Here Are the Best Brands to Shop for Petite Sizes

I’m five feet, four and a quarter inches. And yes, that quarter makes a difference—at least to me. Once you get to five feet four inches, you’re officially entering petite territory, and for most of my adult life I wanted absolutely nothing to do with that.

In my mind, petite was the afterthought market. Like, Oh right, some people are shorter—I guess we should make them some clothes, too. I didn’t want to be relegated to some special section with fewer choices. I wanted to be thrown in with the wolves. Give me the regular clothes, and all the selection that brings, and I’ll figure it out.

And I did.

My pants were almost always too long; my jackets sometimes hit a little looser than they probably should; my jeans pooled around my ankles. But I think at some point I just accepted that this was how clothes fit. I hemmed things. I rolled them. I wore giant jeans and called it fashion—which sometimes it was.

Then recently I tried on a pair of petite pants. They fit perfectly.

Not perfectly for petite pants, but perfectly in general. The rise was right. The length was right. Everything seemed to land where it was supposed to land on my body. It was a completely new and—not going to lie—really nice experience. Was it time to accept reality, lean in and explore the petite section?