時尚雙語:矮個男士的完美着裝

One out of three men in the United States is under 5 feet 8 inches tall. You'd never guess the magnitude of the demographic from menswear.

在美國，每三位男士當中就有一位身高低於5英尺8英寸(約1米72)。男裝市場的統計資料絕對遠遠出乎你的意料。

'They have stores for big and tall men, so why not for shorter men?' asks Josh Lefkowitz, who describes his height as 'five-foot-three and a half.' A New York public-relations executive, Mr. Lefkowitz likes to buy a jacket in size 36 short and take it to a tailor. To make a size seven shoe fit, he buys inserts to fill out the extra space.

喬希·萊夫寇維茲(Josh Lefkowitz)是紐約一位高級公關主管，他說自己的身高是“5英尺3.5英寸”(約1米61)。他提出了這樣一個疑問：“既然有針對身材高大男士的服裝店，怎麼就沒有專門面向矮個男士的呢？” 萊夫寇維茲喜歡買短36碼外套，再拿到裁縫那兒修改。他買7碼的鞋子，不過還得買點填充物塞進去之後才合腳。

Yet when standard-size clothes are altered for a man like Mr. Lefkowitz, the final proportions can come out all wrong. Simply shortening a suit's hems and sleeves can leave the collar too broad, the pockets oversized, the armholes gargantuan, the elbow curves too low and the rear droopy.

不過，如果把標準尺寸的服裝根據萊夫寇維茲的身材加以修改，最後出來的比例也許完全不對頭。僅僅修短衣服的下襬和袖子是遠遠不夠的，領口、口袋、袖孔都還是太大，肘彎處太低，後襬也是耷拉着的。

All this can make a small man look even smaller. 'Taller men can get away with having things look a little baggy,' says Mr. Lefkowitz. But the wrong fit 'can make us look schlumpy.'

這樣的改動只會讓一個原本矮小的人更顯矮小。萊夫寇維茲說：“個高的人穿件稍微寬鬆的衣服，看着也還過得去。“而不合身的衣服”穿在我們身上只會顯得人很邋遢。”

Height, for a man, is the ultimate power marker. An added inch of height is equivalent to an extra $30,000 year of salary, on average, when it comes to attracting a mate, says Andrew Trees, author of 'Decoding Love,' a book about the science of attraction. Height also affects earnings -- though less dramatically: Each inch earns you about $600 more per year in salary after controlling for variables like education, he says.

對於男性來說，身高是最具影響力的一項體貌特徵。《解密愛情》('Decoding Love')一書探討了有關兩性吸引的科學，該書作者安德魯·特里斯(Andrew Trees)說，身高增加一英寸，對異性的吸引力等同於年薪增加3萬美元。他說，身高同時也會影響到一個人的收入，儘管作用沒有那麼明顯：在不考慮諸如學歷等因素的前提下，身高每增加一英寸，意味着你的年收入能增加600美元。

Yet there is one thing that supersedes height: The perception of height. Men who got early growth spurts but wound up short are often perceived to be taller than they are, says Mr. Trees, suggesting that the reason lies in their carriage. The reverse is also true: Men who became tall later on are often perceived as shorter than they are -- possibly because they learned early to think of themselves as short.

不過有另外一個因素可以取身高而代之，那就是：預期身高。特里斯先生說，那些小時候個子長得很快、成年後其實並不高的人通常會被認爲比實際上要高，這可能與他們舉手投足等儀態有關。反之亦然：那些長個比較晚的人通常會被看矮了──可能是因爲他們早就認爲自己個矮。

This suggests that short men can seem taller or shorter, depending on how they present themselves. A key element is wearing clothes with the right proportions. A small man wearing oversized clothes risks looking like he's dressing up in Dad's clothes -- emphasizing his diminutive stature.

這表明，個矮男士的打扮會使他們比實際身高顯得高些或矮些。其中一個關鍵因素就是要穿比例協調的衣服。小個子穿的衣服尺碼過大，很可能給人感覺是兒子穿了老爸的衣服──只能愈發凸顯身材的矮小。

Tom Hevey, a real-estate investor in Belmont, Mass., discovered the power of the right fit last August when he stumbled across one of the few stores in the U.S. that cuts clothes proportionately small for short men -- 'Jimmy Au's For Men 5'8' and Under.' Sizes at the store, which is located on a side street in Beverly Hills, start at 34 extra-short.

47歲的湯姆·希韋(Tom Hevey)是麻塞諸塞州貝爾蒙市(Belmont)的一位房產投資人，去年8月他在比弗利山(Beverly Hills)的一條小街上偶然發現了“Jimmy Au's For Men 5'8' and Under”（Jimmy Au's，身高5英尺8英寸以下男士服裝專賣）男裝店，這是全美少數幾家針對矮個男士的服裝店之一，店內的最小號服裝是超短34碼。此後希韋便深刻體會到了合體服裝的強大力量。

Jimmy Au's is a rarity -- a niche store that caters to the shorter one-third of our population. While small men can find suitable sizes online at places like , most of the big retailers I spoke with -- including Saks Fifth Avenue -- said it doesn't pay to cater to small men. It's more profitable to focus on the bulge in the bell curve, sending their shorter clients to tailors.

Jimmy Au's男裝店堪稱鳳毛麟角，是佔美國男性人口三分之一的矮個男士的福音，因爲它能滿足這些人士的需求。誠然，矮個男士可以在諸如的網站上找到適合自己尺寸的服裝，不過我採訪過的多數大型連鎖商──包括Saks Fifth Avenue──都說自己不會刻意去迎合矮個男士的需求。關注大多數人的需求更爲有利可圖，就讓那些矮個子客人自己去找裁縫解決問題吧。

Moreover, it's hard to sell clothes to a group that some people prefer not to be identified with. Mr. Hevey, who is 47, says he very nearly didn't go into Jimmy Au's because he resented the name's reference to height. At 5-foot-5, he says, he doesn't consider himself short. 'I guess I'm sensitive about that, and I don't want to be labeled that way,' Mr. Hevey says.

而且，向矮個人士銷售服裝並非易事，因爲有些人其實並不願意自己被劃入矮個子之列。希韋先生就說當初他差點沒進Jimmy Au's男裝店，因爲店名明白無誤地點出了顧客的身高。身高5英尺5英寸(1米65)的希韋並不認爲自己個子很矮，他說：“我想我對此是有些敏感，我不願意自己被打上這樣的標籤。”

Mr. Au carries smaller sock sizes, shoes down to a men's size five and styles that run the gamut from jeans to tuxedos. His sizes take into consideration all sorts of body types, such as 'Portly Short,' 'Athletic Short' and 'Extra Short.' The key, he says, is in the proportions -- his clothes are designed with smaller pockets, slightly narrower collars and sleeves, and higher crotches.

Jimmy Au's男裝店備有小號的襪子和小至5碼的鞋子，以及樣式齊全的服裝，從牛仔服到禮服應有盡有。店內有適合各種體型的服裝，包括“矮胖型”、“運動型”、“特矮型”，等等。店主區應鐘(Jimmy Au)說，關鍵在於比例──他店裏的服裝口袋都是小號的，領口和袖筒也都略小一些，褲襠則往上提。

'If a man is five-foot-seven in my store, he shops in the tall section,' says Mr. Au, who is 5-foot-2.

區應鐘說：“如果身高5英尺7英寸(1米70)的男士來我店裏採購，他就得去大碼區了。” 區應鐘本人的身高是5英尺2英寸(1米57)。

Racks in the store are two inches lower than they are in most stores, and shorter sizes are thoughtfully placed on bottom shelves. Many men's stores, oddly, place shorter sizes on top.

此外，店裏的貨架也比多數商店的貨架低兩英寸，小碼服裝很體貼地放在了最下面的一層。而很多男裝店都是把小碼衣服放在最頂層，真是讓人奇怪。

The bias against short men is apparent even in Mr. Au's store windows. Unable to buy shorter mannequins, Mr. Au turned to a Hollywood special-effects studio that makes crash dummies for action movies -- the kind that get blown up in chase scenes. I noticed a resemblance to one famous A-list action-movie star who is under 5-foot-8 -- but Mr. Au wouldn't name names.

不過，從Jimmy Au's男裝店的櫥窗也能看出對矮個男士的偏見。當初區應鐘沒能買到尺寸合適的人體模型，就去找了好萊塢爲動作片製作人體模型的特效工作室──就是在追殺戲中會被打爛的那種模型。我注意到其中一個模型很像好萊塢一位身高不到5英尺8英寸的動作巨星──不過區應鐘不願指名道姓。

Mr. Au's clientele is a who's who of professionals from careers that favor the short of height, with jockeys, astronauts and jet pilots among them. The store's publicity materials list the stars it has dressed for film and television -- though the stars themselves aren't always comfortable with being publicly identified as short. On a recent day, Mr. Au and his son, Alan Au, were discussing outfits that they were sending over to participants at the Grammy awards.

區應鐘的主顧包括一些聲名顯赫的專業人士，這些人來自那種更青睞矮個人士的行當，有賽馬騎師、宇航員、飛行員等等。服裝店的宣傳材料上列出了在上電影電視時穿過本店服裝的一些明星──不過這樣公開被歸入矮個子的行列，這些明星本人應該感覺不是那麼舒服。就在最近的某一天，區應鐘和兒子Alan Au還在商量向格萊美頒獎禮嘉賓提供禮服的事情。

After his visit to the store in August, Mr. Hevey left with a suit, three sport coats, five shirts, two pairs of jeans and seven pairs of khakis. Finally, he had clothes that 'fit like clothes fit a six-foot-two-inch guy,' he says. The difference was 'huge,' he says. 'When I tried on a pair of pants, my wife got teary-eyed.'

去年8月份，希韋離開Jimmy Au's男裝店時收穫頗豐：一套正裝、三件運動外套、五件襯衣、兩條牛仔褲和七條卡其褲。他說自己終於有了“穿起來感覺身高有6英尺2英寸的衣服”了。他說，差異“非常明顯。看我穿上其中一條褲子後，我妻子都熱淚盈眶了。”

Mr. Hevey has since ordered two more big shipments from Mr. Au, including having a winter wardrobe shipped to Massachusetts sight unseen. 'I get compliments from people who say, 'something's different about you.'

後來希韋又兩次從Jimmy Au's男裝店訂購了大量的衣物，其中有一批冬裝他事先都沒看過就讓直接送貨了。他說：“大家都誇我，說：'你現在跟以前很不一樣了。'”

引自