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What the hell is "Plus Size Petite"
Isn't that contradictory?
And why are different manufactures using S, M, L, XL, etc yet the "Dress Size" equivalents not to mention actual measurements are all over the place and 'Do NOT' match?
OK, It seems this sizing conversion is more complex then I thought.
Looks like its back to trial and error!
Well not that I've really gotten any thing of my own yet,
except......
Comments
Suggestion
Almost every clothing website you go to these days has a size chart that converts inches/millimeters to their clothing sizes. Use that as a guide to figuring out what you might be. There will be wild cards out there (never go by S/M/L/XL/1X etc. on a Japanese site) but after awhile you'll get a feel for what you can wear. Jeans give me the most problems, especially low rise jeans. You'll see.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Plus size petite means
short and fat
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You can't choose your relatives but you can choose your family.
Big and Tall vs Big and Short
In most mens clothing stores, "Big and Tall" is a common association, because most "Big" guys are wide and tall. In women, it's quite possible to have someone that is Large around the waist and still quite short, or even really tall, and quite skinny.
Had me confused too
My wife wears plus size petite. I've always thought of petite in the dictionary definition:
ADJECTIVE:
Small, slender, and trim. Used of a girl or woman.
Which would mean the antonym would be large etc. However in the garment industry clothing comes in three classifications: Tall, average and petite. I wear size 18W tall or average (depending on manufacture) trousers and my wife wears size 18W or 20W petite. (We still have to shorten the legs four to six inches.) She once was really happy that she bought a pair of jeans that fit off the rack and bragged about it until our daughter pointed out the tag said they were Capri's.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Capri's
I've always hated the look of Capri's, never understood why anyone would think their sexy. Really the only time i've ever seen Capri in anything remotely good looking was with Capri leggings and a babydoll top with sandels.
There's just something wrong with intentionally buying clothing that's too short. I'm willing the bet the style was invented by a bag lady who couldn't afford to buy her child new clothes and just simply said "you'll love it, it's the latest in style" and the fool child believed it.
an old name for Capri
My mom's generation called them "pedal pushers" because the legs were short enough not to rub against bike chains, and get caught/ torn or greasy. I don't know if that's the original name, or reason for the style, but it at least makes sense.
Capri's
Share with us how you really feel!
I don't know if these references are just going to be before your time or hopelessly outdated or whatever, but maybe you'll warm more to capri's if you recall what Audrey Hepburn did for them. And of course, the young Mary Tyler Moore on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'.
I think most of the worst things about capri's would never have happened if it weren't for the el cheapo things from places like Wal-Mart and K-Mart (Huge chains of huge budget stores here in the U.S. And really evil forces in society, in my opinion.)
There are certainly fashions that are my pet peeves, too. We must all have them, so we understand.
Annemarie
Another complication...
A common accusation of stores here in the UK (and I imagine in the US as well) is "vanity sizing" - i.e. a garment that's actually, say, a size 16 being deliberately labelled as 14 (or size 16-18 being labelled as 12-14). The terminology explains the reason - make women think they're smaller than they actually are...
Added onto which, different chains cater for different demographics, so the sizes in a store aiming for the more mature customer may be more generous than a store aimed at a younger customer.
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
I usually shop at proper shops and try things on.
It's the only way to be sure. Last Wednesday I tried on a fancy body to go with my yellow hotpants and discovered the thing fitted all around my shoulders and bust except for being too short. You've simply got to try stuff on. I don't trust on-line stores and the kerfuffle of sending stuff back is a real pain.
I find nearly every store in the UK is more than happy to let me try stuff on. Last January I bought a beautiful red bolero jacket in Debenhams (A large deparment chain-store,)in Swansea, Wales, UK. There was absolutely no problem with my trying it on.
The only hitch I find is if I'm dressed in male mode and wish to try on a dress, they ask me to use the men's changing rooms in some of the older style stores. If I'm en-femme there is never any problem going into the lady's changing rooms.
In 'younger' boutique style stores the changing rooms are usually mixed anyway.
Be brave, be up-front and help breakdown the barriers.
This was taken while shopping in cardiff. That's the red bolero jacket.
It's very simple
It's all very simple, really.
Petite sizes are really sizes for women who are below 5 ft 3 in, or 160cm. Regular sizes are designed for women who are 5 ft 5 in up.
I myself am 5 feet tall only, so I know a little bit about this. My clothes are from the petite section or else I buy from the junior/pre-teen sections. Like everyone, us petite types come in a wide range of... girth. So there really are plus-size petite sizes. There are small petite, medium/regular, large, extra-large AND plus sizes. Some lines also carry extra-small petite but not many. Actually, same with petite plus. (BTW, if you just say "petite," it actually refers to what amounts to as petite regular.)
BTW, there are lots of very mature styles in many of the junior sections of many lines, and many make knockoffs of very popular designs. Which is a good thing for me. Thing is, most are in kid-friendly pastel colors, or in bright "fun colors"( like orange), or with lots of bells and whistles like appliques or prints or things like rhinestones, which are not exactly mature-looking, nor appropriate for the office, et cetera.
Sizes are relative. Petite and Plus-sizes are our inventions. Other countries don't have them, I think, though the UK and other countries are slowly starting to adopt them, too (I think), despite the fact that women below 5 ft 3 in are a lot more common there.
The nice thing about Manila is that what are hard-to-find petite-sizes back home are just reguar-size here. So mainstream designs in my size are not hard to find here at all. So shopping here is much more fun, especially at Manila prices :)
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Petite in the UK
They have been around here for years. My partner is 5' 2" and usually looks at the petites before discovering that the largest size is a 12.
I think the manufacturers consider that if you are small in height then you'll be proportionately small in size: not on any street I've ever walked on.
Fortunately women's clothing here is flexible. I am 5' 10" and can wear the exact same outer styles as my partner, albeit with more leg showing.
Now shoes, though, that is another whole WTF.
Penny
It Is Just That
A plus size petite is just that. A plus size means, in general, she is fat (Zoftig). A petite is a woman who is 5'2" or shorter (American definition). So a plus size petite is designed for a woman who is a size 20 (again, American) and is 4'9" like my grandmother was.
XS: 2-4
S: 6-8
M; 10-12
L: 14-16
XL: 18-20
These are correct unless you are a Sears, then add a number size. Women Within and other catalogues may have different criteria.
what I found however is:
It actually varies a great deal. Tho that does sem to be the most comon.
And then you have, 0X, 1X, 2X, etc which is different from XL, 2XL(or XXL), etc.
It seems you have to actually look up what dimension each manufacture is using, bust, waist, Hips.
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I get what "petite plus" is any way, and "petite" its not me ~5'8", and I am on a serious diet so am easing out of the "plus" (I hope).
*thanks everyone*
~Hypatia >i< ..::
It's basically the inseam.
It's basically the inseam. I'm pretty overweight, so buying mens jeans in the proper waist usually requires hemming. I have bought w34P fit just right.
Does that help ?