My Personal Shopper (PS) was a regular-sized fashionable twenty something who without quizzing me as to my size or the purpose of my visit dashed off in search of ‘work suits’. Twenty minutes later she emerged and, somewhat to my surprise, had sized me up quite accurately. However, she was only able to find two suits with any hope of fitting my size 6 figure; a nicely cut black formal suit with wide legged trousers and a brown linen suit – both of which were from Principles Petite. However, the PS had completely overlooked PETITE Collection, Debenham’s own petite range! After some enthusiastic prompting on my behalf, she came back with two more trouser suits: one a rather shapeless grey number; and the other a rather cheap looking brown pin stripe.
So did anything fit? Well, it didn’t come as much of a surprise to find that the sleeve and trouser lengths on all of the suits were too long. At just 4’10’’ tall, I am a relatively short petite with an inside leg of just 28’’. Nonetheless, the black Principles suit and the PETITE Collection pin stripe suit were a good fit across the shoulders, and flattering around the waist. However, the waist on one pair of allegedly size 6 trousers from PETITE Collection was so large that it would have also accommodated my three year old daughter!
Warming to the task, my PS urged me to try a number of tops from Warehouse, which although not specifically petite, were actually not a bad fit. I felt however, that they were a bit too trendy for work trips, although I might have worn them casually or on work days when I wasn’t meeting clients.
Was it a useful experience? Well, my PS didn’t really pay enough attention to my requirements and wasn’t very well informed about the petite offerings in the store. On the plus side, however, she was able to offer a reasonably priced and speedy alteration service. Overall, I don’t have a burning desire to use the PSS again. With far more choice available on the internet, it makes sense to continue shopping online and to try everything on at leisure at home.
