Angie’s suggestion
about looking for petite sizing in a wrap jersey skirt if you are short got me
thinking about petite shopping in general. If you need petite sizing as I do, I
highly recommend you try shopping online. I’ve had a lot more success lately
with online shopping than in stores. (I
have the same comment about shopping for shoes, will save that for another
time).

More and more
retailers are eliminating their brick and mortar petite departments, but still
carry petite sizing online. Most of my
local TJMaxx stores have stopped carrying petites, and the only one that still
does only has Ralph Lauren preppy styles so if you’re not into preppy you are
out of luck. Nearby Nordstrom’s have very small petite departments. The Lord
and Taylor in the first mall I ever went to as a teenager has just stopped
carrying petites,
and they said their other store in area would be expanding it’s petite
department but looks to me like it has shrunk. I could go on but you get the
idea. Apparently the sales dollars in petite departments are just not high
enough to justify the cost of the floor space. (I’m just talking about the U.S.
here, I’m not familiar with shopping patterns in other countries and I know
women tend to be smaller for example in Asia.)

Online it’s
completely different, the possibilities seem endless and many retailers carry
petite sizing ONLY online. Also you can
sometimes find regular sizing that works… blogger Jean Wang at extrapetite.com
(mentioned in the outfit blogger list here at YLF) recommends looking online
for tops/dresses that appear short waisted/cropped on the models, they often
fit well for a petite. I have not tried this much but do see it could work.

On the con side you
have to spend time going through all the options, deal with deliveries/returns,
and make sure to return things before the bills are due. On the pro side you
get lots of choices, get to try them on at home and not have to make up your
mind immediately, and the big retailers are very good about returns.

I for one have become a big fan of online shopping.

Would love to hear
other comments about experiences shopping for petite sizes.