends around us.
The creative director of J.Crew, Jenna Lyons, is an absolutely legendary figure for the rest of us fashion-y tall girls. She's 6'5 in heels and wears what the fuck she wants. Her dark framed glasses match mine, but her impeccable sense of style outpaces my own by far. She's been at J.Crew for 22 years, and in many ways has made the brand what it is today. Nymag.com sums up the J.Crew look as "nothing too tight, too short, too synthetic." Dream of dreams.
Lyons wears striped t-shirts with gold sequined trousers and perfect fuchsia lipstick. She pairs mens shirts - unbuttoned to the sternum - with khaki pants and manolos. She never shies away from heels, despite being taller than many NBA players while wearing them. She ties her hair back and wears almost no make-up. She twists femininity into severity, twists severity into laid-back, twists laid-back into high-fashion. I adore her.
More than just a fashion icon, though, Lyons (pronounced lions, awesome) makes it okay to be tall. She struts instead of shrinking and doesn't overfeminize in an attempt to compensate. She makes me feel okay about my 5'11-ness, and that is something I'm incredibly grateful for.
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