I am not personally offended because I am not petite but it must be a problem for those who are petite.

http://tinyurl.com/pk2x7

I read that article too, sillage. I'm not petite either but I recently discovered that petite tops in Large are a perfect fit for me because I'm short waisted. Regular tops come down too far and look sloppy. It will be sad if I can't get the shorter tops. No, I'm not going to take cotton tops to a tailor to have them altered. I think they may have to change their mind on that one and change their styling. If women are going to other departments because they don't like the conservative styles, the problem is in the designs offered, not the sizing.

I thought the average height was 5'4". That's not far from petite. And it's not even really about height or width, it's about proportion. Petite proportions fit me better even though I'm 5'4" exactly and not slim. I've never been able to find a coat, for example, that the sleeves didn't hang too long, unless it was a petite.

How odd that they would do that.

It REALLY P*$$*$ me off!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm 5' tall and 0"................what's a girl to do?

I am 5 feet tall.....notice I did not say 5 feet SHORT. I am tired of pants that are a foot too long yet fit everywhere else. I still buy things in the petite department.

I'm just over 5' 3" and I buy a good portion of my clothes in petite depts. If they start shrinking the depts here, they will lose a customer...and I will not go quietly!! Grrrr.

I agree with FiveOaks, it is a styling thing. I'm 5'0" and I do most of my shopping by mail order, or pop into the Gap, which even before having petite (which they do now), had several inseam lengths (I go for Ankle). Most of the styles in the petite sections of department stores are indeed frumpy. They mention tailoring, but what I resent about that, is that if I pay nearly $100 for a pair of pants, I don't think I should have to get them tailored. I mean, people pay more money for expensive clothing because of the design and fit, and at $100, I shouldn't then have to bring it to the tailor to have it altered. And it is about proportion, by the time I've had them hemmed, waist brought in, and don't mean to be crude, but what about the crotch area? I basically get low-rise everything, to avoid the problem of having a mile of extra fabric in that area. It seems outrageous to pay good money for a pair of pants that will have to be totally reconstructed.

I'm not quite 5'3" and very small-framed, and only petite sizes fit me properly. I buy most of my clothes at specialty retailers like Talbots and Ann Taylor, which cut almost all their styles in a petite range, and don't set foot in big department stores if I can help it. From this story it appears that they're as indifferent to me (a 45-year-old woman who happens to be petite) as I am to them.

I have to wonder about the wisdom of this as far as the future of their business is concerned. We all know that the Boomers are aging, and that the most rapidly growing segments of the U.S. population are Hispanic and Asian, groups that undoubtedly include many petite women. Going against these demographic trends by disdaining older and smaller women can only hasten the decline of department stores, which are already looking pretty shaky.

Five foot one and inches here. I need short jeans and trousers!!! You cannot turn up boot cut! Not just sleeve lenght the bloody shoulders come down the arm as well. Normal waists come up to my rib cage.

Ladies, I'm 5'4", rather long-waisted, and LIKED shopping in the petites section, because I can find work and career clothes there that don't make me feel like I'm dressed too sluttily or too "young". I'm going to be 35 here in about a week. I don't look it, but I wish I did. Petite Sophisticate is my favorite place to shop, because I can find stuff that fits and I don't feel like a complete imbicile wearing it. Glorious1, I definitely know where you're comin' from! And I wish I could find Mr. Andrew V. Jassin's e-mail address, simply so I could write him and tell him in no discrete terms that he is a complete and utter horse's ######, and that he hasn't a clue as to what short, luscious, hot petite women want, no matter WHAT our age or income bracket! What a dork! Great article, though!

Pixiechiq

I'm petite too and offended!! Idiots like this are the reason why Talbots Petite gets most of my $$$.

That statement about tailoring reminds me of "let them eat cake."

OOOOH this burns me.

I like Talbots too. Norstroms still has a good petite dept but I'm beginning to worry. LET THE LITTLE WOMEN UNITE~

This frustrates me so much! I'm 40 years old and I shop in the Junior departments if I don't resort to mail-order because I'm 5'2 and 98 lbs. It's so hard to find clothing in the Petite departments which has fun styles, and stores like JCPenney and Kohl's smallest size is 4 Petite, but I need a 2 or a 0. It's absolutely ridiculous. It's not that I'm anorexic or anything, I'm just short and small. I'd like to find fashionable, classy, age-appropiate clothing, but it's sometimes impossible. I have purchased size 12 Boys jeans, at times, in desperation.

In addition, my bra size is 32B and that's become nearly impossible to find. Apparently lingerie companies have just about abandoned 32" bras.

That's why I buy perfume. I've given up on fashion.

Tovah. I was your size when I was younger. I was never 5'2" however! LOL!

I'm the second-tallest woman in my family, LOL! I have a cousin who is 5'4, and the rest of us think she's tall! My grandmother was about 4'10.

Tovah, I feel your pain! For 32B bras, look at the Wacoal Petites line. I bought two bras from this line at Macy's and I love them.

There's also this Website:
http://tinyurl.com/p8cnz

Thank you! That made my day :-)

Petite ladies, you have my sincere sympathies. I am 5'7" and a Plus size girl. Evidently most dresses and pants in this country must be made for women who are 5'11" and up because even I find most dresses fall almost to my ankles and pants cover my shoes. Thankfully I have a MIL who is handy with a sewing machine who can hem my clothes.

I don't know about the rest of the petites....but there are some styles that I cannot wear because it looks like I'm playing dress ups!
Mostly classic lines look the best on me. I can't get too funky.

Indeed! Last time I was in the petite department I had to wade through a lot of tops in violent colours and with plunging necklines, spangles, sequins and foofaw all over them to find something classic! I just think they're misreading the needs of their potential customers.

This sucks. I buy petite sized clothing exclusively. And stores that don't have sizeable petite sections, don't get my business period. Over the past two years, I have bought several petite sized pieces of clothing from Bloomingdale's. I don't really care about Saks but I do shop at NM sometimes.

I really wish I had my own tailor to make clothes for me.

i only came to know the petite phenomenon in the US. here different lengths of trousers were introduced at some (recent) point, very limited though; mostly jeans and menswear. i suspect from the states. it seems a bit premature and quite unsympathetic - almost hostile - to throw out the smaller proportioned collections, just because the average height of younger women is raising (thanks to all the hormones in beef and dairy). it has in the netherlands, substantially, with a current average height for women of 5 foot seven (which i'm exactly myself). hopefully this measure (punny!) will backfire with a vengeance.

lou

In Europe, sure, but a survey says that the height of younger American women has declined somewhat! And we're the ones with the most beef hormones....

"The average American man is only five feet nine and a half—less than an inch taller than the average soldier during the Revolutionary War. Women, meanwhile, seem to be getting smaller. According to the National Center for Health Statistics—which conducts periodic surveys of as many as thirty-five thousand Americans—women born in the late nineteen-fifties and early nineteen-sixties average just under five feet five. Those born a decade later are a third of an inch shorter."

From this fascinating article:

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040405fa_fact

If this is true, then petite clothing lines should be expanded. Maybe it's the label "petite" that people object to. It does seem to suggest an outmoded model of femininity.

What else can you name petite sizes? I'd hate to walk into the "Shorty" dept. Or the "Minus" dept.

I'll really miss the jacket lengths - those alterations can get expensive. I am in heaven if I can step into a pair of slacks in the petite dept. and not have the take up the hem a half an inch as it is.

Maybe we could file a class action discrimination lawsuit. I've heard of more frivolous suits.

Absolutely! Why not? Everybody else DEMANDS their rights. I have a hard time believing that they aren't loosing $ because there are an awful lot of petite women.

It would be a b*tch to have to hem or shorten everything! I am lucky because I'm almost 5' 9" and rarely do I find anything too long. Don't shoot me but pants, etc.. are almost always perfectly proportioned on me. However..I do have a comment: When I shop, quite often I'm drawn to stuff in the petite section because the pieces seem classic.
And this 5' 9" gal can't wear petites, believe me.
Btw, I have a friend that's about 5' 7" and very slender. She kept telling me she was 'petite'. I said "You're slender, but you'll never be petite."
I think I pissed her off, lol.

Lisa, your situation is similar to mine. I'm just a shade under 5'8" and I've never in my life had to have anything off the rack hemmed up. But I see a lot of clothes in the petite department that actually look better constructed.

One of my major shopping challenges is finding jackets and blouses with long enough sleeves. It seems that most manufacturers really skimp on sleeve length.

I understand! My Mom was 5'9"

I have no problem with shopping in a department called "Petite." What cracks me up and makes me roll my eyes at the same time is when they still call the regular-sized section the "Missy" department. Now there's a throwback!

BTW, I polished up my post here and sent it in a letter to The New York Times, but it wasn't among the selection they printed about this story today. So screw the department stores AND the Times!:p

I'm 5 ft. Most of my pants and half of my tops are from the petite dept. It's going to be a pain having to wait to have my pants altered. And the sleeves on my blouses are going to be way too long.
This is not a good thing.

Mercury, are you old enough to remember when it used to be called the Misses department? I don't know when the word Missy came in--I've seen it a few times. I hate the word Missy. Misses meant even-numbered sizes and Junior meant odd-numbered sizes. And of course the sizing was all different. Sizes like "two" did not exist in regular stores. Eight was considered extremely small.

The cutting back on petite lines is ridiculous!!! If 5'4" is the average height for a woman in the US, that means that as many women are UNDER 5'4" as are OVER 5'4" - that means they need to carry the same amount of clothing for petite women - 5'4" and under - as they do for the average height woman and above. As others have said, we are having a large influx of Latina (and also Asian) women, certainly in most large American cities, and any smart clothing manufacturer should be taking note and creating products for the petite market.

Mizliz, thanks so much for this article, very fascinating indeed.

it is mentioned dutch women are on average 5.8 - if that's 1 meter, 70 centimeters, that's correct - and that's my own length too.

well, so much for the growth hormones spurting length: probably they're just fed on by the tumors. time and again, it is shown that genetics isn't all that it is made to be - yes parameters, but that's about it. i'm saddened once more that the richest country in the world isn't willing to share the wealth, locally or globally. overhere, we're following that trend, though still lag far behind (and growing for it).

i love this quote, a paraphrase of American philospher John Rawls: 'the best meausre of a just society is whether you'd be willing to be thrown into it at random.' (stress mine).

i think Sweden would be my pick.

Lou

I'm so very happy that I was thrown in to the USA randomly. In any case, I'd choose to live here. I love it.

My daughter is shorter than me by several inches, and most of the tall women I know, in my age group (40's), have daughters who are shorter as well. Interesting.

I agree that the term 'Petite' is kind of odd.

yes, i know americans are so utterly defensive about their nation, nothing can be said. that is regretful too. but don't take it personal (why would you?). there's much wrong with the netherlands as well. maybe it is interesting to read the article? people shouldn't be left out the way they are in the US, living out of their cars, without health insurance et cetera - come on now!

lou

(i'm refering to a text that was apparently changed? where you ask, wealth as in what?)

Sorry, Lou, I have no idea what you're talking about (defensive about our nation). I edited the tone of my original question because I didn't think it sounded courteous. And, if I'm nothing else, I am courteous. I have no need to be defensive. I love my country, and I love living here. Not sure why that is perceived as 'defensive'. If it is....well, I guess I'm defensive! :)

Anyway, let's get back on topic, shall we?

i'm sure you do have an idea, velvetsky...

lou

What the?..........................

Glo, I did notice an awful lot of sparkly and embellished things in the Petite section of Nordies recently.

My sentiments exactly.

Now..........NORDIES is my FAVORITE petite department bar none.
The only thing is ......they don't have a ton of sales. They always have a sales rack but the good part is.....most of their stuff is classic and always in good taste. Love their Caslon line.

I noticed some absolutely beautiful Lily Pulitzer things on the Petite racks.

Yep! Lots of those Lily P. types down here. All those pink and greens!

<rant on> Ever since I was a teenager and my full-grown height (5'4.5") I've found it exceedingly annoying that the "Petites" section was geared for those women " 5'4" and under". At that time (circa 1972), the average height of American women was 5'3.5". So, I was one inch OVER the average height and yet whenever I tried on a pair of pants or a skirt or dress, the hem was at least 3 or 4 inches too long! I guessed that they figured women are all handy with the needle and thread and so, of course, wouldn't mind having to spend an hour putting up hems every time they bought a piece of clothing. Grrrr. To judge from the hem lengths I was seeing, the average woman would have to have been 5' 7" at a MINIMUM to avoid having to have the hem shortened. Grrr. Do you have any idea how rare it was (and still is!) for a woman to be over 5'8"?? It's maybe 10% of the female population. Yup. The vast majority of women are between 5'3" and 5'5" in height. The vast majority--like 75%! <rant off>

I wonder where all of the 'petite' fashion models are? Do designers even acknowledge the existence of 'women of a certain height'?

You will NOT see them on the runways!

I'm 5'4", my daughter always assumed she would be taller than me, but that turned out not to be the case. She stopped at 5'2".

Anyway, I have to buy petite in pants/slacks/crops, but because I'm big on top, my tops often come from the Women's dept. so that they don't pull and gap across the front. Trying to find a top that doesn't expose half my chest has become a real challenge!

Everything is deep V necks and low scoop necks. I have a sleeveless linen top that I actually altered at the shoulders so it wouldn't hang down so far. I'll be glad when necklines go back up a little. Even this past winter, it seemed like plunging necklines were the "in" thing.

Nope. Kate Moss is considered short, and she's 5'7"!

Guess what I'm doing this afternoon?

Hemming two pairs of pants ...

Okay, you think you have it tough! I am 6'1", 36" inseam and a size 6....you try finding pants long enough, sleeves long enough, jackets long enough...in a year of cropped jackets i.e. spring 2006 I feel definitely hard done by...you can hem, I have to shop more and pay more to find anything. Can I gripe?