Disturbing retail trend shows petite women are being shortchanged
Shortening lined trousers can cost more than $25, and length isn't the only issue. Petite sizing is about proportions, so on regular-sized pants, the crotch might hang too long for a short-waisted woman and there will be extra material in back, which is never a pretty picture. Fixing the waist and seat will run another $23 or so. Plus, there are dress straps to shorten, skirts that need reconstructing and tops that have to be cut off so they don't hang as long as dresses.
"It's good for us," confirms tailor Nadir Can, owner of John's in Roseville. He says petite requests definitely have picked up in the past two years.
Count my 4-foot-11 friend among those helping tailors get rich. She used to buy almost everything at Petite Sophisticate. Now, she shops with the masses at Express and pays extra for alterations.
But she does have other options. Ann Taylor, Ann Taylor Loft and Talbot's all offer petites, albeit a rather preppy, tailored selection. Banana Republic is about the trendiest chain with a petites collection.
There's a reason higher-end department stores are getting out of petites while retailers like Macy's, with a more middle-of-the-road clientele, are still big into it: The most fashionable designers don't make petite sizes. How could they? Says a Nordstrom personal shopper, "Marc Jacobs runs so small, some petites can't even wear it." Count other hot contemporary lines BCBG, Laundry and Theory in the same category.
So maybe we should feel bad for "regular" girls. For them, length isn't as much of a problem (except when it comes to jeans, which almost everyone except models and WNBA players need shortened these days), but it can be nearly impossible to button those pants without splitting the seams.
If you're noticing — perhaps taunted by — more size 0s on the shelves at department and specialty stores, that's an attempt to accommodate petite customers. The short and skinny shopper might miss her petite havens, but she's managing just fine. It's the women who lack height and also have a big belly who are having the most trouble. One woman in this category told me she hasn't bought a new skirt since Timbuktu went out of business — she doesn't know where else to go for bottoms to fit her proportions.
When I asked retail experts for suggestions, one name came up again and again: Eileen Fisher, which manages to put sophistication into elastic waistbands and makes its free-flowing fashions in petite sizes. There are others, including Catherine's and Elisabeth by Liz Claiborne, doing plus-size petites, but admittedly, they aren't the most high-style looks.
"You've really got to try a lot of things on," says Marshall Field's fashion expert Laura Schara. "Every brand fits differently, and when you find something that fits well, buy it in three colors."
Besides, petites aren't the only ones who have trouble finding clothes that fit, Schara says. "No one's body shape is the perfect fit. You've just got to do a lot of shopping."
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