Two years ago, after seeing some pictures of me in my winter coat, I vowed to only buy petite coats. At 5 feet tall, the size small juniors' coat that I was wearing made me look like I was a little girl playing dress-up in her mother's coat. I was resigned to the fact that sleeves always hung over my hands, but other than that, I thought I was fine. Faced with photographic evidence, however, it was all too clear just how badly "regular-sized" coats fit my tiny frame. The shoulders jutted out too far, the sleeves bagged oddly and hung down over my fingertips, and the length and where the waist hit was completely off. I looked awful. How did I never notice this before? That is when I decided it was time to buy petite.
Last year, I made good on my petite-only pledge. I managed to find a few nice petite coat choices in-store at Burlington Coat Factory. They had a fair selection of petites. Most were frumpy styles suited for older women, but I found a few stylish coats by brands like Guess and Kenneth Cole. After trying on maybe 8 coats, I settled for a girly black military-style pea coat by Guess. I also found that the cut of "Buffalo" coats ran pretty small, and I picked up a cute tweed style while at Burlington. Petite shopping seemed pretty easy!
My Guess Coat
My Buffalo Coat
So, I thought I would share the websites that I check regularly, and a few of my personal coat picks this season.
Websites
Asos is my number one favorite site to hit. They offer a pretty ample selection, and I love their style overall. The prices are fair, but their sale items are even more reasonably priced. They offer stylish youthful clothing in petite sizes.
Dorthy Perkins offers some cute and stylish petite coats suitable for younger women. Their prices are really reasonable, especially for sale items!
Topshop clothes tend to be very cute, but they run a little expensive for my taste. Their petite coat selection was rather ho-hum this year, in my opinion.
Nordstrom and Macy's have a decent number of petite styles, mostly by well-known designers. The really stylish, cute, and youthful ones are few and far between, and the prices are on the high side.
I just discovered Zara's girls' section has some pretty stylish-looking coats. The sale prices are excellent, too! I've seen some petite bloggers online that bought Zara girl jackets and said that fit tends to run boxy and little-girlish. I think I'd risk a try for the right style and price.
Old Navy doesn't seem to have too much of a petite selection this year. With Old Navy, you won't find anything ultra-stylish, but their coats are pretty basic, clean, and classic. Their prices are also very cheap! Their fit often runs large, so if you are on the lower end of the size spectrum this can be a problem.
Here are some of my personal petite coat picks this year:
So, my petite friends...where are your number one spots for buying coats and jackets? We'd love to hear about it. Please share!
