Michelle

HIGH POINT, North Carolina -- Despite announcing the closing of two stores in the area during the past month, Talbots Inc. will open a new petites [Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register] here today on Eastchester Drive.

The store will open its doors at 10 a.m. During the opening weekend, customers can enter their name in a drawing for a $200 Talbots gift card.

"Based on the success of the petite sizes and the great response to the misses sizes, we are opening an adjacent storededicated exclusively to petites," said Betsy Thompson, spokeswoman for Talbots. "We'll offer a greater number of styles for petite styles and the misses customer."

The original store, in the Oak Hollow Village shopping center, carried both misses and petite sizes until recently. With the opening of the additional store, there will be more room for both types of merchandise.

The 2,400-square foot Talbots Petites will carry an extensive selection of clothingdesigned to fit the proportions of women 5'4" and under in sizes 2P to 14P, with many styles identical to those found in the misses sizes.

The new petites store is opening after an announcement early this month that Talbots will close its 78 children's and men's apparel stores, affecting the Talbots Kids location in Friendly Shopping Center.

For separate reasons, the Talbots and Talbots Petites location -- open since 1996 -- in Four Seasons TownCentre will close Thursday.

"We've expanded a lot in the area in recent years," Thompson said, adding that Talbots opened a large store at the Shops at Friendly a little more than a year ago. The [Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register] also has women's clothing stores at Brookhollow Plaza in Greensboro and Alamance Crossing in Burlington.

"Things have changed in years that we first opened in the market," Thompson said.