Surprise! Surprise! Decent Petite Stuff from Department Stores

The best place to get department stores seems to be Nordstorm in the US. I was checking out their online petite shop last night, and what wonderful items they have listed! BCBG, Nine West, Paige Premium Denim, MICHAEL Michael Kors and Laundry be Shelli Segal all seem to have at least some items there. Sure, there aren't as many products as their regular line, but there's enough and enough of it isn't granny-looking. They also have a very small selection of petite plus listed. I have actually never seen a department store that carries petite plus, so good for them (even if it's three items.) However, what I did find confusing was how some items were mixed in with regular sizes. The Nordies petite shop also lists French Connection stuff and we all know that French Connection does NOT carry petites.

Some of my favourites from the Nordstrom site:

BCBG Gown (BCBG doesn't "officially" make petite sizes, which means you won't be able to find this in a petite at your BCBG store.)

Another BCBG dress

Calvin Klein belted sweater dress

Tahari by Arthur S. Levine suit (the pants are a 28 1/2" inseam)

Caslon cabled shawl sweater

Bernardo Faux Shearling jacket

Both the Paige Premium Denim jeans listed on the site aren't too bad either.

The skirts, however, are a little plain, IMHO.

The semi-good news about Nordies is that though they don't deliver outside of the US, they DO take credit cards with non-US billing addresses, unlike Ann Taylor and the GAP Inc. stores (the lack of delivery/international e-commerce store for GAP Inc actually kind of bugs me. If Forever21 and Abercrombie have it, why not GAP?) This means you won't necessarily have to make a trip down to the US if you have a friend living there who can take the deliveries. It would be nice, though, if they did deliver.


In Canada, The Bay on Queen Street in Toronto isn't too bad either, especially if you're not too small-framed. The brands that appeal to younger women at The Bay are: INC International Concepts and Nine West. Other brands are your typical granny petites (though if you LOOK, DKNY can have some decent things. Just a note that the petite sizes are often much ickier and plainer than their regular line.)

Petite Nine West cardigan Cynthia C bought from The Bay