This all started with a shirt – a J.Crew light blue end-on-end stretch covered placket button up in a size 8 tall. It fit so well that I remarked to my then-boyfriend (now-husband) that all women topping six feet tall need this shirt. The cuffs of the sleeves hit just below my wrists, the darts created a fit unique from any other button up, the buttons didn’t gape, and the length of the body was ample in allowing me to tuck it into jeans, even when I would raise my arms up.
Every tall female needs this shirt. Tragically, J.Crew no longer sells it.
Growing up, I was always taller than most of my peers, but never towered over them to the extent that I do now. I was a freshman in high school, when four days into the new school year I was sent home from school, as my new American Eagle khaki shorts – shorts which many a teenage girl had as part of her back to school wardrobe – were deemed too short by the school administration. This was when I realized my height was setting me apart, and I hadn’t even reached my ultimate 6’2” stature yet.
Back then brands didn’t make a particular effort to cater to all shapes and sizes. J.Crew’s tall offerings were restricted to jeans, and inseams were only as long as 34 inches. I was thrilled when in 1999, my mom sprung for a pair of Abercrombie & Fitch slouchy bootcut jeans with a 36 inch inseam. Abercrombie & Fitch was a different company in 1999 than the one it would eventually morph into during the aughts, and the jean weight was a heavier weight, a better quality too. I wore them so frequently that they were the only pants I wore to school. The rest of the days, I would sport an ensemble with a skirt, which I found were less likely to get me sent home by the school administration for wardrobe infractions.
Lucindervention is my way of sharing all of the great fitting J.Crew-light-blue-end-on-end-stretch-covered-placket-button-up’s out there. I will try on all of the too-short jeans so you don’t have to.