Doesn't petite mean short?

I'm short. At 5' and a bit, there's no denying it. That's why I always head for the Petite sections when shopping, whether I'm in a store or shopping on-line, but guess what? Many of these "petite" clothes seem to have been designed for taller women than me. A quick search on-line reveals that the average woman in the UK is 5'3" tall, so those of us who are a few inches less than this count as short, in my humble opinion. It's supposed to be the same average here in Spain but, trust me, I'm far from being the shortest woman in the Spanish town where we live, which is why I find it strange that most of the clothes in the local shops are far too long. My research has also shown that American and Canadian women are a little bit taller, so when looking for petite clothes I usually stick to UK websites and/or brands.

I checked out the Wallis website recently - as I've had some success there in the past - to see if there were any petite summer dresses that might suit me. "What about this one?" I thought.

I looked for more details about the dress and spotted that the model was wearing a UK size 8 and she was 5'3".  She's not petite, she's average!  Bearing in mind that I would need a UK size 12, which might be even longer, it was obvious this dress would be too long on me. I also felt that the pattern might be a bit overwhelming for petite women. Browsing the website, I was struck by how many of their petite dresses had large or high contrast prints, which don't necessarily flatter real petite women - though average sized models might look great in them.

Imogen Lamport of Inside Out Style has written a very helpful post for Petites, taking into account the fact that some petites might have an H-shape rectangular body like me and others might be O-shaped or have other types of body shape. To be honest, as a petite, I'm just grateful if I can find a dress that doesn't overwhelm me and doesn't trip me up!

Yes, I know that I can shorten a dress, but that isn't really the point. Petite clothes should be the right length for short women, or am I missing something? I've now reached the stage where I usually select short or mini dresses when doing on-line searches and carefully check the dress length as well. That dress that is a mini length on a tall, slender model may still hit me mid calf.

My original midi-length dress

The picture above illustrates the importance of choosing the right length for a dress. I wore this dress to my 60th birthday party, the theme of which was "bring on the bling". I liked the colour of the dress and the style, however looking at it more critically (with the help of my friends in the 7 Steps to Style facebook group), the length wasn't very flattering. Petites generally don't look good in midi dresses. Knee length dresses, or even just above the knees, suit them better.

New version - knee length

Nearly eight years later the dress has taken on a new lease of life, after I had it shortened at my local dry-cleaners. Nowadays I am far more demanding when it comes to buying new clothes, especially if I'm choosing an item that is being marketed as "petite", and don't think I'm being too pernickety in expecting petite dresses, skirts and trousers to actually fit me. Is it really too much to expect a petite dress to be designed for petite rather than average women? Short ones, that is!