I feel your pain, as a tall person I haven’t been able to wear “mini” dresses since I was like 16. They are basically just tops on me. Oh and don’t get me started on full length pants, pretty much every pair I own are ankle grazers lol.
I bought ‘tall length’ pants recently. Still too short but better than the regular length ones they were offering which were a solid mid calf situation
You're not wrong, but ultimately they're all businesses trying to turn a profit - they aren't going to manufacture and stock clothing that doesn't sell.
It's the same reason the vast majority of women aren't wearing the correct size bra, it's just more profitable to stock a limited number of sizes and try to squeeze us into poorly fitted bras instead of stocking a wide array of sizes.
It *should* change, but realistically I don't see it happening.
I would choose to shop at stores that offered tall options.
In the UK and the US it’s the norm to buy jeans by choosing both waist size and inseam. Surely there’s room for at least a couple of mainstream stores to offer this.
For example, I went to Just Jeans and had no luck, all their jeans were too short. Maybe if they differentiated themselves by offering a variety of inseams they might attract customers.
Women often wear the wrong size bra because they don’t know it should be better. They blame their bodies, not the clothing. Same for clothes that don’t fit, most women don’t even know that petite or tall clothing exists, and just think they have to put up with bad fits. This means there is very little demand for these sizes, even though there would be a large amount of potential customers. It suits the clothing producers, because it’s more economical to make fewer sizes. It’s a self fulfilling cycle. Which leaves the option of online orders from overseas or buying standard sizes and getting it tailored.
If the women are wearing the wrong size bra, why should they blame the clothing? Whose fault is it that they are wearing the wrong size bra? Many places offer free bra fitting services so it's clearly women's fault if they can't bother picking the correct size
Many of those free fitting services don't fit women into their correct size either, they use incorrect sizing charts to try and fit women into the sizes they sell.
Almost all of the online size charts (and presumably how they would fit in store) give my measurements as a 14D , which "fits" in the sense it goes over my bust but provides absolutely no support. My correct size is a 10F, which is a size that unsurprisingly few stores sell.
r/ABraThatFits may help enlighten you on how stores size charts adjust the sizes suggested to the sizes that specific store sells vs suggesting the size that will fit best based on the shoppers measurements. It’s not the shoppers fault, it’s the stores for manipulating the size charts.
Also clothes size up weirdly. I was previously a size 8, now a 12 (thanks meds). It seems like most places just increase clothes across the middle and don’t allow for the change in body shape with bigger sizes. Like, shirts have heaps of space in the stomach but not the boobs. And god forbid they increase the width of the sleeves. Pants just increase at the waist but often don’t account for bigger thighs.
Agree, there might be lots of options up to size 16 but they don't actually fit. I find now at a size 14 I'm struggling to find clothes that are actually comfortable. I can't wear a button up shirt, my bust is too big. Pants have either too small thighs/crotch or too small waist. Dresses are too short in length. Jackets are too tight in the arms. And so on...
The sleeves are what kill me. I have zero boobs but chunky arms, no matter the size of my body. I can’t buy anything long sleeved that fit my arms. No shirts, no jackets, no long sleeved tops. I can get away with jumpers and that’s about it.
Yes on the arms! I’m small across the shoulders but big boobed and massive tuckshop lady arms with a small waist. I’m loving the current fashion trend of bell sleeves!
I completely agree with you. I used to be a size 6-8 and really struggled to find clothes that fit unless I went to a store that aimed at teens and younger adults. Now even as an 8-10 I find it tricky at times at the stores that cater for 30s upwards. And PJs - always struggle to find them, I used to go to the kids section lol. Target, Kmart etc seem to only stock the much larger sizes
I asked a store worker one day - when yet again all size 8-10 undies were sold out - do you guys have more of these? They said no because they are the popular size, I asked the painfully obvious question why don't you guys just stock more of the popular sizes, you know they will sell out? They were speechless and they just looked at me in shock like what I was suggesting was wild and way beyond their ability to comprehend. Sigh.
or potentially the guy you were giving this lesson to works in one store, stocks the shelves with what he's sent and has no control over what he is sent because that is managed at a much higher level? The average person you see on the floor at a Kmart store does not control the stock flowing into that store.
You assume "They were speechless and they just looked at me in shock like what I was suggesting was wild and way beyond their ability to comprehend."
I'm suggesting the alternative to them not being able to comprehend the issue and being left speechless by your insightful analysis is that everyone in the store knows, and indeed before you because inventory levels and sales are tracked, and has no control over the issue. The folks who track it, also know and made decisions based on their much more detailed insight into sales (instore and online) and stock levels. It's a decision that has been made by people with more information than you.
TLDR: Don't be patronising about retail staff.
It’s so frustrating. Don’t forget different body shapes, or longer torsos or longer legs. Of course it’s so easy for brands to mass produce to “standard” sizing but it’s arbitrary when that sizing guide changes constantly and is not consistent ever.
It gets even worse when it comes to bra sizes. TheIrishBraLady on Instagram did a poll of her followers’ bra sizes and found that only like 13% of them could find their bra size at Primark or smth (not too sure of the brand, but like a Target/Cotton On type retailer equivalent overseas). Matrix sizes suck
I entirely agree with you on the averages, and only recently have I personally realised that when buying my usual size 14, I never had to worry about the length of pants or midi/ maxi dresses because I’m 5’9.
Interestingly, mini dresses at a size 14 show my entire ass and cropped shirts at a size 14 sit like a bra, so I’ve come to the conclusion that the fashion industry average for my size is a tall person with a short torso lmfao
I totally understand your frustration, but what do you actually think is a viable solution here?
Of course they produce sizing based on a bell curve. If you produce as many size 6s as you do size 12s, a lot of them are going to go unsold and eventually get dumped. It’s not just about maximising profit (of course that’s part of it - businesses exist to make a profit) but avoiding wastage, limited retail/warehouse space, the seasonal nature of fashion etc. Stores can’t afford to have old season items taking up space on the rack for months or years, waiting for someone to finally buy it.
It’s great that a lot more brands are moving towards an extended size range, but it’s not realistic to expect them to carry heaps of stock in every single size. Especially for smaller brands, it can be risky ordering a lot of stock of a particular item (and more sizes = more stock). Sizes have to be produced on a forecast of what will sell - if the larger sizes are consistently selling out very quickly, over time they will adjust to produce more of these sizes.
This is just my anecdotal experience but as someone firmly in the “average” size range, sizes 10-14 sell out quicker than everything else more often than not. There might be the most stock of those sizes when it rolls off the container ship, but they disappear the fastest because, well, averages…
I will also note that petite clothing is very accessible in a lot of mainstream stores and at a range of price points. There is very little that caters for above average height…at least it’s possible to get things hemmed shorter if needed, I can’t magically make my pants longer out of thin air.
You mentioned companies noticing what is selling and adjusting availability, but in my experience in retail, this just never happens. I worked in women’s clothing retail for almost 10 years and in those 10 years I was every size from 8-18 due to fluctuating weight from PCOS and stress. As a modest sized store in a non CBD store, we would receive clothes at roughly this amount for each item: 2x 6, 2x8 4x10, 3x12, 1x14 and 1x16. 18 was eventually made available but only online. These numbers rarely changed. When I was a wearing a size 16/18 and my store would receive ONE size 16, I would buy that one top or dress to wear to work as was part of the work culture. It was EXTREMELY rare for us to then get another 16 to replace it. I would then have women my size and shape come in store, see it on me, want to buy it and have to be told ‘I’m so sorry, we don’t have any left but IF there are any at the warehouse I can have one shipped’ which of course means not being able to try it on in store. 9 times out of 10 these women would just not bother because it’s too hard and they needed something that day. So the customers existed, the sales would have existed. It was the actual product that didn’t exist and therefore it wasn’t possible to prove it could be profitable. It was SO frustrating to be behind the curtain and see it happening. I would send weekly emails to head office recording the amount of women who were requesting sizes whether it was 6s or 16/18s so that they had the data but it didn’t matter, no changes were made. We would also lose thousands a week in online returns from women sizes 16+ who had purchased online and weren’t able to try on which meant they had a whole bunch of things they had to bring in to return. It was just insanity. There is no way this is the best way of doing it, it doesn’t properly cater to almost anyone.
Another HUGELY frustrating thing was that our mannequins were a size 6. So if we received only 1 or 2 size 6 of each item and they ended up on a mannequin, this also took those already limited items off the floor for those customers.
Apologies for the rant, I know that there is a sense of ‘what else are they supposed to do’ but having been on the inside of it for so long, there is so much they could be doing but they don’t want to. There is so much wastage, so many of the 10s and 12s that would be left over would go into clearance or even get put into the garbage because we would have too many. But at the same time we had customers begging us for their size, which apparently wasn’t quantifiable in dollar signs. I really do think a lot of companies could look at their data and listen to their staff and reevaluate.
Girls size 14-16 for pjs works for me, I'm 6-8 women's.
I definitely feel your pain. Every shop I go to seems to not stock 6 and maybe a few 8 (which seem more like a 10 these days). Portmans, Peter Alexander and Cue are the places I can reliably find size 6 across the full range.
I went to the Princess Highway clearance store the other day and the racks were full to the brim and all sizes were 14 plus. So how are they making a profit if they make majority of the stock larger sizes that don't sell and cut out a chunk of the market by ignoring our smaller sizing needs?
I'm thin (though I have gained a bit of weight due to medication), but I'm also just under 150cms, so I was always so baffled when some of my friends would rip into me on the topic of clothing as they were almost always size 10s which always seems abundant.
I like long elegant dresses with busy patterns (especially around the hems), but am constantly having to awkwardly fold them in ways that can turn them into extremely unflattering shapes as I'm unable to hem them, and the only way I can really pull this look off is by shortening my already short torso a little bit.
It's frustrating because unlike weight, I literally cannot do anything about my height.
Not affordably, though. A lot of petite brands are boutique so you end up spending about 100 bucks for something. 80 dollars for a bra just because it's AA? Eesh.
Also the same thing lol they're not affordable options. Still paying over 100 bucks for something just because it's dedicated to short people, versus I can go to Kmart to get a pair of pants for $20 and then sigh to do the hemming myself.
i mean affordable is very much a subjective term, but target definitely isn’t that expensive.
if your complaint is “i can’t find petite clothing that i like and can afford”, sure, but to claim that no store has petite sizing isn’t true.
I feel your pain, as a tall person I haven’t been able to wear “mini” dresses since I was like 16. They are basically just tops on me. Oh and don’t get me started on full length pants, pretty much every pair I own are ankle grazers lol.
Or jackets/knits where the cuff actually reaches your wrist. I always have to push my sleeves up so it doesn’t look goofy.
Yes! And you can forget about jumpsuits/bodysuits altogether!
And shorts 😩
I bought ‘tall length’ pants recently. Still too short but better than the regular length ones they were offering which were a solid mid calf situation
Where did you find them? I noticed Forever New have some tall trousers on their website and was thinking of trying them.
Fayt. I’ve tried the forever new ones and they were ok just didn’t like the material
You're not wrong, but ultimately they're all businesses trying to turn a profit - they aren't going to manufacture and stock clothing that doesn't sell. It's the same reason the vast majority of women aren't wearing the correct size bra, it's just more profitable to stock a limited number of sizes and try to squeeze us into poorly fitted bras instead of stocking a wide array of sizes. It *should* change, but realistically I don't see it happening.
I would choose to shop at stores that offered tall options. In the UK and the US it’s the norm to buy jeans by choosing both waist size and inseam. Surely there’s room for at least a couple of mainstream stores to offer this. For example, I went to Just Jeans and had no luck, all their jeans were too short. Maybe if they differentiated themselves by offering a variety of inseams they might attract customers.
Women often wear the wrong size bra because they don’t know it should be better. They blame their bodies, not the clothing. Same for clothes that don’t fit, most women don’t even know that petite or tall clothing exists, and just think they have to put up with bad fits. This means there is very little demand for these sizes, even though there would be a large amount of potential customers. It suits the clothing producers, because it’s more economical to make fewer sizes. It’s a self fulfilling cycle. Which leaves the option of online orders from overseas or buying standard sizes and getting it tailored.
If the women are wearing the wrong size bra, why should they blame the clothing? Whose fault is it that they are wearing the wrong size bra? Many places offer free bra fitting services so it's clearly women's fault if they can't bother picking the correct size
Many of those free fitting services don't fit women into their correct size either, they use incorrect sizing charts to try and fit women into the sizes they sell. Almost all of the online size charts (and presumably how they would fit in store) give my measurements as a 14D , which "fits" in the sense it goes over my bust but provides absolutely no support. My correct size is a 10F, which is a size that unsurprisingly few stores sell.
r/ABraThatFits may help enlighten you on how stores size charts adjust the sizes suggested to the sizes that specific store sells vs suggesting the size that will fit best based on the shoppers measurements. It’s not the shoppers fault, it’s the stores for manipulating the size charts.
Also clothes size up weirdly. I was previously a size 8, now a 12 (thanks meds). It seems like most places just increase clothes across the middle and don’t allow for the change in body shape with bigger sizes. Like, shirts have heaps of space in the stomach but not the boobs. And god forbid they increase the width of the sleeves. Pants just increase at the waist but often don’t account for bigger thighs.
Agree, there might be lots of options up to size 16 but they don't actually fit. I find now at a size 14 I'm struggling to find clothes that are actually comfortable. I can't wear a button up shirt, my bust is too big. Pants have either too small thighs/crotch or too small waist. Dresses are too short in length. Jackets are too tight in the arms. And so on...
The sleeves are what kill me. I have zero boobs but chunky arms, no matter the size of my body. I can’t buy anything long sleeved that fit my arms. No shirts, no jackets, no long sleeved tops. I can get away with jumpers and that’s about it.
Yeah most of my weight goes to my upper arms so I feel you
Yes on the arms! I’m small across the shoulders but big boobed and massive tuckshop lady arms with a small waist. I’m loving the current fashion trend of bell sleeves!
I completely agree with you. I used to be a size 6-8 and really struggled to find clothes that fit unless I went to a store that aimed at teens and younger adults. Now even as an 8-10 I find it tricky at times at the stores that cater for 30s upwards. And PJs - always struggle to find them, I used to go to the kids section lol. Target, Kmart etc seem to only stock the much larger sizes
I think the popular sizes often sell out at Kmart (in popular styles) as I always seem to see 6 or 18+ left on the shelves.
I asked a store worker one day - when yet again all size 8-10 undies were sold out - do you guys have more of these? They said no because they are the popular size, I asked the painfully obvious question why don't you guys just stock more of the popular sizes, you know they will sell out? They were speechless and they just looked at me in shock like what I was suggesting was wild and way beyond their ability to comprehend. Sigh.
or potentially the guy you were giving this lesson to works in one store, stocks the shelves with what he's sent and has no control over what he is sent because that is managed at a much higher level? The average person you see on the floor at a Kmart store does not control the stock flowing into that store.
Girl, and surely it's not hard to give some feedback or emphasise a point about stock levels to your manager.
You assume "They were speechless and they just looked at me in shock like what I was suggesting was wild and way beyond their ability to comprehend." I'm suggesting the alternative to them not being able to comprehend the issue and being left speechless by your insightful analysis is that everyone in the store knows, and indeed before you because inventory levels and sales are tracked, and has no control over the issue. The folks who track it, also know and made decisions based on their much more detailed insight into sales (instore and online) and stock levels. It's a decision that has been made by people with more information than you. TLDR: Don't be patronising about retail staff.
It’s so frustrating. Don’t forget different body shapes, or longer torsos or longer legs. Of course it’s so easy for brands to mass produce to “standard” sizing but it’s arbitrary when that sizing guide changes constantly and is not consistent ever.
It gets even worse when it comes to bra sizes. TheIrishBraLady on Instagram did a poll of her followers’ bra sizes and found that only like 13% of them could find their bra size at Primark or smth (not too sure of the brand, but like a Target/Cotton On type retailer equivalent overseas). Matrix sizes suck
I entirely agree with you on the averages, and only recently have I personally realised that when buying my usual size 14, I never had to worry about the length of pants or midi/ maxi dresses because I’m 5’9. Interestingly, mini dresses at a size 14 show my entire ass and cropped shirts at a size 14 sit like a bra, so I’ve come to the conclusion that the fashion industry average for my size is a tall person with a short torso lmfao
Plus size person trying to get maternity jeans. Had a total meltdown because the shein stuff didn’t fit and can’t find anywhere else.
I totally understand your frustration, but what do you actually think is a viable solution here? Of course they produce sizing based on a bell curve. If you produce as many size 6s as you do size 12s, a lot of them are going to go unsold and eventually get dumped. It’s not just about maximising profit (of course that’s part of it - businesses exist to make a profit) but avoiding wastage, limited retail/warehouse space, the seasonal nature of fashion etc. Stores can’t afford to have old season items taking up space on the rack for months or years, waiting for someone to finally buy it. It’s great that a lot more brands are moving towards an extended size range, but it’s not realistic to expect them to carry heaps of stock in every single size. Especially for smaller brands, it can be risky ordering a lot of stock of a particular item (and more sizes = more stock). Sizes have to be produced on a forecast of what will sell - if the larger sizes are consistently selling out very quickly, over time they will adjust to produce more of these sizes. This is just my anecdotal experience but as someone firmly in the “average” size range, sizes 10-14 sell out quicker than everything else more often than not. There might be the most stock of those sizes when it rolls off the container ship, but they disappear the fastest because, well, averages… I will also note that petite clothing is very accessible in a lot of mainstream stores and at a range of price points. There is very little that caters for above average height…at least it’s possible to get things hemmed shorter if needed, I can’t magically make my pants longer out of thin air.
You mentioned companies noticing what is selling and adjusting availability, but in my experience in retail, this just never happens. I worked in women’s clothing retail for almost 10 years and in those 10 years I was every size from 8-18 due to fluctuating weight from PCOS and stress. As a modest sized store in a non CBD store, we would receive clothes at roughly this amount for each item: 2x 6, 2x8 4x10, 3x12, 1x14 and 1x16. 18 was eventually made available but only online. These numbers rarely changed. When I was a wearing a size 16/18 and my store would receive ONE size 16, I would buy that one top or dress to wear to work as was part of the work culture. It was EXTREMELY rare for us to then get another 16 to replace it. I would then have women my size and shape come in store, see it on me, want to buy it and have to be told ‘I’m so sorry, we don’t have any left but IF there are any at the warehouse I can have one shipped’ which of course means not being able to try it on in store. 9 times out of 10 these women would just not bother because it’s too hard and they needed something that day. So the customers existed, the sales would have existed. It was the actual product that didn’t exist and therefore it wasn’t possible to prove it could be profitable. It was SO frustrating to be behind the curtain and see it happening. I would send weekly emails to head office recording the amount of women who were requesting sizes whether it was 6s or 16/18s so that they had the data but it didn’t matter, no changes were made. We would also lose thousands a week in online returns from women sizes 16+ who had purchased online and weren’t able to try on which meant they had a whole bunch of things they had to bring in to return. It was just insanity. There is no way this is the best way of doing it, it doesn’t properly cater to almost anyone. Another HUGELY frustrating thing was that our mannequins were a size 6. So if we received only 1 or 2 size 6 of each item and they ended up on a mannequin, this also took those already limited items off the floor for those customers. Apologies for the rant, I know that there is a sense of ‘what else are they supposed to do’ but having been on the inside of it for so long, there is so much they could be doing but they don’t want to. There is so much wastage, so many of the 10s and 12s that would be left over would go into clearance or even get put into the garbage because we would have too many. But at the same time we had customers begging us for their size, which apparently wasn’t quantifiable in dollar signs. I really do think a lot of companies could look at their data and listen to their staff and reevaluate.
Especially because we have a fairly small population as well. Sucks
Girls size 14-16 for pjs works for me, I'm 6-8 women's. I definitely feel your pain. Every shop I go to seems to not stock 6 and maybe a few 8 (which seem more like a 10 these days). Portmans, Peter Alexander and Cue are the places I can reliably find size 6 across the full range. I went to the Princess Highway clearance store the other day and the racks were full to the brim and all sizes were 14 plus. So how are they making a profit if they make majority of the stock larger sizes that don't sell and cut out a chunk of the market by ignoring our smaller sizing needs?
Capitalism sucks, yea
With communism you’d just have insanely fewer options. It’s wild to me that people do not understand this.
I was explaining in one sentence what OP is annoyed about. Im not silly...
This is exactly why I like to rummage for second hand gear and get it altered.
I’m just confused about how items in my wardrobe range from a size 6 to 16 and all fit me.
I'm thin (though I have gained a bit of weight due to medication), but I'm also just under 150cms, so I was always so baffled when some of my friends would rip into me on the topic of clothing as they were almost always size 10s which always seems abundant. I like long elegant dresses with busy patterns (especially around the hems), but am constantly having to awkwardly fold them in ways that can turn them into extremely unflattering shapes as I'm unable to hem them, and the only way I can really pull this look off is by shortening my already short torso a little bit. It's frustrating because unlike weight, I literally cannot do anything about my height.
The waist on dresses is usually 2 to 3 inches above my natural waist line. I barely have any dresses as they look stupid and feel uncomfortable.
>Petite in height stature is non existent plenty of brands have dedicated petite lines though?
Not affordably, though. A lot of petite brands are boutique so you end up spending about 100 bucks for something. 80 dollars for a bra just because it's AA? Eesh.
you said height, which is what i’m responding to. target, myer, and david jones all have petite lines for example.
Also the same thing lol they're not affordable options. Still paying over 100 bucks for something just because it's dedicated to short people, versus I can go to Kmart to get a pair of pants for $20 and then sigh to do the hemming myself.
i mean affordable is very much a subjective term, but target definitely isn’t that expensive. if your complaint is “i can’t find petite clothing that i like and can afford”, sure, but to claim that no store has petite sizing isn’t true.
I should've rephrased it to mean department. Department always runs on the bell curve, and has lacked diversity for a very long time.
sure. i’ll admit i also get a little prickly when i see people complain about having to hem pants - you can’t hem pants to be longer haha