Michelle

A Plea for the Petite

For those of you who don't personally know me, I'm a little on the short, runty side. This makes buying clothes difficult because the sleeves/pant legs are usually too long. As a cheap person, this causes me great pain. Because everytime I want to buy something- I have to factor in the added cost of having my tailor shorten it to fit my short, stumpy limbs.

So anyway, you would think I could avoid this whole issue by just shopping in the Petite section. But before I get into that, allow me to clarify exactly what 'petite' means in the garment industry. I am doing this only because last month, I found out the hard way that not everybody knows what that means. I was telling a female coworker how difficult it is to find petite clothing when she scrunched up her nose, cocked her head to the side, and said, "You're NOT petite. I mean, you've lost a lot of weight, but I wouldn't call you petite." After taking several long, deep breaths and stuffing her battered, bloody body into my car trunk, I calmly explained that the word 'petite' in the fashion industry simply refers to clothing created for women 5'4 and below).

(Read more from The Lost Hawaiian.)