Scolded by short women across the country, Saks Fifth Avenue said yesterday that it would re-establish its petite women's clothing department, which the company had quietly dropped several months ago because of poor sales.
The decision, a victory for millions of women shorter than 5-foot-4, came after Saks received scores of letters from smaller shoppers who complained that they could no longer find clothing that fit and that they felt alienated in a store that had dressed them for decades.
Beginning this fall, the company said, it would once again carry petite sizes from popular labels like Dana Buchman, Eileen Fisher and Lafayette 148, which had been mainstays of the original Saks petite department.
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But for women of a certain height, a certain age (45 and older) and a certain rung on the economic ladder (that is, wealthy), no amount of size two skirts or dresses will replace the original, spacious petite departments at Neiman's, Saks or Bloomingdale's.
Because for her, the petite department was not about indulgence or convenience, but about parity. It meant that even at 4-foot-11, she could wear the same sheer cascading vest from Eileen Fisher as a woman who was 5-foot-7 — with no tailoring required.
It meant that designers really did care about the little people.
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