Tall celebrities
What is it with the latest celebrity “du jour” and their insecurities about their height?! US actress and star of hit TV show Gossip Girl; Blake Lively is the latest to voice her concerns. It turns out the 21 year old actress is very self conscious about her height and fears men find her towering stature intimidating.
“I feel like a tranny (Transvestite) a lot of the time," the 5-foot-10 star told a recent US magazine "I don't know, I'm ... large? They (The shows producers) put me in six-inch heels, and I tower over every man. I've got this long hair and lots of clothes and makeup on."
The glamorous actress goes on to admit that her tall frame has made her feel unattractive:
"I just feel really big a lot of the time, and I'm surrounded by a lot of tiny people," she adds. “I feel like a man sometimes.”
Personally, I find it extremely sad that someone of such a young age has these huge insecurities about their height. I suppose it’s this kind of attitude that makes people feel as if any differences in society are wrong, but surely it’s better to stand out than just merely fit in?
After all there are so many successful, tall women in the world. Isn’t it better to be looked over than to be overlooked?
What do you think?
Posted at 02:20PM Oct 02, 2009 by Long Tall Sally Admin in "Carol" Comments (12)
We are each our own worst critics. Of course when you are tall like me, personal nitpicking comes easily, unfortunately. I'll be 39 in a month, I'm a mom to a 4 year old and we have just escaped with our lives from having spent 7 days in Algonquin Provincial Park interior camping. (We had a bear in our campsite)
My husband was making one of his super delicious dishes of French onion soup and needed a bottle of red. Oh joy! I was sent on a mission to the vintage section of our local liquor store wearing zero makeup and still very much smelling of campfire.
Cart blissfully full I got in line to pay. Ahead of me was a very tall chick with the most outrageous colourful outfit on wearing the most blank austere look upon her face. I was fascinated and tried to keep from staring. She wasn't attractive per say but her 12 different neon adornments she had precariously draped over and around her were really something to behold.
Just then, from behind me in line, I heard a very cute muscle bound frat boy ask me how tall I was!!! I took a second to compose myself and as I realized that two very gorgeous much younger guys were hitting on me, the one dude went on to say that my 6'2 height looks very beautiful on me....yes tall gorgeous ladies, let's remember that even without makeup, being a mom at the ripe old age of 39 AND smelling like burnt wood, our height will attrack 'em everytime!...
Check out Long Tall Sally's newest collection - leather jackets, wink wink
Posted at 10:40AM Sep 10, 2009 by Long Tall Sally Admin in "Carol" Comments (1)
A day in the life of a designer..
Was that a whale or my stomach?
So, I am back from Argentina which like England was in the grip of swine-flu fever. Most things in Buenos Aires closed down for four days to try to stop the spread of infection which fortunately prevented me from impressing the locals with my Tango moves as all the ‘milongas’ were closed. However, we still had a fantastic time.
The gaucho pant has been well and truly taken to heart as a staple fashion item, it’s like coals to Newcastle. They definitely love it here, I saw girls of all shapes and sizes strutting their stuff in gaucho style jeans. Not only did I shop and people watch but I spent a substantial amount of time in Argentina’s graveyards. Buenos Aires has the best graveyards you could spend all day wandering around looking at the beautiful graves and statues and reading the flamboyant epitaphs.
From Buenos Aires we went up to Iguazu falls on the border with Brazil, they were magnificent taking a boat ride into one of the biggest waterfalls in the world is the ultimate log flume ride. Then we went up to Salta in the Alta Plano by this time the huge quantities of steak were really getting to me so we made a conscious decision to head down to Patagonia where there are a lot of welsh settlers and head to a welsh tea room for afternoon tea. Lemon tart, Swiss roll, welsh cakes, scones, welsh fruit cake, lemon drizzle cake…..the plate was huge and all topped off with a cup of tea from a teapot wrapped in a hand knitted yellow and red tea cosy just like my Nana had. Then a walk along the beach listening to the whales gurgling and splirting….. Or was that my stomach????
Posted at 11:44AM Aug 20, 2009 by Long Tall Sally Admin in "Carol" Comments (0)
A day in the life of a designer..
A new challenge
Two weeks ago we arrived back from our trip in the far East ( We being myself; Carly, Andrea and Deborah – the design team) Visiting factories in India and Hong Kong whilst overseeing designs, adding more styles and sourcing fabrics, yarns and trimmings.
It’s June already and before you know it, it will be Spring 2010. It’s weird, it feels like Summer has only just begun and half the high street already has their Summer sales on.
The samples from the trip are just arriving in the office now, which can be exciting and disappointing; usually it’s a mixture of both! Some look wonderful and some look awful. One factory seemed to think it was a good idea to make everything in fluorescent green and another thought bubblegum pink jumpers were a good idea. Why would you do that when you were specifically asked for black or white?
We have managed to buy our Trans and Spring styles. Sandra, my buyer has been on holiday but is back today, so I will have a hand-over with her as I am off on holiday for two weeks.
That’s my new challenge, not only do I have to pack for two weeks but for four different climate zones with only 15kilos weight allowance- Arghh! My starting point is a pair of skinny jeans, a pair of baggy jeans, a Long Tall Sally parka, and then some thermal underwear- How glamorous!
Only twelve more hours to think about it? Any suggestions?
Posted at 04:30PM Jul 16, 2009 by Long Tall Sally Admin in "Carol" Comments (0)
Just checked out Long Tall Sally's 'Gym and Swim' section which got me thinking.....
Part of me feels sorry for anyone who has to resort to talking seriously about Rollerblading. It's a sport that stopped being cool about nine or ten years ago, but some people never got over the height of inline skating's popularity that peaked in 1996.
I owned a pair of knock-off Rollerblades made by Variflex that were neon green and black in the early 90s. They'd heat up to about 100F in the summer since they were made out of some futuristic polymer that retained heat really well, and rolling over anything by the newest buttery blacktop would result in vibrations to the extent that I was worried about nerve damage when I was 13 years old.
Getting towed behind a car or bike on pavement was like operating a jackhammer for several hours. I'm proud that I was able to give up Rollerblading, and I now only resort to talking about it derisively.....LTS's Hawaiian bikini is perfect rollerblading wear, don't ya' think?
Posted at 05:22PM Jul 08, 2009 by Long Tall Sally Admin in "Carol" Comments (0)
As seen on ..This Morning
After a well and truly deserved day off, I decided a day of relaxing was just what I needed. The store has been so busy lately with the preparation for our trans range, so I was pleased just to rest my tired feet!
I turned on my TV for my dose of Phil and Fern and low and behold I saw LTS on "This Morning!" I nearly choked on my cereal, they were doing a feature on fashion to suit your figure and focusing on height.
The show featured two of our gorgeous dresses; the Santorini and Vittoria, which looked fantastic on the models, flattering and framing in all the right places. Their resident stylist Helen Boyle stressed how proportion was the key and us tall girl’s should work our height with colour blocking, statement jewellery and oversize accessorises. I can’t wait to start trying out this season’s trends!
Talking of new products our new trans collection looks gorgeous! From opulent prints, slick tailoring and stylish separates in soft powdery blues and luxurious fabrics. With lots of exciting things lined up for the new season. I have my eye on everything- roll on payday!!
Click here to watch the video.
Posted at 09:54AM Jun 29, 2009 by Long Tall Sally Admin in "Carol" Comments (0)
A day in the life of a designer..
The Magnificence of the Czars and the constellation of Aquarius.
Twenty years ago, I met my friend Michelle on a bus in Russia. Twenty years is a long time, so we thought we should really celebrate with a suitably Russian event. First of all, we thought we would go to a Russian restaurant but even in London this wasn’t easy to organise! So, we decided to go and see “The magnificence of the Czars” at the Victoria and Albert museum and then pop along to South Kensington for a Polish meal and some good old vodka.
The exhibition was fab, such incredible opulence and wonderful workmanship. My favourite things included a pair of knitted stockings with a thistle pointelle detail, from the British Isles and a short woollen jacket, which was supposedly wet, weather gear and belonged to a gentlemen called Mr Smith.
I was intrigued, who was this Mr Smith, who was working as a coachman at the Russian Court? I hope to God, that he was never caught out in the rain in this completely unsuitable jacket!
The exhibition had attracted an impressive line up of visitors, including designers and artists: Jasper Conran, Laurence Llewelyn – Bowen, Nicky Haslem and Grayson Perry. So it will be interesting to see how the exhibition influences their work.
There were some beautiful copies of pieces from the Muslim art exhibition in the museum shop and some wonderful hats, that Michelle and I wanted to buy. But after looking at the price tags, all we came away with was a pair of turquoise diamante star earrings for Michelle, as she was going to a fancy dress as the constellation of Aquarius (Random, but apparently it was a success!)
After all that culture, of course we needed nourishment so it was off to the polish restaurant for huge plates of herrings, goulash and potato pancakes.
Posted at 11:02AM Jun 11, 2009 by Long Tall Sally Admin in "Carol" Comments (0)
A day in the life of a designer..
Let them eat cake
I am not a great lover of abstinence of any kind but I had been finding that my sweet tooth had got the better of me. So, when it came round to pancake night I thought right, I’m going to have a complete blow out and give up cakes, biscuits and chocolates for lent. So, I tucked heartily into a large stack of pancakes and then for forty days abstained from those much loved treats.
I did actually allow myself puddings which did not fall into the cakey/ biscuity variety plus one square of dark chocolate per day (For medicinal purposes, obviously!) "Ah!" I hear you say, that doesn’t sound so hard. However, put yourself in my shoes, I usually eat at least one cake a day often two and at least half a packet of biscuits… plus the rest! But I plugged on through lent thinking that it will do me good, maybe I will loose that half a stone I need to get rid of. It was hell, but I convinced myself that it was worth it for a looser waistband.
Come Good Friday I was desperate for my hot cross bun, I just had one and then waited patiently until Easter Sunday before I ate some chocolate and biscuits. Then with great anticipation and a bag of mini eggs in hand, I jumped onto the scales…Guess how much weight I had lost- not one single solitary pound!
In fact I had put on half a stone!
I could not believe it, so in disgust I launched myself into the classic Marie Antoinette diet; cake, cake and more cake. I worked my way through every cake on the shelf in the two cake shops nearest to work. In fact, I completely gorged myself.
I mean look at Marie Antoinette, she didn’t have an ounce of fat on her and you can’t tell me that, that was all corset! After two solid weeks of eating, I hadn’t lost any weight but I certainly hadn’t put any on.
So now I am working on the grapefruit diet, as I still have to get rid of that annoying half stone and the half stone that I originally needed to get rid of . After 4 days, I have lost 2llb so there is still a way to go, wish me luck!
Posted at 03:50PM May 20, 2009 by Long Tall Sally Admin in "Carol" Comments (0)
