A Tall order: Height of fashion takes on new
meaning when you've got a 36-inch inseam
If the ceilings in their 124th
Street boutique are any indication, the women behind KAJ Clothing
have lofty business goals and a high-minded purpose: tall women are
hot and deserve to dress as well as those who are not.
Kristina Simpson, at five-foot-ten,
and her six-foot-tall partner Janine Gahn know the frustration of
being a vertically blessed lasso trying to find stylish clothes that
fit.
Think about shopping for a bathing
suit. "You end up thinking of yourself as a hippo because nothing
fits right," Gahn says.
That's how it is for tall women.
All the time.
Embracing one's own elevation is
how KAJ hopes to make long-in-the-legs ladies feel gorgeous and
self-assured. Some customers stand six-foot-four -- even Gahn
sometimes feels "seriously dwarfed."
Despite the idea of tall, beautiful
women -- just look at the world's supermodels -- many of KAJ's
customers feel awkward, unfeminine and giant. Some are even too
embarrassed to come out of the change rooms. That's when Simpson and
Gahn step in with well-tailored retail therapy.
"We encourage tall women to be
confident," Gahn says. Adds Simpson: "Most women who are taller than
average are very self-conscious. Why? Because men are shorter? Who
cares?"
KAJ -- pronounced like the slang
abbreviation of casual ("cas") -- is an acronym for Kristina And
Janine. Few know how to say the name: K-A-J, Kai, and "that store
owned by the two sisters" are some descriptions Simpson and Gahn
have heard.
The pair aren't related. They
studied fashion design side-by-side at Kwantlen College in
Vancouver, but didn't hang out much because of the age gap -- "I was
the old lady," says Gahn, 28, of their six-year age difference. But
then Simpson caught wind of Gahn's plans to design a line of
clothing for a Whyte Avenue shop and offered to help out. Gahn said:
why not?
The two got to know one another on
the 12-hour drive to Edmonton and, while the line of clothing never
materialized, a friendship did. When Gahn decided to open a clothing
boutique after completing her diploma in 2004, Simpson ditched
Kwantlen and said: wait up!
"It was, well, let's do it, let's
do it now," Gahn says.
KAJ opened in the up-and-coming
124th Street shopping district that October, catering to a niche
market in the city. And they're quite happy to trash the other
retail competition for women their height.
"Tall Girl has a lot of polyester
blends. Polyester pills, and so it looks old really fast," Gahn
rants. "They're cheap. They have poor quality," Simpson rages. "It's
extremely dated and not fashion-forward," Gahn adds.
The pair co-designs an in-house
line at KAJ, and sell other trendy and smart casual designs that
suit longer limbs and torsos, from Montreal's Jessie May to
Vancouver's Fidelity and Dish.
But while KAJ promises jean inseams
no shorter than 36 inches, more than half their clients are average
height -- even short. The free hemming probably helps.
Running a women's
boutique is, in Gahn's words, the "ultimate dream," but there are
headaches. Accounting, Simpson says, is the least fun part, and
dealing with banks that view them as a liability adds to the stress.
Gahn still lives with her parents; Simpson has a second job at a
bar, some days pulling back-to-back eight-hour shifts. Published:
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Despite those entrepreneurial
bumps, arguments are a rarity. "We have one fight a year," Simpson
says. "We'll yell and we'll cry and then everything will be fine."
The pair say working together is
more a blessing than a curse.
"A lot of women around here who are
the sole proprietors envy us because we have someone to share our
stresses with," Simpson says.
And their complementary
personalities benefit the boutique. Gahn is assertive but testy;
Simpson passive but agreeable. Gahn dresses funky, Simpson more
conservative.
"Our buyers laugh at us," Simpson
says. "Janine will be like, oh my God, we have to have that in every
colour! And I'll be like, no, we'll only have one colour."
Despite the risks and the
sacrifices, Gahn and Simpson say KAJ is their "baby" and they're in
it for the long haul. Remedying tall women's fashion frustrations,
Gahn says, is hugely rewarding.
"I love when someone comes in with
a fit problem and I solve it," she says. "A lot of people think
that's frou-frou, but I find it fulfilling."
By Elizabeth Withey
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