PETITE OFFICE CLOTHING – WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO FIND?
Despite claims and opinions that in recent years, the fashion industry has begun skyrocketing towards inclusivity, petite women continue to remain disenfranchised from entire categories of clothing – one category being office clothing.
The complete inability to locate good quality, well-fitting, and stylish office clothing is an alarmingly common issue encountered by most petite women. Whether it’s that workwear designs offered for petite ladies are completely unflattering for our bodies, the desired quality isn’t evident, or that ranges consist of a minimal number of (uninspired) designs, the reality simply is that that there is a complete lack of legitimate clothing options for petite, professional women.
So, why is it the case that we as petite professionals find it so challenging to discover decent, long-lasting, office-appropriate clothing? Why is something that consumers of a “regular” height don’t think twice about, something that is considered a luxury to petites?
The majority of petite clothing options comprise of low-quality, fast-fashion pieces, of which are usually found within limited “petite” ranges of bigger fashion companies. As such, it is safe to draw a conclusion that petite fashion so far has been the afterthought of bigger brands, with those bigger brands settling on the bare minimum for their petite ranges.
Accordingly, the complete lack of petite workwear options may be attributed to the following:
1: Ranges are unoriginal and without intentional design
Often for their petite ranges, larger department stores will duplicate pieces already existent in their “normal” ranges. Often times, these designs may have prints on them; their designs may be bulky or bold; and constitute seasonal trend pieces which, truth be told, can only be regarded as flattering when worn by the Naomi Campbell’s of the world. To merely duplicate a piece to fit a petite frame does guarantee the piece flattering a petite frame.
2: Ranges are limited in their variety
When petite ranges come into existence within larger department stores (you know who they are), the uncomfortable reality is that these ranges only came into existence purely to tick the box of “inclusivity”. The motivation and intent behind petite ranges are not to cater to the petite woman and what her expectations may be, but rather, to do the bare minimum to appear as progressive and inclusive as a brand.
As a result of this, ranges will unfortunately only consist of a small handful of designs. While designs may come and go based on the season, these ranges never actually expand to include a larger number of designs.
3: Most brands offering petite ranges are fast-fashion (i.e. little to no high-end or premium investment pieces)
For those of us who like to invest in higher quality pieces for everyday use, petite workwear ranges today will not be able to offer us what we are after. As most petite clothing exists as an afterthought of larger, fast-fashion brands, there are consequently very little to no premium/luxury options to discover.
Even when luxury designers attempt to duplicate their designs for petites, they fail to get the sizing right. Some designer brands currently carry the size “0P” (i.e. size 0 in petite proportions) for some of their designs, which is a clear example of how some of these brands still don’t understand that the word “petite” in the fashion industry refers purely to height.
At Mona Juliet, we understand from personal experience how difficult it is to find premium work and office attire for petite ladies. Our founder, Mona, is 4’10” tall, and has recently graduated from Law School in Australia. Throughout her early career, she found it almost impossible to find petite workwear which was of the quality she expected, which came in a range of beautiful styles and colours, and which flattered her body as a petite woman.
In 2021, she decided to do something about this gap in the market, and began developing MONA JULIET.
If you’re a petite woman (i.e. under 165cm/5’4″) and are in need of some high-quality, timeless pieces for your wardrobe, we invite you to have a browse of our recently launched Classics Collection.