Overcoming the Height Gap

There’s a 40% difference in height between the shortest 5 percentile and the tallest 5 percentile of the adult human population. That puts humans amongst the Earth’s most hypervariable species. Shrinking the body will create an even greater height gap, Younger generations will be shorter than older ones until (after several generations) the entire population reaches our goal of an average height of 50 centimeters.

Perhaps fashion can help us deal with this difficult transition phase defined by its extreme height differences. Tall people could make an effort to wear clothes that make them look shorter and short people could temporarily try to visually enhance their height. In general monochromatic outfits make you look taller. Breaking up the colorscheme with a contrasting belt or brightly colored T-shirt makes you seem shorter. Skinny jeans make you look taller, baggy pants shorter etc. Click HERE to learn more on how to look shorter. Or see Heleen Klopper’s proposal for shrinking nail polish.

On the other hand fashion allows us to express who we are. If we consider Oscar’s denial to grow up in Die Blechtrommel perhaps it is not so far-fetched that shrink fashion will not so much be about camouflage but about the rebelious expression of the denial to think in terms of big. Being short could become part of a new identity that is deeply concerned with the state of the planet and the growth ideals that have caused it so much harm. Shrink fashion may indeed become a form of shrink punk, just to show the world this new generation wants to do things different.