Another bit of interesting info - regarding "petite" sizing

Better Dresses Vintage

Better Dresses Vintage

Alumni
Hi,

I was wondering when the term "Petite" or "Petites" was first used as a size designation, rather than as merely a descriptive term. In researching, I found an excerpt of an old term paper by then-student of fashion history Alaina Zulli (now a costumer, including a stint at the NYC Ballet, sigh!).

I emailed her for clarification on the "Petite as a size designation" question. Here is some of her most recent response:

I did a little more research online, and found the full text of my paper. My educated guess is that clothing marked as petite started in the late 1940s or early 50s. This is unsurprising, since that is exactly the period that saw the greatest flourishing of size ranges advertised (misses, half-sizes, juniors, etc) I did a term search in the NY Times archive and the first articles about petite sized clothing start showing up then. PDFs attached of articles you might find interesting.
Here is what I wrote about petites in my paper based on Vogue advertisements:

(1920s) "WeeWomen, Inc., advertised 'Coats and Suits for little ladies...Flattering fashion and fit for the short woman and miss.' Important to note here is that the line for short women, what we now call 'petite,' was available in both misses and ladies size ranges."
(1940s) "Advertisements for what we now call 'petites' proliferated. Susan Wayne advertised a 'Pettisize' line for women '5-foot-4 or under.' The uncomfortably named 'Hobbette's' showed suits specially made for the 5'4" or under woman, and Sam Silverstein Corp offered the "Sure-Sized" line. Varden Petites considered their intended customers any woman 5'5" or under. In 1947 Anne Tyler offered her coats in 'women's sizes...tiny...typical...tall,' sizes 14-22, 16-26, and 18-26 respectively For many years Bonwit Teller offered a line called "Diminutives," for women 5'5" or under. Vogue itself jumped on the trend with periodically occurring editorials on clothes for the "small woman".
Click to expand...

The wonderful attachments she provided all point to the mid-40s as when the "petites" designation came into use as we know it today.
 
I love the Tiny Typical Tall range! It's not as demeaning as some of the others...
The advent of the size specific also featured in footwear, wearing large shoes myself I've recently been looking at 40's/50's shoes that specifically came from manufacturers for the taller woman. (Can't say I've seen any for petite, as they already went down to much much smaller sizes in adult women's shoes than readily available today - I've just listed some 70's size uk1/eu34/us3 platforms - they are nearly impossible to get nowadays) I'm waiting for a pair of tall women's sandals to arrive now, I think they are early 1950's but I'll confirm the dating when they arrive.
 
I have a '50's dress that is a "Junior Petite.' Admittedly it's a little short waisted but I love the dress. I'm about average - 5 4 1/2". I buy a lot of modern Petite tee shirt style tops because they are cut shorter and in the past several years tee shirts have gotten really long so if you want to wear them tucked in they are (or can be) way too long. I have found that sometimes it's best to buy one size larger but not always. I've also purchased Petite sized cardigans - one size larger than I would buy in a misses.

Linn
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top