A petite stylist’s best tips how to save money on clothes as a petite. When you are petite and sick of spending extra money on petite clothing and tailors, learn these tricks.
- What Is the Style Challenges of Petites?
- How to Buy the Right Clothes When You Are Petite?
- What Are the Best Clothes for Petites?
- How to Save Money on Clothes When You Are Petite
- Develop Your Shopping Sense
- What Not to Buy When You Are Petite
- Pieces Worth Trying When You Are Petite
- Learn to Walk on Heels
- Navigate the Shoe Shopping Challenge
- Style Challenge Solutions for Short Ladies
Disclosure: There may be affiliate links in this post.
What Is the Style Challenges of Petites?
Dressing when you are a petite can be challenging, expensive and often frustrating. The dressing challenges of petites are on several burners. Many clothes just come in regular size and overwhelm the small frame. Thus, it is important to identify what works and doesn’t work for you and to stick to it.
Restricting yourself to petite clothes or having everything tailored are both expensive. Thus, knowing where to shop what for your body is an important money saving strategy. In this post, I will share some tips that help you to solve your shopping/dressing problem to have great style without having to break the bank.
How to Buy the Right Clothes When You Are Petite
Key is to create the illusion of being tall. This means you have to scale the volume of your clothes to the size of your body. Doing so results in you wearing the clothes instead of the clothes wearing you. When you don’t get this right, you will end up with a closet full of pieces you don’t wear. In other words, try the clothes on to check whether they work for you frame to save.
There are several ways to achieve this goal. Using a monochromatic look with the same color for your top and bottom is a very effective way to achieve this goal. Try the look with nude shoes or shoes in a similar shade of your outfit. You can find more on how to style an interesting monochromatic look at this link.
Other ways to create the illusion of height are V-necks and vertical lines. Vertical lines can be seams, the button-line of a shirt or coat dress, or fabric with vertical stripes or corduroy. Dresses like sheaths, solid color dresses or pants suits also build nice vertical lines and are an easy way to give the illusion of height.
Hats give you height and style in an instance. Scarves are stylish and when worn to create a vertical line give the illusion of height too.
Don’t fall for shoes form the kids department or anything flat. You will feel awkward in them, meaning you wasted money because you will barely or not wear them.
What Are the Best Clothes for Petites?
When wearing separates make sure that they don’t chop your body in half. Italian length or just above the knee are the most flattering on most petites when it comes to the lengths of a dress/skirt. Create the illusion of long legs by emphasizing the waist with a belt. When wearing a skirt in summer go for nude (your flesh color) shoes to elongate the leg. When wearing pants or tights shoes in the same color have the same effect. Matching the color of your skirt with that of your tights also elongate the legs.
Well fitting clothes draw the eye up. A straight-leg pair of jeans is better for petites than loose fits. See also how to choose your pants.
Look for blazers, blouses, shirts that have small collars. Opt for cropped jackets, and shirts. Try 3/4 sleeves. For best fit long sleeves should hit just one inch (2.5 cm) over your wrist.
Mini-bags are made for you. Extra advantage: They are less expensive than their normal size version. Compared to your body, the mini-bag has the right proportion and doesn’t look so mini at all.
How to Save Money on Clothes When You Are Petite
A habit to unlearn is to restrict yourself browsing/shopping only petite clothes, which are often more expensive than the same item in regular size.
When you found a piece you like and that fits well check whether you can get it for less online.
Take advantage of your vertical body type. When your legs are short, you may be long-waisted. If so, try capris and gauchos as full length slacks.
You can also save money on the tailor by adopting the current raw hem trend/style. Buy a pair of jeans that fits perfectly around your hips, bum and thighs. Then just cut them for the right length. Never ever do the marking yourself! Bending the knees lifts the fabric of the pants in the front and will create a too long front, once you stand up straight again.
Tip: Wear the shoes you plan to wear with your jeans and have someone mark the length just half an inch (1.3 cm)above the floor.
Have a good tailor on speed dial. When you find something you like, send them a photo of the item. Ask them whether they can alter the piece to your frame, and what it would cost. Never buy an item before you know its actual final price (sum of what you pay to buy the clothes plus its alterations and taxes).
Most department stores have this free service for their good (VIP) customers. They won’t mention it when they don’t know you.
Learn to do simple alterations and hemming yourself on non-expensive trendy items. See a step-by-step instruction for shortening a hem in the post at the link. In the case of more expensive wardrobe basics, use a seamstress/tailor. It is too expensive when you get it wrong on investment items!
When shopping online know your measures and always check the size charts. Knowing your measures may help you find pieces that work for you when shortened or even right away. For instance, a cropped pair of pants may have an inseam of 27 inch, which is exactly your full length. You get the idea.
When between size always go for the larger one. A seamstress can alter a too large item, but not a too small one.
Of course, shop for your personal style. But also keep in mind that simple cuts (classic, Bohemian, casual) are easier to alter than complicated ones (Romantic, dramatic). If you do not want to spend the money on having your sleeves shortened, roll them up at least 2 inches (5 cm) above your wrist. But stick to wearing them rolled up all time! Otherwise the piece will look on you like a hand-me-down.
If you can sew, you can make simple garments like skirts to your scale. You can even up-cycle clothes.
Never exclude that you might find something suitable in the youth department. But when you shop there, make sure that besides fit, the quality of the fabric and craftsmanship are excellent. In other words, pieces from the youth department can make you look like trying too hard or not trying at all when they are low quality and/or not well made. Both looks look cheap and are never in style!
Develop Your Shopping Sense
Keep your eyes open for styles that also work on your petite frame. I have a couple of dresses that were designed with a hem to hit half thigh on a 5 ft 10 (1.78 m) person. However, on my 5 ft 4 (1.63 m) body, they are just 2 inch (5 cm) above the knee. Adding a pair of tight in the color of the skirt or shoes/boots can look great when your best feature are your legs.
What Not to Buy When You Are Petite
Steer away from flowing, loose or misfit clothes. All of them look sloppy and frumpy on a small body. Avoid tunic-like tops, horizontal stripes, large collars, and everything oversize and/or shapeless.
Hems create horizontal lines which make you look wider than you are, and may make you look shorter than you are and/or even cut you in half. Therefore, always watch the lengths of your hems and where they hit on your short frame. Midi dresses and skirts, for instance, may be overwhelming, especially, when it comes to full or dirndl-like skirts.
While separates can work for petites, they are tricky to get the proportions right and to avoid looking short. As pointed out before, a monochromatic look with separates is the easiest to wear.
Pieces Worth Trying When You Are Petite
Many stylists advice against wearing floor-grazing maxi dresses or maxi skirts. When they are voluminous they can easily overwhelm your petite frame. However, a slim cut, fitted maxi dress or maxi skirt can work when it gives the illusion of height, i.e. when you get the proportions right. However, be aware that anything maxi or wide pants are tricky cuts for you.
When you have a short torso, try a crew neck or boat neck to balance the proportions of your legs and torso.
Learn to Walk on Heels
The World is so much nicer at 5 ft 9. Learn to walk on heels. Gaining height when being petite is one of the 101 reasons why to wear heels over 40.
Wear heels or wedges and/or shoes with plateau (photos below) like my Spring Steps reviewed here. Various companies offer also custom-made plateau comfort shoes.
Exercise walking in heels. Commit to push your weight on the ball of your foot. It works best when you lift the respective hip and push it forward when set the leg forward. Benefit: Your butt and hip get a sexy swing as you walk.
Navigate the Shoe Shopping Challenge
How to save money on clothes when you are petite does not stop there. When you are petite often your feet are petite too. You may have good luck on your trip to Europe in France, Italy and Spain to find great shoes in your size.
Be aware that the shoe sizing in Europe differs from that in the US.
Otherwise have a look at websites that specialize in custom-made shoes or shoes for petites like petitefeet.com (I am not affiliated with them and they did not ask/pay me for a mentioning).
As some of you know, I often browse eBay in summer (off-season) for boots and in winter for pumps of high-end brands. I often see that they have great brand new (unused) high end and bridge brands in US size 5, 6, and 6.5. The prices are way below those that one has to pay for a pair in a US size 7.5 or up. It’s worth taking a look. I found my Dior over-the-knee boots on eBay for a real bargain. Learn how to score high when shopping on eBay as another strategy how to save money on clothes when you are petite.
Style Challenge Solutions for Short Ladies
You may also like to read these 27 best styling tips for petite women.
Photos: G. Kramm
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