When You Need Something a Little More Formal than Omar’s

    The trouble with Big & Tall shops is they cater more toward the Tall than the Big. There’s no such thing as a Big & Short shop, so it’s extremely difficult to get a big size at a short length. I wasted several months trying to special order a jacket before I learned that lesson (as described at length in my Diary). Nevertheless I still need to find a suit jacket or a blazer brave enough to encompass my vast expanse.
    The stores around town have let me down*, but luckily I happened to spot a few links which might help. I haven’t tried any of these, so none has any kind of endorsement; but they all reportedly have the Portly Short cut in larger sizes.
    For starters, there’s the Big Men / Tall Men / Stout Men’s Shop in Massachusetts and King-Size Direct in Indiana.
    I was pleased to see that JC Penney has a decent selection of Big & Tall sizes in the men’s department of its online store as well.
    But probably the one-stop source for clothing links and more is Kelly Bliss’s Plus-Size Yellow Pages. This site looks to be a great resource in many different areas (and provided some of the above links).
    * Hey, it rhymes! (And has a bluesy, big band feel to it.)