Height of Fashion

'Height', according to my Oxford English Reference Dictionary, is 'the measurement from base to top or (of a standing person) from head to foot'. As it happens, from base to top, I measure 5'4", which is very close to the average height for a British female. This statistic of averageness comes from a handbook of anthropometric and strength measurements compiled in 2002 by ergonomists at the University of Nottingham on behalf of the Department for Trade and Industry, and intended for the use of product designers and the like. Well, things must have changed in the last ten years. I haven't shrunk, but I'm no longer average. I'm short, very short. And how do I know this? Because I've never bought a pair of jeans that I didn't have to trim by at least 8". I'm not height-aspirational. I don't buy these things imagining I'm going to grow into them. I could turn up the hems rather than getting out my sewing kit, but the turn-ups would just about reach my knees- not a good look. And I don't think the manufacturers are generously eating into their profit margins by giving me the extra denim for free. I'm paying for that waste material.  And out there in the world of fashion, a lot of old DTI handbooks are being used as doorstops.