How to get your tall clothing imported from America

This is something I’ve wrestled with for quite a while, and I thought I’d share my experiences with you. Quite often I find myself checking out the tall shops in the U.S.A.

I’ve found some really good gear, but I found out the risks of importing clothes the hard way.

A couple of years ago, I was looking for a long black overcoat to see me through the winter season. I didn’t at the time, find some anything suitable in the UK tall shops, so I moved further afield. I ended up ordering this coat from J.C Penney’s that was a BARGAIN at $50. At least it seemed like a bargain.

It turned out that I ended up paying an additional £40 on import tax, which was EQUAL to the amount I paid for the coat itself. To add insult to injury, I ended up paying something like £20 on the delivery. So, in total:\r\n\r\nCoat: £50

Import tax: £50
Delivery: £20
= £120 total, which is 140% of the initial price of the coat!

So, there are a few lessons I learnt from this which you should bear in mind when buying extra tall clothing abroad. You might get lured in by a great range of sizes, and seemingly small prices, but in reality you need to be careful about what you’re getting, and where you’re getting it from.

1. Find out how much tax you will pay! Like I said, you can find that your tall shirts and jeans are relatively SMALL in retail price, but relatively BIG in import tax. Therefore, if it costs £70 to get tall mens clothing in the UK, and you think it’ll cost £50 in the U.S.A, then bear in mind how much import tax will be added onto that! If it’s more than £20, you will be out of pocket, and will have to go through a lot of fuss!
2. Check out the delivery prices! You WANT to find out how much it will set you back before you start browsing. Quite often the website will say ’shipping free’ and then in small letters ‘for anywhere outside the U.S.A’. Extra tall clothes are normally pretty expensive to ship, so either make a bulk-buy or adjust your budget. Since the pound is currently weak, you’ll be especially hit by little charges such as delivery.
3. It will cost a lot if things go wrong! If you imagine how much it costs to get things shipped over to you, try to imagine how much it would cost to get it shipped back! Realistically, you won’t be returning things which don’t fit, so it will always be a risk. Also remember that it can be HUGELY expensive to call these tall men’s clothing shops up and track down your delivery, so try to find a place which will track your order online.
4. That’s all, enjoy it!You can get some seriously good clothes from abroad, because they have a greater variety and range. It just seems to be more common to find plus size tall clothes in America, even though I doubt they have a higher proportion of tall people! There are some really good tall clothes, (incidentally, I still wear that long black coat), so it may well be worth taking a bit of a risk with it.

That’s all for now, have a go, and try out my list of plus size tall clothing shops in the U.K and the U.S.A for more info.