Petite, Plus-Size Clothing: My Search for Designers Who Carry It

After 6 months of Weight Watchers, I'm proud to report that I have lost 30 pounds and 2 sizes. I've been able to wear last year's same pants and shorts all spring and summer because most of them have elastic waistbands. I've been wearing the same T-shirts, tops and blouses, but at this point, they are way too big. I realized that I needed to go clothes shopping last week after I bent over to pick up a shovel outside and my jeans fell to my knees.

First, I've got to say that I'm not at my target weight. I've got another 50-plus pounds to go. I don't want to buy a new wardrobe, but rather, one or two nice pieces for fall and winter and some inexpensive jeans and tops. Along with that I need a winter coat and some new undergarments. In the past I've made most of my clothing purchases on-line at Lane Bryant and Roamans. It wasn't any fun to go to a department store and walk through hundreds of cute, stylish outfits size 0-12 to find one rack in the back in my size. It's even harder to find anything in petite plus. Worse than just having one rack, was the fact that most of the outfits looked like something a circus clown would wear---big, bright geometric patterns or bright neon plaids. What makes the buyers at department stores think plus size women don't have taste and want to wear gaudy tents?

With my new, smaller body and the need to try things on to make sure they fit, I headed off to Target for my casual clothes shopping. I still had to walk through racks and racks of junior and misses sizes to find approximately 6 racks of plus size clothing. None were plus petite. Size 2X must be a very common size (or the store thinks no one wears a 2X) because most of the items were 1X. Size 3X was non-existent. I managed to find 1 shirt. Walmart was a lot better. I got 3 pairs of petite jeans and 3 tops. I still didn't have anything appropriate for work, so I headed off to Kohl's. I don't know about Kohl's stores in other areas, but the one near me had next to nothing. I guess there are no plus size women in Mentor, Ohio. My next stop was Penney's. Penny's had a few summer clearance items and I would have grabbed them up if I had finished my weight loss journey. I didn't want to buy any summer items because even if I continue to lose only an average of one pound a week, next summer I should be down another 2 sizes or more. I found one blouse that fit perfectly and looked good. It came in 2 colors so I bought one of each. There was nothing in petite size pants so I wound up at Fashion Bug Plus. I bought 2 pair of dress pants with an elastic back so I can wear them through spring without having to worry that they'll fall off. I looked at dresses and most of them were empire waisted or A-line styles. There was nothing with a tapered fit or waistband so I decided to wait until spring to go dress shopping. I couldn't find an inexpensive coat so I plan on shopping on-line to see if I can find something that will take me through winter. I will also be purchasing my undergarments on-line because none of the stores carried much in the way of DD bras.

Through my 2 day shopping extravaganza I found nothing that I would consider tailored or stylish--at least not in the sense of what I see average size women wearing. The items I bought fit and that was about it. I wish the designers and the department stores would wake up and realize that the majority of American women are size 12 and up. A lot of us are also petite, and although I can wear a regular size top I have to buy petite pants and skirts. We have incomes and we want to buy attractive, well-fitting clothes--even those of us that wear size 1, 2, 3X and up.

Did I get what I needed? Yes, for the most part I did. Was it fun to buy new, smaller clothes? No, it was not and it probably won't be until I'm that perfect size 8 that the stores cater to.