Petite Office Clothing – Why is it so hard to find?
Despite claims and opinions that the fashion industry has begun to soar towards inclusivity in recent years, petite women are still deprived of an entire category of clothing, especially office wear.
The complete inability to find quality, well-fitting and stylish office clothing is an alarmingly common problem encountered by most petite women. Whether it’s the fact that the workwear designs available for petite ladies are completely ill-suited to our bodies, the required quality is not apparent, or the collections consist of a minimal number of (uninspired) designs, the reality is that there is a complete lack of legitimate clothing options for petite working women.
So why do we as petite professionals find it so challenging to find decent, durable, office-appropriate clothing? Why is it that consumers of “normal” height don’t think twice about buying what is considered a luxury for petites?
Most petite clothing choices are low-quality, fast-fashion items that are usually found in the limited “petite” collections of the major fashion houses. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that, to date, petite fashion has been an afterthought for the big brands, and those big brands have chosen only the bare minimum for their petite collections.
Therefore, the complete lack of petite workwear options may be attributed to the following:
1: Collections are unoriginal and not intentionally designed
Often, for their petite collections, larger department stores will replicate items already in their “normal” collections. Often, these designs may have prints on them; they may be bulky or bold; and frankly, they’re only flattering when worn by Naomi Campbell. Replicating just one piece to accommodate a petite figure does guarantee that the piece will complement a petite figure.
2: Limited Range of Variety
When petite collections appear in large department stores, the disturbing reality is that they exist purely to fulfill the need for “inclusivity”. The motivation and intent behind petite collections is not to cater to petite women and their expectations, but to minimize progress and inclusivity as a brand.
Therefore, unfortunately, the collection contains only a few designs. While the designs may change seasonally, these ranges never actually expand to include more than a handful of designs. To prove this point, visit the websites of ASOS, Forever New, The Iconic and Banana Republic (to name a few) right now and compare the number of styles in their regular and small collections.
3: Most brands that offer small collections are fast fashion (i.e. few, if any, high-end or quality investment pieces)
For those of us who like to invest in higher-quality everyday items, today’s petite workwear collections will not meet our needs. Since most petite apparel is the successor to large fast fashion brands, there are few premium/luxury options available.
Even when luxury designers try to replicate their petite designs, they can’t get the sizing right. For example, Australian designer brand “Zimmermann” has only added “0P” sizing (i.e. petite scale size 0) to some of its designs in recent years, which is a clear example of how some brands still don’t do this. It’s important to realize that the term “petite” in fashion refers purely to height.
At Mona Joliet, we know from personal experience how difficult it is to find quality work and office wear for petite ladies. Our founder, Mona, is 4’10” and has just graduated from law school in Australia. Early in her career, she found it almost impossible to find petite workwear that met her expectations of quality, that came in a variety of beautiful styles and colors, and that complimented her figure as a petite woman.
Two years ago, she decided to do something about this gap in the market and began developing MONA JULIET.