When I was in my twenties I don’t remember, as a petite, it being that difficult to buy clothes.  I moved to the market town of Newbury in the early Eighties for my first ‘proper’ job. Then, I could walk down the high street and regularly shop in Richards, Hamells, Camp Hopson (a local independent department store) and of course M & S.  I also remember Next opening around this time.  Funnily enough, from this era I still have a rather shockingly colourful suit from Richards (this has now unsurprisingly never found it’s way back out of the dressing up / fancy dress box), a shoulder padded work suit from Next (which I never got around to throwing out), and a very classic brown jersey pencil skirt from M&S.  Camp Hopson has the accolade of selling me a ‘4Seasons of London” raincoat that I still occasionally wear today.

To answer this question I disappeared off upstairs to unearth the said garments to identify what has changed!

Size and Fit -  I have always been more or less the same size, however these garments were a size 12 (a little tight on me today), whereas by todays sizing I would generally quite comfortably be a size 10.  Also the fit has changed. In the early days these garments used to be more shapely, i.e fuller in the bust and cut more into the waist. On a vintage jacket I still have from the seventies (before the huge shoulder pad fashion). I also noticed that the shoulders were on the wide side on my frame.

Since then, to protect women’s vanity, most retailers have quietly upgraded their sizing to make, for example, a size 12 as big as a 14 had been.  In 2000, Marks and Spencer were less secretive and revealed their sizing change on their labels.  In 2004, sizing evolved further following the national sizing survey by the Department of Trade and 17 high street clothing chains.  They surveyed 11,000 men and women and concluded that the female figure has become straighter as women’s waistlines have expanded by 6in since the 1950’s whilst bust, hip and height, by contrast, have changed only slightly.  The typical shape has moved from the hourglass Elizabeth Taylor shape of the 50’s to the fuller figure of Kate Winslett (star of the titanic) today.  Better diet has allowed people to grow stronger, but much of the extra calorie intake turns to fat, hence the bigger waistlines.  Very interestingly to the petite the sizing survey found that the average height of women to be 5ft 41/2” tall, only 11/2” taller than in 1951.

Style -  With my knowledge now, I know that the jackets and skirts were too long for my petite stature. In particular the M & S pencil skirt at 32” length was very long for the pencil style and perhaps I should have selected a shorter length as one could in Marks.

Fashion - The ‘Power Dressing’ fashions in the eighties was certainly completely ridiculous for the petite.  As fashions change it is imperative that the petite knows how to select styles that will suit the petite figure and what to leave well alone. I probably got away with this as a youngster in those days, but with age I think a fashion disaster is less tolerable, particularly in the fashion and celebrity culture we live in today.

So what about the age factor. As we age and our looks and body image change we are more insecure about our look. We become less adventurous and stick to what we know is safe. It is a fact that as we get older it becomes harder and harder to keep our weight down. At 49 I am becoming more aware of this struggle.  Apparently, from the age of 30 we are likely to put on 1lb a year, as our bodies become less efficient, even with a sensible diet and exercise routine. After 40, the weight gain goes up to around 1.5 lbs. For petites, the significance is huge. We become more curvy as dress size increases and our clothes have to recognize this.  Regular sized clothes however increase in body and sleeve length with size and the shoulders get broader. So where does that leave more mature size 16 petites? If they can’t get clothes to fit, then more and more, they try to hide their bodies behind baggy, ill fitting, black clothes as they try to disguise the bat and bingo wings that become more prominent in their shorter figure. It serves only to sap their confidence in a time of life when they should be in enjoying life in their prime....

In conclusion, the younger and slimmer you are as a petite the easier it is to find clothes to fit and mistakes in fashion and style are more likely to be less noticeable.  Also the earlier curvier shape to clothes in my hayday would have made things slightly easier than the straighter clothes of today.  However, my style and image training has taught me so much and it is this knowledge that is the main thing to have changed.  Dressing to look good when you are short is not easy, especially when the right garments are limited.  I feel that if I knew then what I know now I feel that a better image might well have given me more opportunities and opened a few more doors. Now, as I realize the importance of knowing what not to wear and how to get it right I can definitely say that it has changed my life.  I feel better dresses than I have ever done in my life, more confident and it it makes me feel fabulous.  As I witness the response of petites who come and try on my collection, specifically designed with them in mind, it is great that I can pass on the joy of having clothes that make them look and feel good.  I somehow get the feeling that my Karen Gillam petite collection is my raison d’être.