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Almost Famous dress from Petite Affair |
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In 2006 Petite Personal Shopper ran Petite Opinion, a request for you to tell us just what you want from petite fashion. It was a serious project to find out whether petite brands are meeting the needs of their customers, and to let the fashion industry know a little more about what makes petite women both the same as, and different from, the market for clothes in standard sizes. You didn't let us down. Emails came in from all around the world, but especially from the UK and Ireland. We also conducted some face-to-face interviews with petite women whilst they were clothes shopping, and here are the result of our survey. It's not 'scientific' in the same way as an opinion poll, in that we didn't ask you to tell us your ages, income levels, education, and so on. But many of you did reveal your ages, the jobs you did, and whether you had children, and it seems clear that the responses came from women from all ages groups and occupational backgrounds, representing a good cross-section of the petite market. The first thing we noticed was the tone of the responses. The predominant moods were either angry or sad, and sometimes both. Overall you do not feel that the fashion industry gives petite women a good deal. Some respondents felt that things were getting a little better, with a slowly widening range of sizes from very small to plus size petites, and above all, new petite labels appearing, especially on the internet, but the general feeling was that 'no one cares' about petites. |
Virtually everyone in the UK mentioned Next as the foremost petite fashion label, with one woman summing up for many of you when she said of Next, "Thank God for it!" You valued Next for the wide range of petite clothing offered by the store, from business suits to swimwear and sports attire, and the existence of the Next Directory and the online store were cited by many as a valuable extension of choice for petite women. Interestingly the title for second most popular petite retailer or label was far from clear. Principles had many honourable mentions, but no one at all cited its online store, which seems to suggest that Next's home shopping reputation is not yet being assailed by Principles, despite its excellent online presence. Miss Selfridge and Top Shop were also mentioned as good places to find petite clothes on the net, though there were criticisms of their stores for carrying too few (or no) petite sizes. Most notable, though, was the high value attributed to relative newcomer, Petite Affair, which was mentioned by almost as many people as the big name retailers with a strong High Street presence. Petite Affair was seen as the only up-market petite fashion label that was truly aspirational. |
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My, aren't you all cross? But you are often cross about different things. Women wearing larger sizes complained that petite labels only catered for the small and slim,, whilst petite women wearing small sizes said that sizes were too big. The only objective evidence offered to support this complaint was that many smaller petite women made the same complaint - that small sizes disappeared from shops, online stores and catalogues more quickly than larger sizes. We checked this out by looking at online stores, and found it to be broadly true, especially of brands aimed at younger women. Trouser lengths were another bone of contention. Some of you find petite trousers too long, and others find them too short. Women of the same height needed trouser lengths varying from 25" to 29", which is quite some variation. This suggests that, as with standard sizes, three trouser lengths would suit the petite customer better than a single length that is likely to be too long for many women, but too short for others. The lower range of petite sizes also provoked complaint. Several people pointed out that sizes that seem to suggest anorexia on a 6' tall model are simply healthily lean on someone a foot shorter. Petite labels which routinely make size 8 their smallest size were regarded with derision. How shops display petite clothes also came in for criticism. Tucking the petite section away in the back or on an upper floor along with plus sizes or children's clothes was seen, as one women put it, as "insulting". But the biggest source of complaint on this score concerned the hanging of petite clothes on rails that are too high for the customer to reach. Many of you told tales of walking out without buying rather than enduring the embarrassment of having to ask for help. The much cited rudeness of shop assistants towards petite customers didn't help, either. |
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