By Andrea McVeigh

It all started with a tweet about a blog post, which led to a Twitter thread, much debate about hem lengths and a new hash tag for every Glamazon who was nicknamed lanky at school - #tallgirlarmy.

It seems like nothing vexes longer-legged local ladies more than the issue of where to buy suitable clothes for tall women.

The blog post in question - 'Being tall on the high street......it doesn't work' - was by Dawn, the talented blogger behind Inanity and the Girl (she's also one of the NI @FABB, fashion and beauty bloggers, gals).

Her hilarious and extremely accurate post struck a chord with the taller members of the Sugahfix team (our editor, the stunning Katrina, is 5'10" while Trends Ed Andrea measures in at 5'11") who have had to put up with decades of half-mast trousers, three-quarter length sleeves and dresses that barely skim our bums.

Then there are the tall ranges that presume that if you're tall you have no waist (hello Topshop!). Or, if the trousers are long enough they never fit right at the crotch!

Dawn (5'10") laments the lack of tall girl clothes available on the high street and says shopping for clothes is: "the bane of my life, waists too short, sleeves too short, hemlines skimming the buttocks.

Best I've found is Pearl Lowe for Peacocks, I have dresses from her that are actually knee length and proportionally they're cracking."

Trends Editor Andrea read Dawn's blog and, having never shopped for Pearl Lowe at Peacocks before, is now the proud owner of three of her dresses and is awaiting the SS collection with her credit card at the ready, while blabbering to anyone who will listen: "they come down to my knees, my knees!" The rest of its collection, especially the frocks in its Peacocks by Design Limited Edition range, are pretty knee-skimming too.

Dawn also recommends Florence & Fred at Tesco (SS12 pictured right) as well as Oasis, which, she points out, can be hit and miss: "But sometimes they get it bang on."

From our vantage point (which, let's face it, is considerably high up, looking down on everyone else) we think that most high street brands seem to have been shortening their frocks these past few years, which means that the waist usually sits way too high - somewhere just below our bras in fact!

New Look in particular is guilty of this - on tall girls their standard dresses end up at just-below-the-hip length. And that means wearing them over leggings or skinny jeans, or else risk an inadvertent flash of the nether regions.

That old familiar, Long Tall Sally, is just that - old. While it can be great for leggings, tights and pyjama bottoms, the styles are a bit too middle-aged for most of our readers, plus, they cost too much for those who prefer Primark prices.

So we asked our shopping savvy readers for tips on the best places to buy clothes and, perhaps more importantly, where to avoid, and wow - you tall girls were more than keen to give us your opinions.

Clodagh Birney thinks that New Look seems to be taking its tall range out of its stores and even off the website while Dorothy Perkins' tall range - which only features a limited range - only seems to be available online. Two moves in the wrong direction!

So Sugahfix did a wee search and found just 29 items in New Look's tall section, 13 of which were sale items, and just 14 in the DP tall section, mostly jumpers and jeans.

Laura Lamont suggests checking out MiH designer jeans and recommends Topshop Tall, although thinks they have quite a poor selection and the range only seems to be stocked in Belfast's Victoria Square branch (Sugahfix has also been disappointed by the limited Tall selection at Toppers).

Both Laura Menary and Rebecca McKinney like Zara. "It's one of the only places I can get jeans!" says Rebecca.

Anna Robinette raises a related problem that many tall girls face, the shoe dilemma. "To be honest I have more trouble finding shoes up to a size 9/42 that are fashionable and reasonably priced, and being so tall I can rarely get away with heels. New Look and some shops are starting to wise up, slowly..."

Sarah Hughes faces the same problem: "I mainly go online now to Hush Puppies, Charles Clinkard and tallgirls.co.uk."

So there you have it, we asked and you gals responded.

New Look, Dorothy Perkins and Topshop could do better with their tall ranges while Zara, River Island, Gap, Mango, Reiss, Ted Baker (pictured above), French Connection and Peacocks seem to be catering for the longer-legged market admirably.

If it hadn't been for Dawn's tweet about her post (follow her on Twitter at @inanitysgirl) we would never have had such a laugh about school nicknames and too-short skirts.

Nor would we have found a newly-motivated #tallgirlarmy ready to flash mob Peacocks just as soon as the Pearl Lowe SS drop hits town! Tall girls, we salute you!

What are the best shops or brands for tall girls? You have your say:

Seaneen Heaney: "If you have the money to spend, Rock & Republic jeans are great and very slim fitting."

Emma Burdett: "I'm not overly tall - 5'8" - but I always find River Island long legs quite good and their jeans fit my bum which is always a plus!"

Louise Campbell: "I'm not tall but I have long legs and often struggle to find jeans/trousers that fit. It was even harder to find maternity jeans - the only place I found ones that where long enough and that I liked was Gap."

Jan Henry: "The high street is now better than it used to be - at least I can now shop in Next, Gap etc, for many years I was too short for Long Tall Sally and too tall for anywhere normal!"

Caroline Simpson: "My problem isn't just trousers but all skirts and dresses are too short also. And I can never wear heels as I look stupidly big. Did like New Look's Tall range, but always disappointed in Topshop and Monsoon. Very poor selections and longer clothes seem to be more expensive."

Rebecca Black: "I'm 5'9" and find Mango and French Connection are great. I also love the Topshop Tall range. But generally there is much better choice online."

Now that our glamazon readers have had their say, it's over to the chic and petite to recommend their fave shops for perfectly proportioned clothes - check us out on Facebook ('like' our Sugahfix.com page) or follow us on Twitter @sugahgal and have your say.

Photo credits - Tall Girl friendly brands.

Top left - dress from Oasis SS12 range. www.oasis-stores.com

Top right - lace dress £30 from Florence & Fred at Tesco

above left and right - Ted Baker SS12.