Did you know that every REAL man wears up to a size 38 waisted pair of pants and a shirt with a 16½" neck?

It seems that the sizing book most clothing manufacturer's use is missing the back half. It apparently stops and so does fashion stop at size 38 pants. Why does the garment industry not look around at the regular population? Look and see that there are men out in the ‘real world' that are bigger and taller then the cookie cutter patterns the designers are using.

Ostensibly every man over a certain size doesn't have or has lost all sense of fashion and the desire to dress well. Very few men's wear designers can be more then the "average size" because otherwise they would be creating clothes with empathy for the tall and big guy.

The limited availability of descent clothes is actually a major issue that the tall and big man has to content with. It's not as easy as "...I'm going away this weekend I need a new pair of pants and a shirt" and then stop on the way home from work at the department store and pick them up. It becomes a whole agonizing, sometimes embarrassing ordeal. Heaven forbid that the man with a 50" waist and 35" inseam wanting a great looking pair of jeans.

In most cases the department store carries dozens of racks of wear-ables in the ‘average' sizes filled to overflowing and one rack and shelf of bigger sized shapeless stuff that all just looks like fat persons clothes. Having to stop at every mall in town with the same results can be devastating to the morale of anyone.

For the ones living in metropolitan areas there are stores that deal exclusively for the big and tall man. Shopping there the over 6' business man doesn't need to walk with his regular length tie flapping around mid-chest. No they actually come in x-long, xx-long, up to 67"in length; long enough that even the tallest guy needs to watch that his tie doesn't get zipped into his fly. These stores usually carry everything from suits to casual, to sports wear, to underwear, and socks. In some cases they even sell shoes and slippers too, up to a size 20 in quadruple E width. However it seems that the king sized man also needs a king sized wallet to shop in some of those specialty stores as most everything they carry is surcharged.

Predominantly on-line warehouse shopping becomes the norm. Here too most everything is available, but at more affordable prices. The draw back is that the sizing needs to be very accurate to assure proper fit and also the shipping and handling charges will have to be built into the cost.

There is however another avenue that the special sized man can take and that is to have his clothes made from scratch by the neighborhood tailor. These personalized clothes are not a cheap way out either, but they at least assure that the clothes are well made, will fit just right and follow the fashion too.

One question however doesn't seem to have a readily available answer. Why is big and tall men's wear, dumped under one umbrella? Each special size has its own need. Regardless, really tall and slender, tall and wide or just wide, proper fitting clothes make the man; they give a man confidence to become successful at work or in his personal life.

Photos by www.sxc.hu