Tall women in the Netherlands
The Netherlands is known as a country of tall people. And that is not just a stereotype. Dutch women are among the tallest women in the world. The average Dutch woman is around 169 cm tall, while the global average for women is about 159 cm. On average, Dutch women are therefore about 10 centimeters taller than women worldwide.
How many women are taller than 1.80 meters?
A woman of 1.80 meters or taller is certainly not unique in the Netherlands. According to figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), 7.2% of women born in 2000 and 2001 were taller than 1.79 meters. This means that approximately 1 in 14 young Dutch women is 1.80 meters or taller.
When are you considered a tall woman?
There is no official threshold for when someone is considered a tall woman. Within tall fashion, 1.75 meters is often used as a practical baseline.
From that height, regular women's clothing can start to fit differently. At 1.80 meters and taller, issues with garment length often become even more apparent. Think of trousers that are too short, sleeves that end above the wrist, or a waistline that does not fall in the right place.
However, height alone does not tell the whole story. Your body proportions also play a major role. For example, a woman of 1.80 meters with long legs requires a different fit than someone of the same height with a relatively long torso.
Fashion for tall women: why is it so difficult?
The mainstream fashion industry largely works with standard sizes. Think of sizes such as S, M, and L, or European sizes like 36, 38, and 40. These sizes are based on body measurements such as chest, waist, and hip circumference. However, your clothing size does not automatically indicate how long the garment is.
Within the European sizing standard, body length is included as a separate measurement, but clothing brands are free to determine how they apply their sizes and fits in practice. As a result, you still see relatively few garments in mainstream women's fashion where size and length are clearly distinguished from one another.
Length sizes do, therefore, exist. It is just that this choice is still far from being offered everywhere in women's fashion. If brands do offer different lengths, the selection often stops at L34. For tall women, that is not always sufficient. Depending on their body proportions and inseam, they sometimes need L36 or even L38.
And that is where the difference lies: your clothing size does not automatically determine what length you need.
Two women can both wear a ready-to-wear size 40, but need a completely different length. For a tall woman, a pair of trousers might therefore fit perfectly at the waist and hips, but still be too short. You don't need a larger size in that case. You need more length.
At TALLx, we believe that length should be just as self-evident as the rest of your size. That is why we design clothing with the body of a tall woman as our starting point, with both a waist size and a length size.