Women with curvy calves can finally find cute knee-high boots that fit

Real women have calves — yet for years, it’s been almost impossible to find cute tall boots to fit them. Until now.

Designers are finally stepping up their fall footwear for ladies whose curvy legs have long been kicked to the curb.

“This season is the first time I’ve actually worn over-the-knee, thigh-high boots. I always just assumed that wouldn’t work for my legs because I have such muscular calves,” said Katie Sturino, the New Yorker behind plus-sized fashion blog The12ish Style. But now she’s rocking Stuart Weitzman’s $798 black suede Lowland boots, as well as Eloquii’s $175 tan Long Tall Sally suedette pair.

“It was a miracle. They fit really well because they were designed for that size,” she added. “It wasn’t me trying to put my leg into something that was not designed for my leg. The world is finally acknowledging that people have different-shaped calves.”

Women of a certain calf size know the struggle of trying to slip on a pair of tall boots in the store, only to be mortified when they can’t even shimmy them up their shins. Or the stretchy kicks they can fit into are either too frumpy or too flimsy. That’s because the more fashionable knee-highs marketed to the skinny-jeans set have just a 13-and-a-quarter inch-circumference for smaller sizes. Mediums run between 14 and 15-and-three-quarters inches around, and the larger sizes hover at 16 inches and up.

 

But the biggest still isn’t big enough for many women, especially larger ladies who want to tuck their jeans or leggings into their boots. That’s why Julie Carnavale, the vice president of merchandising at Eloquii, says many of her shoppers are looking for a 19-inch circumference in the calf of a tall boot.