short and sweet

Miu Miu

Burberry Prosum

Tall or short? Is it better to be a wee slip of a thing, a diminutive, Olsen size girl? Or Amazonian, modelesque, all gangly limbs and a head above everyone else? Or just, um, tall. Or short. Or average.


Fuelled by my prediliction for ridiculous heels, and the fact that Zoe is petite, I often feel like a giant. But I kind of like it. I’m not that tall at all (167cm) but I’ve got a hefty collection of 6-inch heels. After working in fashion (where anything less than that just feels wrong), I feel naked and stumpy in flat shoes. But, I'm living in Bondi, sans car, so I’m hardly going to go hit the beach in heels. I’m learning to love, or at least just tolerate, the joys of the humble gladiator sandal, the ballet flat, the Converse sneaker, and I've even been rekindling my affection for sneakers – of the Nike Blazer variety, not running shoes, obviously.

Where was I?

Ah, yes.

So, tall: powerful, commanding – I always, always wear heels to interviews and scary dates, so I can feel like I could just stomp on someone.

But sometimes, I wish I was shorter. It’s nice to look up to people, to be able to wear heels without it making you six foot. Every famous person I've ever interviewed has been miniscule! I could have put Dita Von Teese in my pocket, and Kylie Minogue would fit in my handbag.

Think of The Kate Moss moment - Alexandra Schulman of UK Vogue says...

"The first time I saw Kate Moss, I did not think she was beautiful. It was during the New York fashion shows of 1992 and she was a slight, bow-legged, mousey-haired urchin with attitude. You noticed her as she gawkily but, even then, confidently walked down the runway - although that was mainly because she was several inches shorter than most of her fellow models in the shows, and she was a newcomer.

The others - supermodels such as Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell, to name a few - had the bodies and polished stance which had been so fashionable in the Eighties; Kate was a rule-breaking waif, ushering in a whole new beauty aesthetic."

Did you know that Mick Jagger's squeeze L'Wren Scott (pictured above) is 6’4”! And his ex-wife Jerry Hall is 6ft. He likes them tall…

Perhaps the Wannadies put it best in their song Shorty.

Oh god how fun to be the one,
I'm so sad to say
You're nice and all, but you're too tall,
I have to go now

It always happens to me, always
They feel attracted to me, shorty
Always, they say.

Jen Brill, Chloe Sevigny and Lesley Arfin know what I'm talking about...