Clothing manufacturers offer a great variety of sizes to fit almost any physique. However, traditional retail clothing stores do not carry obscure sizes, as it is more difficult to move the inventory.

Here in the states we have "Big and Tall" stores. These stores market themselves as a place where large men can find clothing. Unfortunately, these stores only offer merchandise for the horizontally gifted (fat). So, a tall yet slender man must look elsewhere for his garments.

Enter the Short and Tall store; a boutique serving both little people and vertically gifted community. Midgets will no longer need to shop in the children's section. Tall people will no longer need pants with a waist 6 sizes too large.
-- ed, Jun 25 2007

Big Tall Short (Menswear only) http://www.bigtallshort.com/
In Scottsdale, AZ and Peoria, AZ. [jutta, Jun 25 2007]

Big Men / Tall Men / Stout Men http://www.bigmen.com/
In Boston, MA. Don't know whether they have anything for the short and thin, though. [jutta, Jun 25 2007]

I like it for the freak-show value. (For women, a size two and twenty store.)
-- ldischler, Jun 25 2007


+ nice idea, and as a woman who constantly gains and loses weight, I usually have about four sizes of clothing. I'm not short enough for petite sizing but definetly not tall enough to wear most of the pant legs that I can find in regular stores. So your store may cater to women as well.
-- xandram, Jun 25 2007


i give it a bun. i like the idea of a store that has clothes in hard-to-find sizes. there's one on the outskirts of Birmingham but it's a mens store. it would be neat if they had one for women.
-- abhorsen1983, Jun 25 2007


Nice, [ed]. It irks me that although seemingly every cut of jeans ever conceived comes in a "long" variant, the "long" trouser is a rare thing indeed.
-- Texticle, Jun 25 2007


Baked in Aus.

Stores like "High and Mighty" are generally split into two distinct sections; Big and Tall.

I'm not sure which section you would first visit if you were both big and tall :)
-- reap, Jun 26 2007


Reap - I think you need to read the idea.

Me and my misses could both shop here.
-- wagster, Jun 26 2007


There are shops like this already in South Africa. One I know of in Pretoria called Short and Tall.
-- colinwheeler, Jun 26 2007


I was fairly sure that I had a similar rant, in a less idea-y form, elsewhere on der 'bakery, but I can't find it. Croissant, though, for I am also, as the men in the suit shop like to euphemise, "rangy." And my Better Half, being in many respects a miniature person, is often seen sporting clothes for people aged 11-12.
-- calum, Jun 26 2007


I checked out both links; neither of them seem to provide (US) size 36x38 jeans or pants. And where can one get size 14 or 15 sneakers in a narrow width?

Carrying women's clothing too would also be a no-brainer. There must be a market for designer womens shoes, sizes 10 and up.
-- ed, Jun 27 2007


I found 36x38 at the first place I checked (the second link, under "Tall Men's Jean"), as well as at the Levis Internet store. (Also explicitly labeled as "Big & Tall".)

These stores aren't the way I'd organize them - you can't seem to just enter your size and then browse stuff that fits you [how hard *is* this?], but they do have stuff, if you're a little patient.

As for online shoes, the canonical place for that seems to be Zappos.com. They *do* let you enter a shoe size and width, and browse only shoes of that shape. There are lots of sneakers at 15/N, at the very least. (There was something about Zappos' advertising that rubbed me the wrong way, some time ago, but I've forgotten what it was.)
-- jutta, Jun 27 2007


[jutta] Modern advertising logic wants you to be sold into the brand and product first, then simply accept the sizes that are available. The focus is on the brand, not on the purchaser. You even see this in some supermarkets where all the Kelloggs cereals are grouped together in one area, Post in another, and store brands in a third, so if you want to price compare the Corn Flakes(no TM, it's a generic term you leeches) you have to walk up and down the aisle.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Jun 27 2007


Ed, narrow shoes are difficult to find, aren't they? Although I only wear 10's in narrow, I have the same problem. Red Wings shoes makes 'em, but I had to order them.

Also try New Balance.
-- RayfordSteele, Jun 27 2007


I actually did some market research with the intent of starting a Short and Small store in my area, because trying to find mens dress pants (or even jeans) in a 29/30 or decent shirts in a 14.5/32 is just about impossible in Maine. Ultimately I decided that the retail business wasn't for me. Definitely a bun.
-- Capt Skinny, Jun 28 2007


//There must be a market for designer womens shoes, sizes 10 and up.//

There is. I once knew a woman with rather large feet that shopped online cross-dressing sites looking for shoes. RuPaul is not a small person either.
-- Noexit, Jun 29 2007


Why not a Procrustean clolthing store? It would sure cut (heh,heh) down on inventory.
-- Grimjack, Jun 29 2007



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