The Budget Fashionista

I’m petite and have found some great, inexpensive work clothes (fashionable ones no less!) for petites at Loehmann’s.

INC is a great brand; they make nearly all of their fashions in petite sizes. But being 5’1” myself, I also recommend Ann Taylor. I avoided it for years because it seemed too stodgy, but their office attire is actually quite cute and very well-made, and the petite selection is excellent.

Try Macys, Nordstrom and Banana Republic. They all have a wide selection of petite work clothes online. Also, try Anthropologie for beautiful dresses, skirts and pants in petites. For a long list of online petite stores, visit www.thepetitefashionista.com.

Try Ann Taylor Loft, they have a good selection on petite clothing for work!! And cheaper than Ann Taylor!!

Hi there,
I’m also a professional petite.  I work in the accounting dept.
of a University bookstore.  As you can imagine, my post has it’s share of challenges.  I’m surrounded by twenty-something students and a diverse group of faculty & staff.  I strive to dress appropriately for my job & select clothes that “speak”. I want to send the message “I am a great employee; thoughtful, reliable, efficient & innovative”.  What I don’t want my clothes to say is “I’m too small/inexperienced/casual(sloppy)/young for this job & I’m as suprised as anyone that I’m taken seriously”. When I dress for work I deliberatley choose “accounting clothes”.  My work wardrobe consists of a lot of suiting (skirts & trousers), button-down shirts, & sweaters (v-neck & cardigans) in layers. My clothes are classic colours & subtle patterns (mostly verticle stripes & herringbone).  I work hard to project a certian image & value compliments, my favourite is “You’re only 5ft? I always thought you were taller”.  Another great compliment is when our student employees ask for tips. I’ve found that they are all trying to find their fashion voices. I try to pass on similar advice such as “Fit & fabric are important”, “Proportion, proportion, proportion (no over-size prints, bags,hemlines etc.)","Get a good tailor & hang on to ‘em” & “The first thing anyone sees in an interview is your shoes & your bag”.  However I think that the best advice I can give is “Stay on message”.  The great thing is that you can communicate to people with your work wardrobe.  Select the right clothes & you can say a lot.  Hang on to the rather old-fashioned belief that you should be judged on your work alone & people will consider you either naive, out-of-touch, or worse- careless.  Save the casual, funky, & overtly sexy for your off hours (stay OUT of the junoirs dept.).  Having two wardrobes can be fun, I always enjoy changing when I get home.  You know, the “whew, now I can relax” moment.  Find someone as a role model (did you know Reese Witherspoon is only 5’2”?), try to figure out if things that work for her might work for you.  Of course, checking out sites like this one is a good move too :).  As for shopping- online is your best bet; JCrew, Gap, Ralph Lauren, Ilse of Skye cashmere, Ann Taylor & Blue-fly are all good bets.  I’m not as impressed with Ann Taylor Loft- I’ve found the fabrics & construction of the clothes reflect the lower prices.  However, if you’re a recreational shopper, you may get lucky.  Of course the clothes look best when you feel your best.  Take a few minutes every morning; do a 360 in front of the mirror, stand tall, & say “Damn, you look good!” now off you go & remeber being petite is great.  After all, you can always take in something, it’s a lot harder to lengthen.  That tailoring fundamental & airplane seats are the petite girls redemption :)

Hi,

Well I am 5’0 and 90lbs!  Yes, very small indeed.  I found some places that works well with me.  Here they are:

Banana Republic: love their petite oxford shirts.  Unfortunately, pants and suits do not fit well at all.

Forever 21: they tend to run smaller as well for dresses and shirts.  I usually find great things after much digging to pair up with my designers items.

H&M;: same as Forever 21.

Mango: I am obsessed with this brand while i was living in Paris.  they have a store in Montreal which i try to go once or twice a year.  Everything fits really well. 

For suits as well as slacks, i have mine custom made, more expensive, but worth it.  I live in NYC so i go buy fabrics and have it made for me.

Try being a 42 year old woman shopping for petite “up-to-date trendy” clothes.  I get the ugly looks from “younger” ladies when I’m shopping in the trendier stores, but try and be on a budget with two teenagers.  When I find suits I always have to get them altered and unfortunately finding a GOOD tailor is harder than one might imagine.  I’ve spent more on getting things tailored then on the piece itself and I’ve had a suit re-altered 3 times and still not done well.  I’m considering opening my own clothing store for only petites with all of the things we have in mind - professional (not cutesy), sexy (not slutty), trendy (not totally disposable) and classic (not what our grandmothers are wearing - like petite women want flowers on them the size of old couches).

Sometimes after checking out what I like at the name brand stores I’ll check out bargain sites online to see if they have the same or similar items on clearance.  Many websites will give you competitive prices from various stores.  You always risk having to send the item back of course, but I kinda don’t mind too much.
-v

I loved Petite Sophisticate but I heard they went bankrupt or something. If only I can have them back....

I actually found this site because I was searching for an answer to this exact problem!! I’m 5’2, 100 lbs. and I’ve ordered plenty of clothes from La Redoute, almost all which have to go back for being too big. They don’t even carry a size 0 in a lot of itmes. A lot of the brands you’ve listed here are very preppy-- any that are more stylish? I’m an Assistant Vice President for a Fortune 100 company in very conservative corporate america, but also want to balance that with being 25 yrs. old and trendy by nature. (I want wear clothes to work that look professional, but yet won’t feel completely dowdy in if I wear them out to happy hour with friends after work.) I’ve also spent more on tailoring then the item itself, and it’d be nice to find things that fit right off the bat, without worrying about finding a tailor.

I am also trying to figure out how to dress petite but still cool.  I recently down-sized from an 8 or 10 to a 2petite.  I was this size in college, but it has been a while.  Now, I need something professional but still cool.  I am a mom of 3 and also a pediatric nurse practitioner.  (So, I also need washable since bodily fluids can’t be ruled out on any given day!!) I like Banana Republic, Gap, Ann Taylor Loft.  Sometimes I have luck with Old Navy for tees and basics.  It has been harder than I thought… I thought the lifetime weight watchers thing would be the hard part...!!! My mom is teaching me how to hem and do basic altering, so I can save my cash for the big alterations.  (Can I say I love Mrs. Choi who does them for me??!!  She SOOOOO ROCKS!!!) JJill is also good sometimes.

If you get a chance to go to Canada, Reitmans (www.reitmans.com) has a great petite selection and things are very affordable. For the first time in 10 years I was able to buy a winter coat that fit! And for $100 on sale! Suits on sale are under $100. At regular price maybe still under $100. You might be able to buy online too. Anyway, I much prefer it to Gap or Old Navy, the fits are better too. Oh yeah and their sweaters have great arm lengths that actually fit. No dangly ends!

I’m a big fan of ANN TAYLOR LOFT. They have nice dressy (work-type) fashions but also everyday clothes that are comfortable, stylish and reasonably priced. They carry sizes 00 through 16 for petites. I always get compliments when I have their clothes on. I am 5’1” so I always have a hard time finding clothes (pants, especially) that fit just right. AT LOFT always works for me. I have converted at least four of my petite friends to them (and we’re a wide range of sizes from 0 to 12) and we’ve all become AT Loft devotees!

I’m 5 feet tall, 110 lbs., 28 years old, and I have a 34 DD chest. Talk about no clothing options!!! What is a woman to do? I’m good at picking out great outfits, but once I put them on me, I have to just laugh. Nothing ever looks right on me. Boots, skinny jeans under boots, knee length coats, A-line skirts just below the knee with boots. The clothes that actually fir do not reflect my personal style.

Im a petite 5’0 and a size 8. Im 30 years and of asian origin. I live in Denmark, which is part of nothern europe, and here the women are a lot taller than me. So its practically impossible to find trousers and jeans with the right lenght in the stores. Debenhams in london have a petite collection which is suitable for work wear. Also Next have a petite collection with nice jeans and trousers. The priceS are reasonable.

Good news! Petite Sophisticate is still online, and in outlets!