Height of Fashion
For tall women, finding stylish clothing can be a towering frustration. Height Goddess founder Lameka Weeks is changing that — one lengthy inseam stitch at a time
NECESSITY, THE SAYING GOES, is the mother of invention — and for Lameka Weeks (above), necessity typically made itself known every morning, as she looked through her closet in an attempt to put together an outfit for the day.
Weeks, 34, is six-foot-one, a former basketball player (and communications major) at Auburn University Montgomery in Alabama, her home state. Throughout her professional career — spent mostly in sales with such corporate giants as Black & Decker, Michelin, Colgate and General Electric — she had difficulty finding good-looking clothes. So she mostly did what tall women have always done: settled for unflattering (or, worse, men’s) attire.
No more: Three years ago, Weeks, now living in Dallas, founded Height Goddess, a line of stylish, elegant clothing for taller women. HG’s jeans inseams, for example, go up to 40 inches — but “it takes more than adding length to a garment for it to be truly made for a tall woman,” she says. So she retains control of every aspect of her business: Height Goddess, she proudly notes, designs, manufactures and retails every stitch of a line that now includes dress pants, T-shirts, dresses and more.
Her perseverance is paying off. Dallas media and retailers are taking notice of Height Goddess, and in 2010, Weeks became one of the first people brought into the funding-and-mentoring program of 100 Urban Entrepreneurs and TheCASHFLOW, which offer $10,000 startup grants and eight weeks of intensive mentoring to some of the country’s most talented urban businesspeople.
Weeks has now been in Dallas for a decade, and community outreach is a big part of the Height Goddess ethos. Twenty percent of the proceeds from the recent launch party for its spring 2011 line, for example, went to Dress for Success Dallas, which offers needy women in Big D professional attire and help with career-development skills.
Weeks’s business aim now is expansion; she intends to broaden Height Goddess’s selection to include jackets, shirts and oversize shoes. She’s even mulling a clothing line for bigger men. Continued triumph over such entrepreneurial challenges is a tall order — but Weeks, it is safe to say, has become an expert at filling those.
•••
How did you end up founding Height Goddess — was it connected in any way to your existing career?
My career path hasn’t had much to do with me creating Height Goddess, other than I needed clothes to wear and found it very difficult to find clothing that fit me and was stylish.
My first thought was to open a clothing store for tall women, but I quickly realized that I wouldn’t have anyone to buy from to stock the store, so I began to look into manufacturing my own designs. HG designs, manufactures and retails all its clothing. Previous retailers who have catered to tall women have not manufactured their own designs. For example, Pendleton is a clothing line sold to these stores, but the store could only get certain items in tall, and it would have to make large inventory commitments to get them to make something specific.
Did you have much previous fashion-industry experience, or have you mostly picked up your knowledge on the fly?
I grew up around fashion retail. My mother was a women’s buyer for Kitchen’s, which was part of the Belk corporation, and my father managed a midsize retailer based in the South. I accompanied my mother on buying trips and asked the vendors lots of questions. That’s a totally different side of the business, though. I’ve picked up most of my knowledge on the fly.
Most of what’s on offer at “big and tall” stores is pretty dreadful, and presumably the problem is worse for women. Do you have much competition?
There are a few indirect mainstream retailers who say they have “tall” clothing, but it takes more than adding length to a garment for it to be truly made for a tall woman — and what they offer is on the short end of being tall.
Most of my direct competitors, meaning clothing for tall women is their business, are not based in the U.S. Historically, options for tall women have not been desirable. The clothing offered usually lacks style, fit or — most often — both, and a lot of tall women have to wear men’s clothing. I receive e-mails daily from women telling me about their frustrations, excited to find Height Goddess and looking forward to us expanding the clothing we offer.
What are your expansion plans, for both the apparel Height Goddess offers and the business itself?
The HG line has expanded to not only offer jeans but also dress pants. I’m looking forward to expanding the line to offer jackets, shirts and [more] dresses, and I plan to expand the business to offer large-size shoes.
Currently, I’m seeking a strategic investor who can assist me with the vision I have. I’m seeking more opportunities to sell direct to the customer via HSN and QVC, and to have Height Goddess sold in Nordstrom. Nordstrom is known for its shoe department; it’s one of the main places I shop for large-size shoes. Having HG sold in Nordstrom would be a great fit to capture additional sales that they’re currently missing.
How important is the Internet to your business model?
Very important. Other than catalogs, the Internet has been the biggest source for tall women to shop for clothing.
Have you experienced any reluctance from customers to buy clothes of unusual proportions online?
No, because this is the norm for tall women. A lot of other [consumer] markets have many shopping options, but this isn’t the case for tall women.
How about Dallas? It seems to be much less “old money and hairspray” than it used to be. How’s the entrepreneurial scene there?
Dallas has been great — it’s centrally located, a large city, low cost of living, and the opportunities for entrepreneurs are vast. I believe in talking to everyone here, and that networking has allowed me to make my goal of a clothing line for tall women come true. Now it’s time to make my dream of Height Goddess being the go-to brand for tall women come true. •
