Michelle

San Diego Petites Struggle To Find Clothes That Fit


Standing at four feet eleven inches, 32-year-old Emily Miller is definitely considered petite. But when it comes to clothes shopping, a growing number of stores no longer consider Emily a very good customer. In fact, some of the nation’s top department stores including Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue are eliminating or drastically scaling back their petite sections.

“I can't shop in department stores at all anymore,” Emily said. “I've noticed that department stores in general, their petite sections are not quite petite.”

Mesa College fashion professor Susan Lazear says she’s not surprised to see clothing stores and manufacturers cutting back on petite styles.

“There seems to be less and less petite clothing in retail stores, so you have to hunt further and if there is petite, there's less in each size range,” Lazear said.

She says it’s expensive for a company to produce both a regular and petite line, and there’s always been an expectation within the fashion industry that petite women will pay for alterations.

“Whatever I buy always has to get altered,” Emily said. “I always have to get the waistline in and just know that whatever I buy still needs to be fixed.”

And that can get expensive. Even when Emily can find clothes in her size, there’s no guarantee they’re going to fit. As the population gets heavier, clothing companies are adjusting their sizing standards accordingly. So while a petite woman may stay petite, a size 1 garment may no longer be a genuine size 1.

“Clothes are not fitting the same. There's definitely a little bit longer in the pants length and they're definitely a little bit wider in the waist,” Emily said.

And although petite women spend nearly $10 billion a year on clothes, Professor Lazear says many designers are focusing on larger, loose-fitting clothes rather than petite sizes.

“I think petites need to speak up and say they're tired of doing alterations and they would love to have more clothes available for them,” she said.

Executives at the stores who are cutting their petite departments cite poor sales for their decision. In response, Professor Lazear says mail order catalogues are now expanding their petite offerings.