How To Find Confidence in Your Style as a Tall Woman ft. Tori aka 6footabae

Good morning everybody. You are currently listening to a Tall Girls podcast hosted by a tall girl named India. I hope everyone who's tuning in today is doing super fantastic. We have a very very very very very very special guest with us on the podcast today. Hi Torri, Hi, Hi everyone, Hi India. How are you doing today? Blessed? Thank you? Oh I love that note like I absolutely love that answer. Please please introduce yourself to the audience. Well, hi everyone, My name is Torri. I'm known on Instagram as six foot of Bay and I'm only on Instagram. I am a wife. My husband and I will be celebrating our twenty sixth wedding anniversary this year. We have two adult sons, Hi, Jordan and Jacob. Let's see, I'm a small business owner. My husband and I own a small printing company. I print ship do everything from home. Prior to that in about twenty years in hotel and restaurant management. So that's pretty much me. And of course I love all things pink. Love that, oh my, and how tall are you again? He says, your username is six foot of Bay, but is that like the exact measurement? Like, how tall are you? No? I am six foot one, to be exact, six foot of bay. People ask me that all the time. Why six footed Bay? Well, because I'm not a five foot of bay. So there's that I am putting up. So that makes a lot of sense. And I want to hear more about your experience growing up as a tall girl, like the good, the bad, the ugly. What was that like for you? Oh? My goodness. So I actually grew up in a different time. I'll be forty six this year, So like in the late eighties, I was already in middle school, you know what I'm saying. So I actually was teased more for like my Jerry curl than I was my height. Yes, I had a Jerry curl. It was extra juicy. Okay, so Jerry Okay, so Michael Jackson back in the day curly hair, Oh Jerry curl. Yeah, the very short kind of shoulderlingb curl. It's I'll have to send you a picchure, but yeah, it's a curly hairdoo from the eighties. Yes, and I had one. And I have been over six feet tall since eighth grade. And I was teased more for having that, and it was juicy. A lot of product in it versus my height. I of course I have a little joe, you know, too tall or jolly green giant like I had the little jokes. But I come from a great household where my mom and dad just told me my height was beautiful from a young age. So all of this, you see, now, I blame my parents, Honey, blame my parents. This is all them. Now, your parents. I believe your parents did a very very good job. Thank you, Thank you. Just ask like a little follow up, was there something involving your height? I know you mentioned it a little bit before, but was there something involving your height? It could be a question, it could be a comment. What was something involving your height that you absolutely hated hearing? Oh? You know what. To be honest, I got the basketball and the sports question a lot, and I didn't play any sports. No, you know, I just did not. I wasn't very athletic. That wasn't my thing. But the one thing that stands out to me, and I've heard that several times over the years. So I ran into someone and they always get the basketball question. And then when I say I don't play basketball, the follow up to that sometime it's like you Most of the time, it's like, oh, okay, cool, so what do you do or something. But I've had several people tell me what a waste of height, and I'm just like, ah, I feel like I wasted my height like a I don't know, and I my response to that particular guy was not very nice. I'll just leave it at that. But if I'd like to say, if you ever get someone that just blatantly says that you wasted your height, you lean in and you let them know that I am not a wasted my height, and you let them know your accomplishments. You let them know like you tell them that I didn't waste my height. I found love and cooking. I went to culinary school. I spent twenty years in hotels, in hotel and restaurant management. I am happily married to the love of my life. I have kids, I have a full life. I am exactly where I want to be in life. How about you, Since you're throwing shade and telling me I wasted my height, period, So yeah, and you stand up straight with your shoulders back and say it with your whole chest. You let people know you didn't waste your height. You wait tell them people, they wasted their breath talking to you. No, for I absolutely love that. It just makes no sense to me that people feel the need to make comments on something that literally doesn't even involve that at all. I mean, there's no shade to like the WNBA girls getting to the money nowadays. They have endorsement deals and they're making some of them are being compensated for their talents, but let's keep in mind that they're not compensated like the men. So if you're financially speaking, they're still not making six figures a year, you know. And if you're doing that in your career field, it's if you're comparing finances only you're still coming out on top. Not playing sports. So I don't know, that's just my thought process on it. But I do watch sports. I love the women basketball, basketball. My favorite sport is football. Go Houston Texans. But so I do support all the sports. But I'm just not very athletic. I didn't enjoy I tried it. I didn't enjoy getting my jersey yanked on and elbowed and all the physicality with that. I'm just not like that. I'm like when they were like nudgeing and yanking. I'm just like, why are you abusing me? Stop? Coach? So I went to a practice in like one game, and then that would that feeled the deal for me. I was like, yeah, I know I'm tall, but I don't want to do this. At least he knew early on. That's all that matters, because there's some who go through the entire process and realize much later in life that this is not something that they had wanted to do the entire time. Well, they were probably nudged because like the coaches see me walking around the high school or middle school and like, oh, wow, boy, that's a tall girl. Hey listen, come to the gym, cop try out, grab the ball, throw it out there to the gore. You know. They they were just nudged along, and then you get into it. It's like, yeah, yeah, this isn't for me. Yeah that makes a lot of sense. But now well not, well yeah for I'm sure for a while. So I've been following you for a while. You know, you are like a fashionista in the tall world, especially on Instagram, like a fashioniete. It was a well thank you for that. I am I just where would I like exactly? And that's also like what I wanted to, you know, start up with and ask you, like, how would you describe your personal style? Well, I'd like the preface with the fact that I think my personal style is kind of still evolving, so I will speak currently to my personal style. I think it is first and foremost very conservative. Uh, and that's just who I am. So you won't get a lot of content with my cheeks out or you know, super low tops, you know, very revealing clothing. Nothing, no shade to anyone out there doing uh, creating content like that, That's just not my jam, you know. So at the forefront, my I like to think that my content was very conservative, very colorful, and convenient. The three c's conservative, colorful, convenient. I like being able just to walk into my closet, grab a shirt, grab a you know, jeans or pants, throw on my loafers which are my favorite shoes, or sandals, and I'm out the door. I went from I went from crying and struggling in my closet to find clothing because you know, let's say a decade ago, you know, it wasn't options that we have now. So I filled my closet and I tell people all the time. Yeah, I probably don't need this much stuff, but I'm at the end of the day, I'm still a tall woman and I need items. And I'm also really big into things fitting properly. So my closet is filled with things that can take me from a backyard barbecue to a formal event. I have gowns, I have picnic tops. So, like, I don't know, I just I wanted to make sure I had items that I didn't have to stress and cry about anymore. I can reach in and grab and go. Is there a particular outfit or at least like a piece of clothing that makes you feel the most confident? Ooh, that's real easy. T shirt and jeans. I talk about that all the time. I love a tea. I'm wearing T shirt and jeans now, and a lot of people they don't even put it together that that's what I'm wearing because I've styled it differently. I may have, you know, maybe pulled a T shirt in the back, or like even with my blazers that have a tie, I can tie that in the bag. You just style it differently, and it draws the attention away that she's just wearing a basic T shirt and jean. But I like that it is a basic T shirt and jean because if I'm wearing it, that means you can wear it. Even the most casual of people can wear it. Another one of my top fashion things I really really love. On top of the T shirt and jeans, you could throw a blazer on over it. I love, love, love a good blazer. A blazer can take you from from fridays at the office right on into happy hour or brunch on the weekends with your girls. So I love a good blazer, but I'm really particular about how they fit, so I may have just a handful of them, because I don't want a blazer that shows my wrist. I want them covered. I don't want pants that's at my ankle. I want them on the floor. I can alter them if I don't like the length, but I don't want I don't want pieces that make me feel less than And that's why I feel my closet and that's why I share about all of my findes, because if I have it, I want every tall girl to have access to it as well. And that also kind of like leads me into my next question of your number one fashion hack or styling tip that can help you know, tall women find their style and help them, you know, feel confident in what they're wearing. This is easy, and I talk about this often on my page Tall Girls, Listen up. Find yourself an amazing tailor, find yourself an amazing shoe cobbler. Two things. I have an entire tailor highlight on my page. And when you get items in, I like to take those items and I want to make them me because they're gonna come in. You ordered them, You already did the hard part. You already paid for the item, ordered it because you loved it. But then you get it in it's not fitting quite right. So your immediate response is to just return it. But you've ordered it because it's beautiful. So sit with that piece for a day or two before you return it. See how you can make it better. Could you incorporate it? You know, I've had I've gotten things in with ruffles, sleeves, and maybe it had too many ruffles. I take it to my tailor and she takes off a layer of the ruffles, or she tucks them. She's dropped my cup, she's altered my hands. A shoe cobbler. Perfect example at my big old age. I'm comfortable in a three to four inch pump, but I might see a pretty pair of pumps that's a five inch heel. Typically a cobbler can cut your heel up to an inch. So take your shoes, get those pretty shoes, take them to your cobbler, ask him if they can cut them. And guess what if he says no, he can't cut them, what do you do? You can then send them back, but you don't want to just send them back because you got them now and they're a little too high for your comfortability. So those are my two tips. Get yourself a great tailor, get yourself a great cobbler. My cobbler, he cleans my purses. He's the one that took the straps off of my tailflower bag, my tail far back. Like. I felt like, I like many bags, but if I have to stick the straps in it, I didn't want it. I was gonna just send it back right, But then I was like, no, I really love the color. I love the bag, so I had him take the straps off. I've had several people ask me, what's the bag real because it doesn't have the straps. No, I make things how I like it. I'm not a big turtlenecks fan. If you hit my tailor highlight, you'll see I have sweaters that I bought there were turtlenecks. I take it to my tailor, my seam streets. She takes the turtleneck off and adjust the collar for me. Like, I don't know, I just really big on making clothing, wearing things that making clothes and fit you and make you smile, like you don't have to always return everything, but also you can return whatever you like. You know. That also kind of brings up this interesting point of having a custom fit, because I feel like, especially in this day and age, there's a lot more people, especially women, bringing up the fact that many of these clothing items that these big brands are making, they're not sitting on different body types, like let's it'll fit on the model because the model has this custom fit of the clothes, but when you get the product, it's pretty standardized as a one size fits all. I guess you could say type of situation. So I think you just bring up a good point where it's like you were a lot of us are complaining about how these clothing items are not made to fit each individual body. It's like you have to put in that effort and you have to put in like a little bit of that extra investment of making sure that these fit your body perfectly. So I honestly like that point, and I still find it interesting, Like I didn't know. I'm not gonna lie to you, I didn't know that, like shoe cobbler still existed. You were talking, Yeah, a shoe repair store. You know you can go there. I mean a lot of people have those, but they're really ram they're really owned and operated small businesses in itself. And the guy, guy or girl is a cobbler. They work work basically, they work with shoes, handbags and stuff. You know. I broke a strap on one of my favorite bags and they were able to replace it. I had a stain on my leather bag. They got it out, so it goes. I don't know. I just feel like, especially with me, I always try to invest and buy good pieces. So if I buy a two hundred three hundred dollars bag or whatever, I don't want to toss it because it's damage. Definitely going to reach out to my cobbler to see if he can assist me. If I have a two hundred dollars pair of pants that's got a stain on it or that's ripped, I'm going to reach out to them and see if they can sew it or clean it. I don't know. I just really believe in utilizing the people that specialize in those kind of industries. So it and it really keeps another piece of fabric from being in the landfill too. It really helps out. Yeah, that is very true. So I think that the shoe repair story, like the shoe collar, like, I think that's very good because I don't think that's something that many of us thought of right off the top of our heads. And I know I touched a little bit like on the fashion industry, But I do want to ask you because you're one of the fashion experts and that's all work, like, like, how do you see the fashion industry evolving in terms of inclusivity for a tall women? Oh? Man, that's a great question, India. I'm seeing it now. I'm actually seeing it now. We're listen. We're nowhere near where we need to be for big box retailers to be size inclusive and height inclusive in my opinion. But what I love is that they're taking note, and they're they're including us. They're not there yet, and it's kind of like my good American review. I feel like they're tall girl friendly, not necessarily tall girl approved just yet. But for big brands even I think so. I saw a post a tall girl do something about Target has tall in store, Like she went in store and got a pair of thirty two inch genes that fit her with a thirty four or thirty five inch in theme. So while tall is, there's always this big debate on what end theme is tall. You can be like your height India, I think you said you're five nine five to ten, so you could be Yeah, so you could be your height and be tall, and you could also be my height at six y' one and be tall. But just because I have a thirty six inch end scene and I prefer to wear, you know, order thirty sevens or thirty eight inch jeans because I like to wear my heels doesn't mean that that's gonna work for you. I don't know if you like to wear heels. I don't know if you even like to have your pants at that long. But I always say this, so if any big box retailers ever stumble upon this video. Please make the pants long. Make them long as you can, because thought, in my opinion, short girls can have their pants altered, they can go and have that length cut off. We can't add length. So I just feel like the big box retailers they take care and concern and bring in in their petit section and the way that they're cut and the way that they're styled, and the care and concern that goes into the petit women is not the same care and concern that goes into tall women. And we would like to see that, you know, in the big box retailers in stores. Now, let me also say this, I am not a huge in store shopper. Like I prefer to just order all of my stuff in I can try it on in the comfort of my own home, send back what I don't need. So I am not your in store shopper. But I tell you what a lot of women are. Most women are. Most women love to go over to the mall. Most women love to hit it. And the tall women are no different. They want to go to the mall. They want to be able to walk in the store and grab some tall items off the shelf. That's gonna fit them, and I don't see why they can't do that, and I really wish that they would include it. We're seeing it now, but they're not there yet. So I like that old Navy gap. Good America and all these places are noticing that we need tall and not just tall, extra tall. And if we need to extra extra tall, we need longer lens in store. As tall women, we really should struggle the way we do to find things. And that's just it. And I want to take a moment and shout out to all of my independent tall brands that are doing it for us right now. Yes, keep it up. I love it because I rock with them. Yes, yes, Okay, So tall ladies, if y'all are still, you know, upset, crying, you're mad, you can't find anything, please follow me because I'm gonna tell you all about all the independent tall brands. You need a Maxi dress that's gonna hit the floor, reach out, I got you. You need shirts that's gonna go past your wrists, reach out, I got you. The independent brands are out there, they're killing it for us, and you know I also, well number one, I definitely agree with that. Shout out to all the tall brands out there, like you guys are literally doing amazing work. And I also like your point of we need more taller options in store, because yes, they are trying, like the bigger brands are definitely trying to be more inclusive of our heights. However, I feel like they're being inclusive more online than in store, if that makes sense, so with my experiences, because like I don't really buy too many pairs of gens because I like to just keep mine for a very very long time. But you know, I like browsing sometimes, and even with Old Navy and even with American Eagle, I see that they have their tall and extra tall options. But when I go in store, like I went shopping with my friends a couple of times because they're like preparing for their trips and da da da da, and I just go over to the gene section and take a look. They will have the short option there, and they'll have the regular option there, but they won't have the long or the tall options there. So it's very interesting to me how they have it more so online than in store. Maybe I don't know, maybe because to save like space or to save money, they don't produce it as much and put it in stores because you know, let's face it, not we're not the majority. As that makes sense, we still do exist, we're still here. We're just not the mastery. So they, I guess, don't feel the need to put it in store. But you know, we're still a market. There's like millions of tall women out there, like over a million tall women out there, Like there's still a market that, yeah, tap with that, we're the one percenters. There's only one percent of us women are six foot and taller, So we're the one percenters. And that's just only in America. Who knows what it's like international internationally. Excuse me. I feel like again, like I said, I feel like we're seeing it. They're trying they drop tall or just basically added some length to their regular or petite items. So in my mind, a light bulb went off to them and said, Okay, yeah, we need to include them. If we're gonna have petite or regular or plus, we need to have tall women clothing. I just feel like they started with a shorter end scene, which tells me they're catering to the women that are on the shorter end of tall. The five nine to your five eleven crowd and again listen, however, we can get the Linsen store. If that's your starting point. I cannot wait to see your finish line because I'm telling you it's coming and it's gonna be amazing. I'm really excited. And I love when brands like Good American reach out and actually ask my opinion on things. That was nice of them. They did not have to do that, so I sure gave it to them. Exactly. Market research number one tip for the big brands. Market research. And yes, you want to ask this final question, what is one piece of advice that you want to get to the tall girls who are listening right now, who are struggling with their self esteem because of their height. Man, you know what, I'll just say this, no matter how upset you are about being tall, you can't change that. You can't cry your height away, you can't pray it away, you can't wish it away. I want especially especially my younger babies, my say, my preteens, to my twenty five year olds that are watching who may not be so secure with their height, and anyone else. Really, if you're in if you're my age forties fifties, and you need a little bit more love. I want you to know something that if you don't love your height, I do. I love your height. And if you ever need a little love, you DM me you hit my page and I have a whole highlight deea dedicated to that. It's called tall. It's on my page, and I tell everyone, just flip through that highlight. If you're just not feeling better after flipping through that highlight, I mean, at least it'll make you smile, you know, So put your head up, walk, talk with confidence, and just know that your height is a beautiful thing. It is gorgeous, okay, and love yourself. You're gonna be all right, because let me tell you something I love. I love being a tall woman. I wouldn't change one thing. I don't want to be five nine, I don't want to be six I mean six ' six. I want to be Tory six foot of bay at six foot one. I love it. I wouldn't change one thing about it. Oh my gosh, I love that so much. And honestly, I'm definitely gonna take a look at that highlight reel after episode. But please, where where can we find you on the interweb? I am only on Instagram at six foot of Bay. Oh it's literally right there behind you. Well, either way, I'm still going to have it as a link in my description and I'm going to use this opportunity to plug myself. You can find me at a Tall Girls podcast, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, my website also started the newsletter guys, but that link will also be done in the description. And thank you again, so so much Toy for being here on this podcast. I really do appreciate it. You're so welcome. Thank you for inviting me and having me. This was really cool, This was really fun. I enjoyed it India yeay, and I hope the rest of you guys enjoyed this as well. You can hit me up, you can hit Toy up and let us know what you thought about this episode and all the advice that she gave, the amazing advice that she gave. And until then, I will catch you guys in the next one. Good night and goodbye bye.