Once upon a time — like, fifteen or twenty years ago — petite sections were everywhere. But in the last ten years, they have been steadily disappearing, as more and more retailers have shrunk, reduced, or relegated their petites section to online only.
And yet, women statistically aren’t getting any taller, at least, not by that much. The average height of a woman in the US has grown from 5’3″ to 5’4″ in the past 100 years. That’s not that big a difference. Today in 2017, half of all women in North America are “petite”, or 5’4″ and under. But only a tiny fraction of clothes in stores cater to us.
So what happened to all the petite sections?
The petite stigma
In an article last year, MIC summed up the image problem facing petite sections as follows:
In the fashion world, plus-size people have long been stereotyped as unhealthy, poor and unconcerned with fashion. Petite people, on the other hand, have been perceived as being super old.
That’s the assumption that’s influenced how petite clothes look, and what’s to blame for the section’s disappearance from stores. Petite clothing has had a reputation for being frumpy, so the word “petite” became synonymous with “women above a certain age,” and so women started veering away from it.
So because designers and fashion retailers, didn’t make stylish or trendy clothes for short women, customers didn’t want to buy ugly clothes. Because customers didn’t want the ugly clothes, the fashion industry made an assumption that there was no demand for petite clothes, period.
Excuse me for saying this, but ARRRRGGGGHHHH.
Did it ever occur to the fashion world that if they actually bothered to design nice clothes that fit our bodies, we’d buy them like hotcakes?
The solution
The only way to end this catch-22 is for some retailers to prove that it can work. Feature the petites section, not hidden away in the basement or attic, but in the main section of the store. Make it just as visible as regular or plus size sections in your store. Have just as much selection in petite sizes as you do in regular or tall. And end the stigma of shopping there by featuring styles that appeal to the main demographic of your store.
And no, please don’t use the excuse that you can “just order online”. Trying on clothes before you buy them shouldn’t be a privilege of the tall. Petite women shouldn’t be forced to guess, paying high shipping and return fees, using product images on tall models, just for the privilege of buying clothes that might fit.
