Just wanted to chime in that Asos has petite stuff that is more trendy and fashion forward. http://us.asos.com/Women-Petit.....KfSoZq-_8A

I forgot about Asos, Mo! Thanks for the reminder.

Love this thread, and all the candor offered in what didn’t work about purchases. Your collective thoughts helped me analyze my returns, and now I understand the style and fit reasons. I took it a step further to ask, how did I end up with these items in my closet in the first place? Returns are not that complicated, but I could benefit by better decisions initially. I asked: under what conditions did I make the purchases that I question or regret later?

- Feeling hurried to make a decision to buy in an upscale brick & mortar boutique, either locally or on vacation. (The love of a good fabric doesn’t make it right for my style or shape.)

- Feeling internal pressure to buy, since a stylist I’d invested in has spent time pulling looks for me. (Do I really need a fifth grey sweatshirt?)

- Buying online from yoox in cases where the
clothing was not shown on a fit model. (My avoidable mistakes include wrong-for-me neckline, length of garment, texture of garment)

- Buying to fill a “need” and compromising, without having taken the time and patience to figure out what better item would fill the need. (I never enjoy wearing the light red linen jeans I bought, as a denim substitute for spring.)

- First time out with a new trend or look that doesn’t work (fuzzy jacket, fur vest, turtleneck) – Now these returns are OK with me ! and I’m not all that
interested in reducing these style experiments. There would be no way to guess that these silhouettes or season’s fresh colors wouldn’t work for me, without an actual try on, I think. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I still have a little trouble “visualizing” my style before trying something on
in person, but the try on at home system is working pretty well.

Another shout out to Joyce B ‘s comment “when the doubt I have is big enough for me to post a question, I will always have the doubt and it's probably best to return the garment.” Thank you for that; it’s excellent
insight. I will add that to my checklist of K/R decision making.

I'm glad this thread helped you, annabelle! It has been a while since I posted it, so I benefited from a second read.

You brought up a good point about buying clothes that haven't been shown on a fit model. I often don't think of how important it is to see the item in action, so to speak.

I agree with you that you actually have to try the trends in person to see if they're right for you. Of my "uncertain" purchases, the ones that I bought that weren't my style were compromises rather than experiments. I don't mind it when I try something out and it doesn't work, as long as it was my intent to experiment. Experimenting is a lot of fun!