Michelle

Why are upscale retailers pulling back from petites?

None of this makes much sense to me. Sales of petite clothing have been increasing steadily over the years. In 2005, they rose 11 percent from the previous year to $10 billion, according to NPD Group, a market research firm in New York.That's the biggest rise of any apparel category.

As a 5-foot 2-inch woman, I am a passionate fan of petite-size clothing.

I don't have to shorten everything I buy, and the clothes are scaled to fit and flatter. The rise of pants is in proportion. No big buttons or fountains of fabric.

What makes the move by the trio of upscale department stores so mystifying is that other stores are expanding their petite offerings, thank goodness.

Banana Republic launched a chain of separate petite stores last year. Ann Taylor began offering petite clothing in 1993.

Talbots, the classic apparel chain, launched its petite chain in 1990 and now has 291 petite stores. It plans to open more, said Margery Myers, a spokeswoman for the company.

``It's been one of our strongest growth vehicles,'' Myers said.

Dillard's, Sears and Macy's (which takes over Kaufmann's stores in September) are also expanding their petite departments.

The answer can't be that women are getting taller. They're not, at least not significantly. Women on average are just a fraction of an inch taller than they were in 1980, government statistics show.

So what could possibly lead Bloomingdale's, Saks and Neiman Marcus in the wrong direction? I would have asked, but no one at the stores returned my phone calls before deadline.

The New York Times quoted fashion experts who said petite departments gained a conservative and boring reputation.

Trendy, chic clothes never crossed over from regular to petite sizes. Fashionistas considered petite departments as the hunting grounds of the frumpy.

Young, hip women, although sized the same as other women, would rather alter regular clothes than be seen in a petite department, apparently. And Bloomingdale's, Saks and Neiman Marcus surely don't want to be associated with frumpy career women.

Snobby fashionistas -- yech.

There's a simple solution to all this for retailers. Work with designers to create high-fashion clothes for petite women. The love-of-fashion gene doesn't just reside in those 5-foot-5 and up.

Besides, what they call frumpy is in my estimation simply reasonable. Most of us don't want to go to work looking like Carrie Bradshaw out to lure Mr. Big back to her apartment.

I can't imagine myself teetering around the newsroom in 4-inch stilettos and a skin-tight Chanel pencil skirt. So, if wearing clothes that actually allow you to function is frumpy, I lovingly accept the label.

Britt Beemer, head of America's Research Group and an expert in consumer retail trends, said he's always found petite women to be quite fashion conscious. Eliminating petite sizes is just a dumb move, he said.

``It's a merchandising nightmare. Five years from now, they'll realize what a terrible mistake they made,'' Beemer said. ``They're going to lose a lot of shoppers over it. And those shoppers will be very unforgiving.''

It didn't take five years for Saks to see the light. The retailer heard from many angry short women when it eliminated its petite department. We stomped our little itty-bitty feet and pounded our teensy-weensy fists, so they've brought it back

Now, all we have to do is work on Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale's.

Stand tall, short women.