Shops catering to long feet and tall

Hi all,

I'm a Chinese woman who will be going on a semi long term business trip to Japan. I'm 1.71m (a little over 5'7'') tall and both my feet were professionally measured at 25.5cm. My first concern is whether I'll be able to find a decent selection of non-sport shoes at a decent price? In my country (China), the biggest size stores tend to carry is 24.5cm (or 39) with the average size being 23cm. When I find a pair of shoes I absolutely love and they don't carry my size I usually make do a size 24.5cm, but it has often caused me pain. Does Japan carry women's shoes above size 24.5cm? If so, where?

If anyone is around my height, how are the clothes fitting you? Even though I'm 1.71m, I don't usually have trouble with long-sleeve tops as my wingspan is only 1.66m (meaning I have short arms for my height as height usually equals wingspan). In China, I usually face more trouble with tops and pants length being a little short. I weigh 56kg and my proportions are more or less standard for an asian woman (nowhere particularly big or small width-wise). Will I have a hard time finding Japanese style clothing?

I'm afraid I may be having even more trouble than the average caucasian woman in finding things that fit as I'm taller than most caucasian woman.

Thank you very much,
Lisa

I'm 175 cm and also have 25.5cm feet, and I can tell you no, you will not have a reasonable selection of shoes to choose from.

For shoes I'm limited to Zara, the tall/large section of some department stores like Marui, and specialist large size shoe stores which are usually quite expensive. I do most of my shoe shopping overseas. It sounds like the average shoe size in China is exactly the same as here- almost all shoe shops stop at 24.5.

For clothes you have a bit more leeway, but I'm not sure what you mean by Japanese style clothing? Do you mean kimonos, or just clothes by Japanese designers?

I am long in the arms and legs, so most stores here don't have clothes with sleeves or legs anywhere near long enough for me. I shop mostly at Zara, Benetton, H&M for things I need length in, but I made the happy discovery recently that Uniqlo is now making trousers long enough for me in some styles. I don't know about more expensive brands as my budget doesn't extend to them, but you might have some luck there.

I'm small in the torso so I buy shorter-sleeved tops and skirts from just about anywhere. I find the clothes in the tall/large sections of department stores to be too big all over for me, and you probably will as well. I'm 58kg, so probably a very similar build to you.

Hi Sira,

Thank you for replying with helpful info. With regards to clothing, I'm more interested in Japanese street style clothing and clothing by Japanese designers.
Have you been able to find Japanese clothing that aren't too short?

Like you, I have more trouble finding shoes than clothes. Here in China, I usually go to European clothing shops (such as NEXT and H&M) for shoes as hardly any local vendors carry my size. I love ZARA too. btw: ZARA has the longest standard length trousers than any other brand I know! Even at my height, I have to get them hemmed quite a bit. For shoes, I guess I'm out of luck with local vendors but good to know that there are lots of international brands in Japan.

Hello Lisa, other than the stores I mentioned above, no, I haven't had any luck finding places with sleeves and legs long enough here- and I've lived in Japan for 12 years.

Zara trousers are the perfect length for me though and I've never in my life had to get anything hemmed, so if you do have to have things taken up sometimes you should have a lot more choice than I do here. Enjoy shopping!