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One Classy Case of the Spots

We’ll just drop a quick one on y’all today! This weekend is Mother’s Day, and we’re headed up north to celebrate our Momma in the way she loves best. Quality time at the lake! We’re hoping to see the dock put in by the time we get up there, and Caitlin might even get a little crazy and do some water skiing. Stay tuned on our Instastories to see if it works out!

Hopefully the rain won’t end up happening as forecasted. Regardless, it will be incredible to be back up there and not see the lake frozen over! Plus we’ll get to do brunch with our extended family on Sunday to celebrate both our Mom and our Grandma. We’re also hoping to have our Mom shoot a few new items of hers to add to the blog schedule. It’s always good to see another age and body type for people to compare! Would anyone be interested in the three of us styling one item on each of us?

Our Mom always brightens up the blog with her presence. She also brightens up our shoots as well. We’ve said it before, but if we could always have her with us when we’re creating content, we would! She’s always watchful and helpful with turning us or telling us to fix our posture or even giving us new ideas for poses. She’s been truly invaluable to us improving, and we couldn’t do it without her support. Hopefully everyone is spending time with their Mom’s this weekend (if they’re able) and telling them or showing them how much they appreciate all that they do for them! Thank you from us to all the Moms out there for everything. You are unsung heroes, raising up our next generations!

Onto this dress. I have been loving the ladylike spring/summery dresses I’ve seen browsing my favorite retailers. The vibes are a total throwback to like the 40’s/50’s. Feminine details always draw me in, like the slight puff sleeve. Plus the sleeve length is wonderful to have a bit more coverage. I’m forever bemoaning the lack of short sleeve dresses in my closet. A lot of dresses end up having cap sleeves or something a bit unflattering for my arms.

Plus the v-neck is always such a flattering cut to any women. I wouldn’t suggest this for bigger bust women because the v-neck is lower, unless you don’t mind some cleavage. The rest of the details are all covered, like the buttons. They are super cute, plus it makes it feel far more secure than the average wrap dress. It makes me feel like a lady! I recently wore it to a baby shower, with a jean jacket thrown over because we randomly got more snow. I finished it off with these cute strappy sandals from Long Tall Sally. They have such an amazing selection of shoes for the Spring and Summer. Plus, you know they go up to size 15! You’ll be seeing a lot more of these shoes, because they are the perfect neutral.

Lastly, I have to mention that the dress is on major sale! It is a beautiful lightweight fabric that will keep you cool in the warmer months! Tell us below, what are you doing to celebrate Mother’s Day? We’re making our Mom some breakfast, doing some chores, and enjoying the lake!

Outfit Details

Shoes are linked above to Long Tall Sally

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I’m the Height of Fashion; In These Jeans

Jenilee wrote an incredibly strong post on Tuesday. If you missed it, I recommend heading back here to read it. Being 5 inches shorter than Jenilee, I haven’t had to deal with nearly as much backlash and commentary in public settings as she has. It definitely still happens. To put a little more perspective to it, if I am out and about alone I rarely hear anything. If I am rolling with my family or other tall friends, we almost always draw some sort of negative comments.

Most recently on my trip to Austin I made it until the very last day. Literally as we were leaving the hotel I heard “Did you play volleyball?” Ugh. To be completely honest these are the best type of “tall” comments to get. It’s not an insult, it’s just presumptuous and ignorant. I think the next in line for me is “Are you a model?” Again, I will admit this one is flattering, but still also just not necessary because it’s strictly because of the height.

Looking at the big picture, I rarely if ever get upset when people say things to me because I have watched the things people say and do to Jenilee and there is no comparison. I get so excited for festival season in Wisconsin (Summerfest, Germanfest, Bastille days). When I think about it further I realize this will inevitably bring some nasty scenario. For example, last year we were at Bastille Days as some gentlemen thought it would be okay to come and stand next to her and try to grab a picture. Triggered. It doesn’t take long anymore for me to react when hearing the things people say to her.

It’s funny, on one hand she does have people telling her she overreacts at times, but they don’t get to. Because its her feelings and her reaction to have. The tables have now turned. She sometimes has to tell me to cool down in situations because instinctively I want to defend her. Honestly, how do people think these things are okay to do? Would you walk up behind a bigger person and take a photo, someone with a disorder or disease? These are all things people can’t control so you surely shouldn’t be treating them different. Trust me when I say I could keep going with this post. We aren’t here to drop this much heaviness on you for one week, so I will save the rest for another day. I’ll leave you with this: pay attention to how you are treating people, and be kind.

Now I have quite the funny story for y’all. I’ll give a brief backstory first. Jenilee and I typically have to schedule out some shoot days extremely far in advance, because our schedules are nuts. On these days we traipse through the city trying to find all kinds of different backdrops to get multiple outfits done in one swing. We have been getting bored with using the same spots so we just hopped in the car for these shots with no plan in sight. We saw the train tracks and thought “that could be fun!”

I grabbed the shots of Jenilee first and as she was using a train as a backdrop it slowly starts moving. It moved far enough so it was completely out of the background, so we moved further back and grabbed the exact shots we wanted. A Union Pacific driver drove past once and looked at us but kept going so we switched places for my turn. Jenilee told me I should sit on the train car. I was like nah, I’ll do better. I am going to stand on it. Cue a different driving coming down the tracks, and her panicking. I casually got down and said, “oh grab a picture of me sitting too,” as she’s trying to run away. We were promptly but kindly told we couldn’t take pictures on Union Pacific property. Luckily, we had already gotten the shots. We get that it is probably a safety issue but it was too cool not to risk it!

It isn’t quite as hard for me to find great denim as it is for Jenilee, but it is definitely still a struggle. Not necessarily because of the height, but the height + curves combination. We heard that Height of Fashion was dropping some new denim and immediately knew they would be amazing. Natalie designs each of her pieces with a thought, care, and passion for the right fit and it certainly shows. Nat choose the dark denim for me (link here) and they fit like a glove. The length is great, the stretch is ideal, and the rise is high where it belongs. If these pictures don’t portray how easy they are to move around in then nothing will. I can’t name another pair of jeans that I could scale a train in while also wearing heels.

On of Nat’s main goals is to keep tall fashion sexy, fun, and on trend and wow is she nailing it! We haven’t spotted a drop of frump in her line yet. Knowing her goal, i grabbed this saucy olive blouse, my rattan purse, and the heels that just keep showing up. If you are looking to try out some new denim, this is your place! Or if you happen to need a bomb blazer (for $52!!) or lace top (for $22) see here, and here. And stay tuned, there might be more!

Dear Nat, thanks for making Jenilee and I feel like our best selves in these jeans!

Outfit Details

Jeans, Top, and Heels are linked above!

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Staying Striped with Amalli Talli

Yesterday we took a stand for tall. I’ve seen the unpopular opinion memes floating around and was inspired to write my own. If you missed it, click here. Inevitably, it will offend someone. That’s ok, not my intent. People need to be educated on how to speak/interact with others, so I grabbed the opportunity. If you want to talk about it further, please feel free to leave a comment below on your own experiences! The lighter portion of yesterday’s post was also finding a new favorite pair of jeans from Height of Fashion.

But today we’re back to our recent favorite topic, which is Amalli Talli! You’re probably wondering if we have everything from their store by now. The answer is, not yet, but we’re trying our very best to catch up. Hopefully you feel the authenticity when we speak about Amalli Talli and continuously buy their clothing. You will feel like your best self in their clothing. What that means to me, is not worrying about your clothing because it’s a seamless fit.

We love clothing and shopping, but don’t really consider ourselves fashionistas. I’d call us more fashion appreciators. The best part about fashion is picking and choosing what suits you. Everyone has a life unique to themselves. Meaning depending on your events and work, it might not make sense to buy “fancy” items. Especially in Wisconsin, we’re considered the strange ones showing up “overdressed.” I use quotations purposely, because overdressed is more a mindset than anything else.

One of the best takeaways from starting the blog, is figuring out what works well for us in our style journey. I’ve heard so many women say “this won’t work on me,” or “I can never wear that.” Subsequently, they’ll restrict themselves from even trying it on or testing it out.  Fashion is for everyone, not just who you’re accustomed to finding in magazines or ads.

We hope to encourage our tall sisters but really anyone reading this to feel a bit more confident to go out and try on something that you admire. The second part to being the sizing. I cannot emphasize this enough; don’t worry about sizing up. I guarantee you will feel more comfortable, and it will fit better, which will lead to you feeling incredible and more confident. Size is just a number. Let me repeat it again. Size is JUST a number. It’s completely pointless to buy a certain size just to claim you fit into it, and never wear the item.

That leads us (in a roundabout way) into these items from Amalli Talli. I’ve long admired t-shirt dresses, but never felt like it was a look for tall women. Mainly because a shirt dress connotative of Tom Cruise in his tighty whitey underwear, aka it being too short to be appropriate. In reality, all I needed was the right company to come along and take on the challenge of making it fit appropriately. Amalli Talli to the rescue!

A couple of key notes on this fit. I would recommend sizing up, especially if you have curves like us. As with most dresses, if you have a bigger butt it will pull up the back. This t-shirt dress feels super luxe. The fabric is so soft and stretchy!  Plus it is double lined. We always appreciate that extra layer so it’s not super clingy. This dress is so versatile, the perfect travel companion. It’s actually Caitlin’s dress, so we’ll be showcasing her in it very shortly in another remixed option!

Caitlin wore her Striped Duster in a super casual but chic look by wearing all black underneath. She has gotten so much use out of this duster already. As you can tell, not only is the length wonderful, but the sleeves are amazing as well. I can attest to the sleeves working really nicely on my arms as well. Again, the fabric feels really nice. It holds a flattering shape but is stretchy enough to layer it quite easily.

A lot of times we have had to size up in dusters to get the length we wanted, and ended up sacrificing the shape. That is probably the best part about this duster, is how flattering the upper body fits. Y’all this duster will take you to work, and keep you warm all day in your arctic environment. Then it will take you to dinner or drinks dressed down just as easily. We love how they paired it with the Selby midi dress from their site as well. It’s inevitable that will end up in our closets as well!

Let us know below if you’ve tested out Amalli Talli yet! Are you into the striped pieces and/or dusters? If we didn’t catch your attention last week with the Malibu Maxi, Palisade Jumpsuit, or Vernon Jumpsuit; maybe we did today? If this is true you can still use THEREALTALL15 for 15% off your purchase!

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Unpopular Opinion: Tall People Know They are Tall

We are with all of you. Just out here trying to find the best clothing options for our lengthier bodies. Being tall is such an unique experience because you grow up differently than your peers. You look older, as you’re rapidly growing taller compared to others. Subsequently, as children you’re treated older by misguided people. This is all brought to mind by an Instagram story that was shared by a fellow tall blogger, Laura Schofield. She’s received so many messages from women sharing their experiences, I realized we only scratch the surface here.

While we haven’t received as many messages, we have received enough. Hopefully you know you can share them with us, as a safe space to commiserate. It reminded me of the last time I shared a tall experience in my New Orleans Guide. You can click here to read up on it. Even as I was sharing it, I was thinking I was overreacting. I tried to write it in such a way to downplay the moment. But it sat with me the rest of the day until I managed to brush it aside.

Being friends with other tall women over the years, I’ve watched many different ways of reacting to comments and experiences. I’ve gotten yelled at by my own friends for “overreacting” when someone was invading my personal space and taking a picture of me for a laugh with their friends. Actually, that’s a regular experience. I don’t ever have to be OK with that, as most wouldn’t appreciate being photographed without consent.

There is nothing wrong with helping people understand that their behavior is rude and unacceptable. Everyone has their own boundaries to decide when and where they’ll speak up and/or leave situations. Honestly I find it disheartening some tall women are raised to believe they should just go along with it to be “likable.” It’s a conditioning process throughout many years, but we don’t have to perpetuate it.

In the same way that women deal with fat shaming, or shaming over any number of things, it all needs to stop. No I don’t “make you feel short.” You’re allowing yourself to feel that way, because you’re apparently insecure and projecting it onto me. Also, you are short(er). But you knew that before I walked in the room. I didn’t call attention to it other than to simply be present. No need to make a pointless comment I’ve heard thousands of times before.

For that reason, I seek out other tall people to be around. I love my non-tall friends, and they’re my friends for the reason they care to interact with me in a way which has nothing to do with my physical being. But for everyone else who thinks they’re being clever and finding a way to connect referencing height, you’re not. Please stop. If anything, it immediately repels you from making a connection. Imagine with your not-so-clever comment you’re digging a hole 10 ft deep and trying to climb out to form a base level friendship.

Thankfully, that’s only a percentage of the population. For every person making thoughtless comments, there are 5 more normal human beings. But we need to take a stance against the ones who are perpetuating it, and educate them on why they shouldn’t continue. It doesn’t mean being rude, but it doesn’t mean brushing it off. You don’t have to pretend like it doesn’t bother you (if it does).

I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of exploring this topic, but point being: we want you to feel GOOD if not GREAT about your height. Little comments erode that feeling over time, and make you feel like you can’t possibly be as amazing as you are. Luckily, there are companies to combat this, and make us feel incredible in-made-for-our-height clothing.

Height of Fashion is definitely one of those places. Natalie Matthews has made it her mission to help tall women feel like the gorgeous, leggy goddesses they are. She recently launched some new denim, and is extremely proud of the result. When she sent us each a pair to try, we could easily see why. This denim fits like a dream! I want to rave about the ripped knee placement for a moment; NEVER, and I mean NEVER has a pair been placed so perfectly. Normally it’s a bit off, and you have to kind of pull and rip further in order to be comfortable.

They are also the perfect length on my 6’4 frame. The high rise comes up enough for me to comfortably wear a crop top, as you can tell. As far as sizing, you know I wear between a 10/12 in jeans. I went with a 10 this time. They fit very comfortably, with generous room for the booty and thighs. If you’re in-between sizes, size down! Here is the direct link to this ripped pair.

As for the crop top, I love that ruching is back in the game! It is so flattering and forgiving on women. I grabbed my hat from H&M, which Caitlin and I both love because it fits our large heads. My RayBan’s have been in heavy rotation as we’re getting more and more sun! I finished it off with black mules from Nordstrom Rack. They are up to size 13, I’m telling you The Rack has us covered!

Big thanks to Height of Fashion for sending us these incredible jeans to try! I know they are going to get tons of wear through this summer and beyond. Stay tuned for Caitlin in the dark wash pair, along with the funny story of us taking these pictures! Go check out their website, they have loads of fabulous options. Also, please share your own stories and comments below, we’d love to hear them!

Outfit Details

Jeans are linked above!

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Hey Ho, Let’s Go

Happy Monday Fam! We are both slowly easing back into the shift from our Spring to Summer schedules. Which means more volleyball, more activities, and as much time outside as we can possibly get. Unfortunately we have been dealing with an insane amount of April showers. Hopefully this means the May flowers will be equally as abundant. Either way we appreciate that the snow seems to be strictly in the rear view mirror at this point.

Anyways, we are here to interrupt your regularly scheduled Amalli Talli content for a brief moment with another band tee. Our favorite question still stands with these tops: “Do you even know their music?” To be honest, the answer is sometimes no. And I couldn’t care less. If I see it, I like it, I wear it and I want to respond with “It’s called fashion look it up” Obviously there is a little bit of sass/sarcasm to that response but that’s just kind of who I am.

I won’t bore you with the details of how my love for band tees started again; if you missed it give this a read! Typically I lean towards wearing my tees with a bomber, leather jacket, or something more casual but I stepped outside my comfort zone with this outfit and wanted to dress it up a bit more. I got this Ramone’s shirt many years ago and still can’t stop wearing it. Same for these cigarette jeans, they have been on heavy rotation this season. My heels are new from my birthday and I still can’t stop wearing them. I have them in black, nude, and floral…so far. They offer 10 colors in a wide range of sizes and the heel height/comfort passes with flying colors over here.

This blazer is something I stalked on Asos forever. For some reason I struggle with the prize of blazers frequently. I know it isn’t something you want to cheap out on, otherwise the quality will take a hit. I still just don’t like swallowing that price tag. However, working in a business professional setting, I have definitely purchased my fair share of blazers. So far I have tried Old Navy, Asos, Express, and some miscellaneous brands from Nordstrom Rack. I have recently been lusting over the Amalli Talli one because I know it would fit like a dream but it just isn’t in the budget at this moment.

As I mentioned I stalked this specific one, as we both do often to many items. We patiently wait for items to go on sale or let the fear of the “not many left” note get to us and impulse buy.  The stalking and waiting of this one paid off majorly. It was favorited in Asos so even when it went out of stock I could see it and when it happened to come back in my size for under $20 I didn’t even have to think about it. I am so thankful to own this one, it is tailored looking, yet still the most comfortable blazer I own. It’s been worn to work monthly, if not more at this point!

I purchased this backpack for an upcoming trip, knowing that by the end of the day side bags usually start to hurt my shoulders. My hopes are high for this one making walking around all day much more comfortable. I would tell you where we are going, but Jenilee and I don’t know yet. It is a surprise trip location TBA and it is slowly but surely killing the planner in me. I want to know where, the weather, etc.

We have been pretty blog post heavy lately because we have too many items we are excited to post, so we have just been doing that! With that being said, I will keep it fairly short and sweet today. If you know of any great tall blazer companies I haven’t mentioned, I would love to hear from you below!

Here are some bonus pictures of the fit on Jenilee!

Outfit Details

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