Petite Sizes Cut Off * Kiss Me Stace * fashion, bags, shoes, & design

Petite Sizes Cut Off

May 31, 2006 by Designer Ella

Do department stores no longer care about “the little people?”

Reported by The New York Times: Women’s petite sizes have been cut back or cut off entirely from big department stores, such as Neiman Marcus (or as The View ladies called it, “Needless Markup”), Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s. (Even the all-petite size store, Petite Sophisticate, cut back and closed stores this year.)

As if in lockstep over the past year, Saks ceased selling petite sizes, Bloomingdale’s cut the space it devotes to petites by nearly half in some stores, and Neiman Marcus reduced the number of stores with petite departments by nearly half. Neiman Marcus now carries petite sizes in just eight of its 36 stores; as of the fall, it will stock them in just two.

Store reps claim that these clothes are not selling; that there is no market for them. How could that be when women’s limbs haven’t grown drastically over the last months? Short women like I am (at 4′11″ and that important 1/4) don’t suddenly want to go naked (as if we could).

As designer Dana Buchman said, “It’s not like American women suddenly got tall. I think it’s a mistake.”

The problem really lies with something I’ve noticed myself, and why I rarely buy petite, the clothing is designed for the elderly (often shrinking) woman, not the merely small. The designs are frumpy and conservative, and not in that trendy (lace-ruffles-and-sophistication) way, either.

Petite women, [Department store executives] said, would rather wear the more youthful, skin-baring and tighter-fitting clothing in the contemporary departments, even if it does not fit them as well.

Who wouldn’t want those styles? Meanwhile, store owners and designers see this style problem, and they don’t see the immediate, and correct, fix?

Why can’t petite sizes come in the very same contemporary styles? It’s a shame that women don’t wear what fits and looks best, but it’s really not the women’s faults. Execs claim women prefer to get clothes tailored, which not only costs more and adds annoying steps before new, hot items can be worn, but most women don’t opt for tailoring at all. Many don’t realize the option.

Ann Stordahl, executive vice president for women’s apparel at Neiman Marcus, said that designers were making clothing smaller than a decade ago and that Neiman Marcus orders extra size zeros and twos, knowing they will appeal to petite women. Even without petite sizes, she said, “there are many offerings for the smaller size customer.”

And what happens for the wide or round, yet short women? They can’t simply go for Juniors and sizing up in women’s means longer arms and legs. Petite is not about small waists, it is about proportions of height. It’s insulting to the larger petites to not make options for them.

Shorter women and former shoppers at these stores are “feeling overlooked and undervalued, they have written the stores angry letters and groused, often loudly, to salespeople. ‘It’s horrible, just horrible,’ said Laurel Bernstein, 60, a 5-foot-1 Manhattan resident who stormed out of Saks’s flagship store in March after learning that the company had stopped carrying petite sizes. A lifelong Saks shopper, she has not returned since.”

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11 Responses to “Petite Sizes Cut Off”

srah Says:
May 31st, 2006 at 1:23 pm

I’m also petite and have those problems. I only want to buy “petite” or “short” length pants, but lots of department stores only make “petite” pants with elastic waists! Yuck!

I have not found a solution to my problem and I mourn the loss of Petite Sophisticate. All of the Banana Republic and J. Crew stores near me don’t carry petite sizes in the stores, but offer them online. That does nothing for me if I want to try them on! I believe The Gap recently introduced Tall and Petite sizes in their online store, but I haven’t seen any in stores yet. So we’re in the same problem as BR and JC.

Thank heavens for Ann Taylor, who still carries petite sizes in stores.

Designer Ella Says:
May 31st, 2006 at 1:35 pm

Ohhhhhhhhhh, my! Elastic waists! Although desirable for yo-yoing weight fighters, just the thought about the reality of this style is disgusting.

Lilly Says:
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:21 am

See, this is exactly why I prefer to wear guy clothing and buy the ex-large kids clothes from the gap. At least the designers will outfit the kiddies to look hip (or skanky - depending upon the outfit). And since I’m wide and short, I have to alter everything I wear. At least home ec from grades eight to ten came in handy in the end. And now that I have a serger, I’m thinking about buying my own material and patterns to tailor make my own clothes. Screw spending a wad on clothes only to have to pay again to have them altered. That’s mental. Why not start off with the petit mindset first off? And there are tonnes of patterns for petits and plus sizes (even though in the books at the store, all the models are tall and stick thin). I don’t shop in the stores anymore. I know how to sew and I know how to make clothes that don’t make me look like ~~Mariah Carey a streetwalker.~~

Trisha Says:
June 4th, 2006 at 4:30 pm

Part of the problem is the frumpy, conservative clothing that you and the Times describe. But I think another part of the petites problem is branding of the petites category. It’s a tough problem, but one that needs to be solved since petite women (myself included) aren’t a small minority of the population! This perception isn’t going to change overnight, and it’s going to take more than a few trendy brands going into petites.

Designer Ella Says:
June 4th, 2006 at 5:34 pm

Small minority, hee.

So you’d like hip, youthful and sought-after brand. Sure!

I, and I know many others, would also like less expensive brands. The current ones, aside from being for a certain age, are pricier than a lot of stuff in other departments and stores like Express or even really well-liked, even more affordable stores.

$80 for a skirt might not be much to many, but it’s only worth it if one loves the style.

And am I the only one who finds petite sizes don’t cut it for fitting the length of my limbs? I’d like slightly more variety in sizes/lengths.

Diana Says:
June 8th, 2006 at 1:22 pm

I am 23 but I am only 4′9″! Nothing ever fits me, so I started buying cheap, at TJmaxx and Target and getting the things I find altered. $20 for a pair of jeans that fits my waist, and another $15 for a hem equals a perfect pair of pants for less than some of the petite brands of the rack. I also agree with the trend of frumpy “mature” styles being the majority of petite “fashions.” Booooring. No one should ever wear elastic-waisted pleat-front trousers. At least not in public… I highly recommend to everyone that until petite clothes catch up with style and fashion, you stop buying expensive clothes, and start steering towards cheaper goods that can be altered easily, and keep complaining to clothing manufacturers to get with the picture and make petites fashion mag worthy.

Designer Ella Says:
June 8th, 2006 at 5:46 pm

I’d rather get regular-priced clothes and alter pieces that will last … fewer trips to the tailor. It’s still saving a lot of money in that respect (well, the higher quality one goes). I totally see what you’re saying, though. I do make sure to not go beyond $80 on jeans for the cost-of-tailoring reason. It also means we miss out on those great higher-priced things that would normally be doable.

The cost for me to tailor jackets is fine when it’s just a sleeve, but I’m actually short and wide, so I should be fitting my apple-middle, then getting sleeves and shoulders—and whatever else—sized to fit the rest of me. The price is unimaginable, and I’m very afraid, so I’ve opted to get almost-fitting blazers. I suppose my body’s not too bad, as I’ve found many styles that fit well enough. I need to get the sleeves shortened, still (gasp!), but it scares me because I feel like it’s committing to these sizes (even though I love my blazers), while unlike pants, I can just cuff a sleeve a bit. It’s wrong. It’s bad. (At least I look presentable even at my size, and still love being fashionable at my size.)

It’s funny how you remarked upon no petites being in fashion magazines, because that’s at least for the most part true. That is very, very sad. They aren’t even worthy style-wise, I suppose, none of them. It’s sickening.

Oh, my, I must exercise. (Yet I need to blog, I will exercise today though.)

» * Kiss Me, Stace Says:
June 20th, 2006 at 11:24 am

[…] The View reported that the buzz they created (which continued here at Kiss Me, Stace) brought petite sizes back to Saks Fifth Avenue! […]

TheRunwayScoop Says:
June 22nd, 2006 at 4:27 pm

Saks Brings Back the Petite Department

Last month I mentioned that companies like Neiman Marcus, Saks, and Bloomingdale’s were downsizing their petite departments. Well, there was an uproar from Saks’ petite customers, so the retailer is bringing back the department. This coming Nov…

Cynthia Says:
July 20th, 2006 at 7:11 pm

I run a website that promotes petites. I would love to get the world, especially the fashion industry to understand that we can’t just be left alone and only have ugly clothes to wear. After all, there are so many actresses and singers who’re really small!

Designer Ella Says:
July 20th, 2006 at 9:32 pm

That’s awesome that you do that. I’m checking it out.

Let’s see … Shakira, oh I don’t know. I just know Shakira because we’re the same height. (Although I think I’m 1/4″ taller!)