Petite sizes are cut for women about 5 ft 4 in (163 cm) and under, and the cut is the point, not the height. A petite trouser is about 2 inches (5 cm) shorter in the leg than the same size in regular, with the rise, the sleeve and the body shortened to match, so the waist, the knee and the shoulder land where they should. This is what changes, in inches and centimetres, how a 4P relates to a 4, and how to tell from the clothes you already own whether you need it.
What petite sizes actually are
How big is a petite? Petite is a height band, not a dress size. Wikipedia's entry defines a petite size as a standard clothing size "designed specifically for women 163 cm (5 ft 4 in) and under", adds that it "takes into account the proportions of her body", and notes the category is mainly recognised in the US. Each brand draws its own line. Talbots proportions petite for women 4 ft 11 in to 5 ft 4 in and misses for 5 ft 4 in to 5 ft 8 in. NYDJ designs its petite jeans for women 5 ft 4 in and under. Lands' End in the UK puts petite at 4 ft 11 in to 5 ft 3 in (1.50 to 1.60 m) and regular at 5 ft 4 in to 5 ft 7 in.
How big is a petite? Petite is a height band, not a dress size.
A petite size runs the full width range: Talbots lists petite from PP to PXL, Gaala from XXSP to XXXLP. Petite is about where the lengths land, not how much fabric goes around you. If you are 5 ft 2 in and a size 16, you are petite. If you are 5 ft 7 in and a size 0, you are not.
Petite is not just shorter
Is a petite dress just shorter? No. A petite cut moves the waist, bust and shoulder points up the body and shortens the pieces between them. On trousers that is the inseam and the rise. Wintergreen Northern Wear's chart puts a size 4 at a 30 inch inseam and a 4P at 28 inches, on the same 26 inch waist, and says "Petite sizes are shorter in the rise and inseam lengths." That is 2 inches (5 cm) out of the leg. NYDJ's inseam guide puts petite at 28 to 30 inches against regular at 30 to 32, the same 2 inches across the range. On jackets and tops it is the sleeve, the body and the shoulder: Quince describes its petite patterns as graded with "shorter inseams, shorter sleeve lengths", with the waist, bust and shoulder points "proportionally shifted". On a dress that means the waist seam and the bust shaping sit higher, closer to where your own waist and bust are.
Take the hem up on a regular dress and only the hem moves. The waist, the dart and the shoulder stay where they were. A midi with its waist seam at your hip is not a long dress, it is a dress with the waist in the wrong place, which is why a shortened regular dress and a petite dress in the same size do not sit the same way.
How petite sizes are labelled
Brands add a P. On letter sizes it follows the letter: Gaala sells XXSP to XXXLP beside XXS to XXXL and marks them with a P icon, and Talbots uses PP, PS, PM, PL and PXL. On numeric sizes it follows the number: 0P, 2P and 4P at Talbots, 00P to 18P in NYDJ's inseam guide. A 4P is a 4 cut shorter, not a size down. Wintergreen's 4 and 4P share a 26 inch waist, and the hip and the inseam are what change. Around the body the differences are small: Talbots' petite 4 to 6 bust is half an inch under its misses 4 to 6, and NYDJ's 4P natural waist and hip are half an inch under its 4. So a 6P is not a 4. If you need a 6 around the waist you need a 6P, and nothing on the label will make a 4P close.
Some brands use no P. We are one of them. Our lengths are already cut for the women who buy from us, so a separate petite rail would be the same trousers twice.
How to tell if you need petite
Measure clothes, not yourself. The Wikipedia definition is about proportion as much as height, and two women of 5 ft 4 in can carry it in different places. Four things, in order.
First, the inseam. Lay the trousers you wear most flat and measure from the crotch seam to the hem. If the number sits nearer 28 inches than 30, you are in the range NYDJ and Wintergreen cut petite for. How to take it, and where each cut should end, is in the trouser length guide and the jean length guide.
Then the sleeve. Put a jacket on and let your arms hang. Our rule of thumb: a jacket sleeve should end at the wrist bone. If it runs past, that is the cheap alteration: sleeves and hems are easy to shorten.
Then the shoulder seam. It should sit on the shoulder bone. If it slides past, the top is cut wider than your frame. The outerwear guide's advice is to try the size down. This is a signal a hem cannot remove, which is why the outerwear guide says to check the shoulder before anything else, and tops that don't overwhelm wants the seam on the shoulder bone.
Last, the waist seam. On a dress, or a blazer with a button at the waist, find where the seam or the button sits. On your natural waist is right. Below it, and the dress was cut for a longer torso.
If sleeves and hems are taken up as a matter of course and the shoulders still slide, by our checks you are petite, whatever your height says.
Our sizes, and what they mean if you are petite
Our size guide runs XXS to XXL, US 00 to 20, and lists an inseam for every size, which is the number the petite label is really about. XXS is bust 30 to 31 inches (76 to 79 cm), waist 23 to 24 (58 to 61), hips 32 to 33 (81 to 84) and a 27 inch inseam (69 cm). S, our 4 to 6, has a 28 inch inseam (71 cm). M is 28.5 (72), L and XL are 29 (74), and XXL is bust 40 to 42 inches (102 to 107 cm), waist 33 to 35 (84 to 89), hips 42 to 44 (107 to 112) and a 29.5 inch inseam (75 cm). Set that against the charts above: Wintergreen's regular 4 is a 30 inch inseam, its 4P is 28, and our S is 28. Our trouser length guide says most of our customers land between 27 and 29 inches, and the chart is built around that.
The rest of the range follows the same thinking. The Cato Tailored Blazer is "cut shorter in the body and higher in the armhole, so it ends where your hip bone does", which is the rule from our blazer edit. Our knits are cut shorter so a half tuck looks deliberate instead of bunched. The home page puts it as sizes "cut to fit properly through the shoulders, waist and hip", and shoulders is the word to notice. Every trouser lists its inseam on the product page: the Sena Wide Leg Trouser is 28 inches in size S, cut to skim the floor in a flat shoe, and the Birk Straight Leg Jean is 27 inches in size S, with a hem that grazes the top of your foot. Both are on bottoms, and each product page lists its inseam, so you can compare before you order.
Petite sizes for girls, older women and everyone in between
What are some good petite clothing options for girls? Petite is a women's category. The Wikipedia definition is a size designed for women, with the lengths cut for a shorter adult frame, not a child's. In our view the reader this question is really about is the teenager or young woman who has grown out of girls' sizes and finds women's regular too long in the leg and the sleeve. The same four checks above apply, starting with the shoulder seam.
What should a petite older woman wear? The same things, fitted the same way. We fit a woman of 70 the way we fit a woman of 30. The checks that matter at 30 are the ones that matter at 70: shoulder on the bone, waist seam on the waist, sleeve at the wrist, hem where the cut intends. If you want a sleeve, a longer hem or a covered back, those are cut choices, and none of them changes the fit rules.
What are some good petite clothes for a 70-year-old woman? Pieces with a listed inseam or length, so you can hold them against something you already own before they arrive. Fabrics we pick for weight, so they hang: crepe, heavy viscose, a wool blend. A fully lined blazer that ends at the hip bone, a wide leg trouser cut to skim the floor in a flat, a knit cut close through the shoulder. That is the list at any age.
What not to wear if you are petite
What not to wear if you are petite? There is no banned list. There are lengths that end in the wrong place. The question to ask of any garment is not whether a shorter woman is allowed it, but where its lines will land on you. Four checks, in order. The shoulder seam, on the bone. The waist seam or the button, on your waist. The hem, where the cut intends: a wide leg about half an inch off the floor in your flats, a straight leg at the top of the foot, a cropped leg above the ankle bone and never at the widest part of the calf. The sleeve, at the wrist bone.
Then the tailor's rule, from our alteration tips: "Hems, sleeves and waistbands are simple and inexpensive to adjust. Shoulders, armholes and rises are not." A regular dress with the right shoulder and a long hem is a quick fix. In our view a regular blazer with a sliding shoulder is not worth altering. Buy for the shoulder and the rise, pay for the hem, and the rest of the shop is open to you.
Petite is a cut, not a verdict on your height.
