The Fashion Industry Is Failing Tall Women | How Larson Will Change the Tall Girl Fashion Game ft. Camryn Larson

[00:00:00] 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. I am joined by a very, very special guest with us today. Another fellow tall girl brand. And I'm here with the owner and founder. Hi, Cameron. Hi, how are you?

[00:00:24] I am doing fantastic. We're getting over this, I don't know, Arctic freeze thing going on here. The past few days was like 19, 20 degrees. It was so bad. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm bright and early here in LA. It's 8 in the morning, but I'm ready to hit the day and I have a full day ahead of me. So I'm kind of excited to talk to you and start my day off just kind of like with a good conversation.

[00:00:49] Yay. Awesome. So glad to hear that. And so glad to hear your early riser too. That's super cool. But yeah, please introduce yourself to the audience. Totally. So I'm Cameron Larson. I'm the founder of Larson, which is a tall length clothing brand providing chic closet essentials to the taller woman. We're based in LA and I am six feet tall.

[00:01:13] Ooh, we love that. And also, cause you know, you just said you're six feet tall. I want to hear about your experiences growing up as a tall girl, the good, the bad, the ugly. What was that like for you? So we'll start with the good. And so we can start off on the right foot. But I grew up playing soccer from like seven years old to 22 years old. I played in college.

[00:01:37] Um, but so that was always helpful. It was always good to be taller when I was like playing sports. So I was always, you know, the girl that was going on the corner kicks, like if you know soccer, like I was the one heading the ball.

[00:01:49] And I actually, like I said, helped me play at a division one level in college and get my school paid for. Um, so that was really nice. And being tall was always an asset. Um, the bad was, I used to be like, so, so, so like self-conscious about my height. You know what I mean? It's like, I was wearing whatever flat shoe I could find. I would be like slouching.

[00:02:12] I would be like leaning over and all the pictures, just like looking as awkward as you possibly could look because you're trying to, you know, fit in with, with people who are five, five and what the world views as normal. So then growing up, it was like, Oh, I want to be like that. You know what I mean? And I was kind of just always like taller in junior high and elementary. And then in like high school, I was like tallest.

[00:02:39] So that was like even harder because it's like in high school, you know, everybody's changing and you're like starting to talk to boys, but then boys are like, you're so tall and taller than me. And I, you know, like, why was that the worst thing ever? Like as a 16 year old, I was like, this is horrible. Um, so it was like, that was really hard for me. Shockingly, like enough, even though it's like boys are something that

[00:03:09] for some reason I, I always felt like super self-conscious to like even talk to guys when I was in high school. Um, and just like trying to fit in with my friends and wearing things that just like, didn't look right because I wanted to wear what was cool and trending, but it did not look normal. Um, I also, this is like so random and just came to my head.

[00:03:33] And I also got dress coded like a lot because the short shorts just look shorter when you have long legs and you're six feet tall. So it's like, okay. Like I'm doing my little like hands to the side, fingertips down, but it was like inappropriate apparently.

[00:03:49] And I would be so upset and I'd have to call my parents and my parents were just like, we sent you out the house. We're not going to send you out the house looking, you know, not appropriate. So we know what you're wearing. It's okay. So those are some things, um, that I just really struggled with. Um, and yeah, I just, you know, I'm sure.

[00:04:12] I just relate. Definitely. I'm sure a lot of us can relate. And something that I found really interesting is that you played soccer because I feel like when a lot of people hear that tall women, tall people play sports, they're automatically thinking basketball or volleyball. So to hear like, yeah, we could play other sports too is honestly super cool.

[00:04:39] Thank you. Yeah. I mean, like, it's funny, like I said, in college, like on travel trips, we'd be going to play like university of Utah or someone and people in the airport be like, Oh, so you guys a volleyball team? If they saw me and I'm like, no, they'd be like, so are you a goalkeeper? Cause like goalkeepers are normally taller. Yeah. I was like, no, like, Oh, okay. So you're a center back. I'm like, no, I play center forward. Like it was just like all these like preconceived notions people just have in their head.

[00:05:08] Just come out when they're talking. And I'm just sometimes like, maybe think like, I didn't take any offense to it because by that time I was confident in my height. But if you would have like told me some of this where I was 15, I would have been a lot more like, like, you know what I mean? Yeah. Okay. No, no, no. You know what I mean? I feel like we all just have like, like blanket answer that just comes out by like default at this point. Essentially. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:38] No. And also, you know, speaking of questions that kind of leads into like, what was the one question or comment? One thing that you absolutely hated hearing as a tall girl growing up. Yeah. I really hated, this is like maybe more niche, but I hated when people would be like, Oh, I wish I was your height. Like I, I, you have to embrace being tall. Like so many people would love to be tall.

[00:06:07] Like that kind of thing. Because at that point growing up, I was still insecure about my height. So it's like pointing out someone's insecurity. I mean like, Oh, you should love that. Like why? It'd be like, Oh, you have a receding hairline. Oh, you should love that. Like, you know what I mean?

[00:06:23] Like, you know what I mean? Like people imagine if you point out the obvious in people that maybe they'd be insecure about, but it could be the same for someone with curly hair. Like I know a lot of women aren't maybe like self-conscious of their hair, like texture or style growing up. And people would be like, Oh, you have the most beautiful hair.

[00:06:41] And then they're like, okay, well I'm insecure about my hair. And people constantly highlighting what you're insecure about was like, okay, I know like I should be. And then you start to feel like guilty. And it's like, do I feel guilty? But it's, it's a weird, like just juxtaposition to be in because it's like, you're telling a 15 year old how they should feel about their body.

[00:07:05] Yeah, that's definitely understandable. I used to get that too. Like, yeah, not even used to like, I still it's funny because I went to it was like a family member's birthday party yesterday. And you know, you just have that one family member that's always talking about your height. And always saying, yeah, like, I wish I had something in height. Yeah, give me some of your height. I'm like, can you like, no tea, no shade, but I'm just like, please, can you just like stop? Thank you.

[00:07:32] No, no, it's like drop it. It'd be like, Oh, I wish. I don't know. It could be anything. It's like, yeah, pointing out something about someone that you don't know how people are feeling on the inside. I'm confident in my height. I'm still like zip. Like, I don't want to hear it.

[00:07:48] Exactly, exactly. I definitely feel you on that one. And now switching over to your brand. Yeah, what inspired you to start Larson? And what type of change do you want to have in the fashion industry for tall women?

[00:08:07] Totally. So what inspired me to start this whole brand of Larson is growing up, like I said, I was always tall, couldn't find clothes that I really loved. And then it was like about halfway through my freshman year of college. I don't know, something just like switched in my brain. And I was like, I'm confident. And I don't know if it's maturity. I don't know what what it was. But I became so confident in my height.

[00:08:30] And I started to learn how to like what things looked good on me. And I started to feel better about what I was wearing. So then for my senior capstone project, a couple years later, I was in my advertising class and we had to make an entire brand book about a brand you wish was created or that is created and create this whole brand guideline.

[00:08:53] So I created what is now Larson as my senior capstone project. It was called something else. It was a little bit different, of course, but I created this whole brand book and that's basically how it came to be. I sat on it for a couple of years after college, just like, you know, going into other career paths and figuring things out and everything that kept coming back and people be like, oh, what's your dream? Like, what's your dream? What's your dream job?

[00:09:18] And it would always be like, oh, I have this like brand. I really want to create for tall women, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that's kind of how it came to be. So yeah. That's honestly super cool how a project like essentially became like an actual thing. And you know, that goes to show y'all should be doing your homework. Exactly. Because you never know what can come from it.

[00:09:45] Right. True. That's a great one. I never like thought of that. Like if I didn't create, like go all in on this project or if I would have maybe just like been like, oh, I'm going to rebrand Zara, you know, like maybe we wouldn't be talking today. Exactly. You never know. And do you guys currently like have any products on hand? Like what do you what do you guys sell? And what could tall women get from you guys essentially? So right now we have like our pre-drop collection, which is actually like the hat that I'm wearing. It says not afraid of heights.

[00:10:15] Period. For the tall girls, but not being like cringy and like saying, oh, tall girls rule or whatever. You know what I mean? Like, no, we're not doing that. Okay. And then we have three hats and a tote bag, but the tote sold out. And then we have apparel coming very soon. We're expecting final samples. This is actually like a sample of one of our hoodies. Oh. Anyone yet? So this is it. Exclusive.

[00:10:46] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we have apparel coming really, really, really, really soon, which is like what I'm most excited about because that was like the premise of the whole thing. But something you don't know when you kind of jump into creating a clothing brand like I did is how long things take. And if it's like, oh, your samples will be ready here. And then you can have production go out and you can have your like final product and ready to ship and sell in six to eight weeks.

[00:11:14] And then you're like, okay, yeah, perfect. So then I was like gassed up putting stuff out there. I'm like going to be ready in November, 2024. It wasn't. There's so many things. You get a sample. You're like have this smallest tweak. Then that takes another six weeks to get your sample back. And you have another tweak. So it's just like kind of like a hamster wheel at the beginning where you're like running and running and running and trying to get things as perfect as possible.

[00:11:41] So apparel is coming soon, but you can shop our hats right now. Yeah. And of course, I've been seeing them around on social media too, which is super awesome. Just like at least getting your name out there. And yeah. And, you know, that's also why I want to give props to you guys, all of the tall brands out there. Because even starting a clothing brand just generally is like hard. As you said, it takes time. It takes a lot of time. But then on top of that, making sure everything is like good for our long limbs and so forth.

[00:12:11] Like y'all are doing the thing. And, you know, like a big reason why you and many other courageous tall women are starting these brands, like specifically for tall women is because of the lack of representation in stores and the fashion industry overall. What is your take on that? Like, you know, the lack of representation out there for us. Yeah, there's a huge lack of representation for tall women. It's like huge.

[00:12:41] So there are some smaller brands like I want to give it to them. They have other small brands that are cute and trendy and chic and whatever. But the biggest lack I think for me is that the like diversity of the clothing that is out there for tall women and the sizing. So it's like, yes, there may be jeans out there for tall women, but they're not necessarily stylish. They're just maybe a little like blander than something that I would personally choose to wear. There's not really a range.

[00:13:10] Like it's almost like some blanket products, like slacks that are straight down or whatever it may be. And I think like there are bigger companies like Abercrombie, Pretty Little Thing, ASOS. Like some of these companies have taller lengths. But I don't know if you you struggle with this. But I order from these places and they're still not long enough. And I'm six feet tall. And there's girls that are six to six three. I have friends that, you know, play volleyball and they're like six three, six four. Like that's not fitting them. And it's not fitting me.

[00:13:39] It's definitely not fitting them. So that's the thing, too. And I think that the lack of representation stems from that these companies are all ran by like 50 year old men who are not any way, shape or form, look like us, act like us, dress like us. So it's like, where is this coming from? And maybe the designers, like the women who work for these companies or men who are doing like the tech packs and stuff, they they have to follow orders.

[00:14:06] So it's like maybe they don't know, but they're probably most likely not tall either. A huge lack of representation stems from the top down. Yeah, that's very true. And then also going back to your point of, you know, there are some bigger brands out there that do sell tall options and stuff like that. It's like a little bit of a hit or miss, you know what I mean? And yeah.

[00:14:28] And, you know, as a short, tall girl myself, it's like, you know, sometimes like when I shop specifically from tall brands, those could be too long. But then it's like if I shop regular, it's definitely way too short. Right. So it's kind of like, you know, even just the thing of proportions, for example, can also be a bit tricky.

[00:14:52] And I wanted to ask if you think that those brands that actually do sell tall clothing, do you think they're actually trying to make an effort to meet our needs? Or is it more of a performative type of thing? Like, oh, we're representative. We're inclusive. Here you go. Even though it sucks, basically. Yeah. I don't know if it's performative may not be what I would say, but I feel like it's almost like a bandaid to the problem.

[00:15:21] They're like, okay, let's like add a couple of inches to the end and send it out there. And like, like you mentioned proportions are it's bigger than just a couple inches on the end. Like everybody, your body type is just different. And even tall girls have different body types. You may be curvy. You may be slimmer. You may have like an hourglass figure, but it's like these companies I think are just doing it to do it and just say it. Like you said, I guess it could be performative then, but like it's, it's more of just, I think

[00:15:50] they're doing it to just do it, to be honest and slap something out there. And most of the time it's not necessarily long enough. There was a time I was looking for silver pants. It's kind of niche. I ordered from three different places and what two were tall, Abercrombie tall. I ordered two from Zara and I ordered from pretty little thing tall. And that one was the only one that worked, but also pretty little thing is not like the

[00:16:16] highest quality of clothing, but it's like, I'm ordering and ordering and ordering and trying to find these things. And just even just those tall sections were just not long enough. Sometimes I'm like, is this actually even made for tall people? Or was it just a little bit longer than the average? And you just were like, all right, we'll call it tall. We already bought the inventory. Sorry, because that could be the case. You literally never know.

[00:16:41] I don't know, because I'm just, I'm just, sometimes it's hard to fathom who was like, yeah, this is tall. When, like you said, I guess I could even be a shorter tall girl in some case scenarios being six feet tall. And I'm just like, no way is this fitting other tall girls. It'd be like a slap in the face to call it tall. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And me getting heated over here. I'm like going off. I mean, rightfully so.

[00:17:09] Like this is something that's because, you know, when, when it comes to girls and like, I don't know, I'm not getting into biology. I graduated with a business degree. So if I'm wrong, it is what it is. But we hit our growth spurts earlier in life. We're experiencing these struggles from a younger age. Nine, seven, no, me, like seven, six, seven, all the way up to like, I don't even know when I stopped growing. I think I stopped growing when I was like 20, 1920. Like years and years and years.

[00:17:38] So yes, we have a right to be heated. Right. Okay. Fair. I was still like on the tallest line of the picture day. You know what I mean? So it was always a thing. And it was always like, I don't even want to go and try on pants in the store, which is another thing that I get upset about for tall women is I know the rise of e-commerce and

[00:18:07] online fashion is, is trending and it keeps growing, but it's still nice sometimes to go into a store and be able to try on something, but there's no tall section or even just like have a few, just put out like three pairs of pants so we can try out. You know what I mean? Yeah. But there's a petite section. There's a maternity section. There's a plus size section, but there's never a tall section. And that was always frustrating, especially years ago when I was growing up, like when

[00:18:36] online shopping was not really a thing and you didn't really have your own credit card or debit card in high school or junior high, like you can't just walk wherever and order longer length stuff. Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, understanding all of these struggles of not being able to try it on in stores, nasty proportions or, you know, being clothing, being labeled as tall and it's not actually tall.

[00:19:03] How do you believe that your brand Larson is going to be the solution and ultimately create a more inclusive experience for us tall women? Yeah. I mean, I hope we be the solution. I'm not like naive to the fact that not everybody's going to, you know, love everything. And there's, that's the thing too. There's room for so many other brands in this space, but I hope we bring things that are

[00:19:31] trendy, stylish closet essentials that people want to wear and want to gravitate to things like you see on Pinterest and you're like, those are really cool jeans. I can go get them from Larson or, Oh my gosh, I love those are the nicest black trousers. I can go get them from Larson. I really need white linen pants for my vacation this summer. Larson has a really cute pair. Like I hope we bring some like level of chicness to the tall industry because I don't think

[00:20:00] it's there right now as much as it should be. I don't want a blanket statement for every brand out there. I'm sure there are from like things I constantly see. It's just a little like runs flat for me. Um, so I hope to bring just chic, exciting pieces that women feel confident and women feel comfortable wearing and they feel good about themselves when they put on Larson clothing because it fits right. It looks good. It's something that fits their style.

[00:20:28] It's chic, it's timeless, and they'll have it for a long time. That is honestly great to hear. And I do kind of agree with you that a lot of options out there are pretty bland, you know, even something as simple as colors. Like why is it just black, white? And like, listen, we love, we love the basics. Okay. But like maybe we can add a little blue, a green, like a red, a pink, like purple. I don't know. We can like spice things up. Totally. Or just like chic it up. Like that's the thing.

[00:20:58] I just think like, I don't know. You go to, you go to the stores and it's also just like a blanket fit. Like, you know what I mean? It's like street. I'm like, what? Let's surf the body. Maybe let's. Or like some baggy pant type top. Like let's, let's mix it up. Exactly. We need like the, the good trendy things, but just make it tall. As you said. Yeah. And that's essentially what you're trying to do. Exactly. But I don't want it to be too trendy to it. To. I never want to be in like a fast fashion. Yes.

[00:21:28] Timeless. I want it to keep. Be like timeless trendy. That's a new word. Maybe I should point that out. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for sharing like your experiences. And even more information like about your brand and so forth. And I do want to ask one last question. Like a staple for these types of episodes. What is one piece of advice that you want to give to the tall girls listening right now? Who are struggling with their self-esteem because of their height? Yeah.

[00:21:56] I'll, I'll go two different directions for one from like a clothing perspective and one for just like a life perspective. A piece of advice for clothing and which I think also in turn can affect like life because that's just something I believe in is if you look good, you almost feel good. Exactly. So I would say find out what pieces fit your body and what looks good on you and what you feel confident in and kind of just like run with it.

[00:22:23] So if you feel confident in sweatshirts and leggings, okay, maybe that's what you're going to do for the time being. Okay. And then, then we branch out then. Okay. Maybe I want to wear leggings and like a tight long sleeve. Okay, cool. Just slowly like start to figure out what you feel confident in from your clothes and then kind of like try to replicate that in different ways. And I think like for tall women who are struggling just in life with being confident, I think like I'd

[00:22:52] look to other tall women who have done amazing things. Like one person I always look up to is Sarah Blakely. She's the creator of Spanx. She's a tall girl and she like has done amazing things and ran with it. And it's just like, look up to other people, the worst twins. I don't know if you know who they are. They're like putting such great content out there and just kind of surrounding yourself with people who are also tall and helping you embrace your tallness, I guess. Really like it was helpful for me.

[00:23:22] Like when I went to college, I think that's part of like the switch to when I became a lot more confident. It's you're around a bigger group of people and not necessarily the group of people you grew up with in your life. So if you can't go, you know, physically move to a different college, I would just try to like immerse yourself in a community of people that are more like diverse, I guess, and tall and short and everybody is different.

[00:23:47] And when you embrace that and really like surround yourself with people who have different body types and it's easier to be like, my body's beautiful too. And something I wish I like I had, maybe I wish I had that girl's hair, but she wishes she had my height and that girl probably hates her teeth. But I think her teeth are beautiful. You know what I mean? So it's everyone's always wishing for something that they don't have. And when you just embrace yourself and surround yourself with people who are different,

[00:24:13] I think you can really see like your unique like value proposition. Yeah. That was honestly such great advice. Yes. If you find that tall friend together like this, that was in like sixth through eighth grade. There was this other girl in my class. Like she entered like in fifth grade or whatever. We were like this. I'm telling you, when we separated in high school, that made me sad. But it is what it is. It's true though. Yeah.

[00:24:43] Like one of my best friends in college, we, this is actually crazy. It's kind of a thing, but it's, we met because I went to a hockey game, like a GCU hockey game, which is where I played at GCU. And she was there with her group of friends. And I noticed her because I feel like, I don't know if you feel this. I feel like it's like a club. You see a tall girl, you're like automatically root for them. You notice them. You're like, love you. Like, love you. So, um, I, we, I noticed her and she must've noticed me because then we went to like a party

[00:25:12] that night and she came up to me at the party and was like, oh my God, I saw you at the hockey game earlier. And I noticed you, I had to come up to you cause you're tall like me. And we are literally like best friends still. And she will like be in my wedding. Like, you know what I mean? Like, and we met because we were, she came up to me cause we were tall. So it's just, it's like a bond and yeah.

[00:25:38] And it also, I feel like it's like a continuous thing that confidence is about your height. And it's like, once you feel it, then you finally like, are just like, yeah, but there's still things that just set me off to this day. Like not, it doesn't make me unconfident. It's just like the things we were talking about earlier, the comments people make, it's still just like annoying. It's always going to be annoying. But when you're confident, you're just like, whatever, maybe don't stay the opposite. Period. So true. Thank you so, so much for that.

[00:26:08] Oh my gosh. This is honestly a great episode. Please plug yourself. Like, where can we find you? Where can we find your brand on the internet? Let us know. Yes. So you can follow Larson on my brand at Larson, the brand on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Facebook, all the things you can find us on our website is just Larson, the brand.com. My personal Instagram is Cameron Larson with two ends at the end. Same with TikTok. And yeah.

[00:26:38] Awesome. Of course, everything is going to be linked in the description. So it's super easy for you guys. And I'm going to take a second to plug myself at a tall girls podcast everywhere. Search me up on Google, Bing, wherever it is. Like, I'm sure I'm going to come up at this point. It's been four long, almost four long years. Like we are here. And thank you again so much, Cameron, for joining us and just speaking, speaking for the tall girl community. Honestly, it was so, it's such a pleasure having you here. Thanks for having me.

[00:27:07] Honestly, I was like really excited and like woke up, got my coffee. I was like turned on, do not disturb, texted all my people. I'm like, don't text. I have very important business this morning. It feels fun. And that's also like, it's fun to talk about this kind of stuff with you. So, yay. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. And yeah, of course, check her out. Check out her brand. Everything is going to be linked in the description. And thank you guys for listening up to this point.

[00:27:36] And until, of course, if you have any questions or comments or anything, feel free to hit either one of us up. And until then, we'll catch you in the next one. Good night and goodbye. Bye.