Statuesque: nine names, 172 cm and upward
One drawer of the cabinetNine women here stand 172 cm or more, and the tape runs to 178 cm at the top of it. That is a third of the list, which surprises people, and it is why this drawer is worth reading beside another rather than on its own. Tall is a measurement, not a manner, and the nine could not be less alike in how they use it.
All of them stopped minding somewhere around nineteen, and most wear heels anyway. What tall does reliably give you is the thing guests actually book it for: a woman who can walk into a room and be introduced without any of it requiring a word.
Statuesque, as hung
The top of the tape
Violetta is 178 cm, tall and slender, black hair sleek to the ends, thirty, and the tallest woman on the list. She has never apologised for either the height or the stillness. Stacy is 176 cm and slim, twenty-two, near-black brown hair worn long, and has been the tallest person in most rooms since she was fifteen; she dresses to it rather than away from it. Milena is 175 cm and curvy, black haired, and only one woman here is taller, a fact she has never once raised.
The 173 and 174 band
Karolina is 174 cm and slim, still, black haired, and economical with English to the point of pause. Samanta is 174 cm and slim, dark brown haired, punctual to the minute and dressed in black with one ring. Michelle is 173 cm and curvy, dark brown, warm, and tall enough that people move slightly when she walks through a bar; she has never made anything of it. Vanessa is 173 cm and slim, sandy brown with balayage, and has never been seen to hurry across a lobby.
The 172s
Angelika is 172 cm and athletic, built by a sport she still plays rather than by a mirror, and she carries the height lightly. Patricia is 172 cm and slim, auburn brown, twenty-eight, and dresses as though summer were a permanent condition until about eight in the evening, when she turns plainer and darker.
What the height is actually useful for
A room with other people in it. This is the drawer opened for it most often, and the client dinners and openings page leans on it heavily, which is not a coincidence: presence does half the work at a reception and none at all at a table for two.
It is less useful, and occasionally a nuisance, in a small dining room. At least one of them asks for a table at the side as a matter of course, and asking for one costs nothing.
Where else the nine sit
Six are in slim and slender, two in curvaceous and one in toned and athletic. By hair, four are in black haired, four in brunettes and one in auburn. Two are in early twenties, six in late twenties and one in thirties.
Asking for one of the nine
Say where the evening is and what kind of room it is, because that is what decides which of the nine is right rather than the number on the tape. Write with the date, the hours and the address, and the answer comes back with a name, an arrival time and the figure. Their districts run from Belgravia to Holland Park and everywhere between.