Toronto is a diverse city. The Asian population (including all ethnic groups) is probably close to 20%. Since many Asians tend to be on the smaller, it's a whole lot of petite women when you include the rest of the population. Yet, other than granny clothes and classic numbers at Banana Republic (or catalog ordered from J.Crew), there's little out there in petite ranges (Americans are luckier, you guys also have Ann Taylor! And some of your Banana stores sell 00/00P....we still don't have that up here, and I *KNOW* that there are plenty of people in Toronto and Vancouver who could wear 00 or 00P!). I often wonder why that is. Is it because the stylish Hong Kong
tai-tais (ladies who lunch) and their daughters aren't interested in exploring other brands (HK-Canadian women, for some reason have a preference for big/familiar names....my own mother included), brands that may have petites? Or, is it because they, like many others in the population, immigrant or not, don't quite understand "petite" (my aunt from Hong Kong once walked into Laura Petites with her slim, but non-petite daughter)? It's definitely not a price thing because Asians, especially those from Hong Kong, tend to be middle class and suburban. The reason why I address this is because I was at
Muskat Brown not too long ago. Robbie had said that he's tried to advertise in the various Asian newspapers in town, but he wasn't seeing the Asian clientele that a petite shop *should* attract. I have also heard from petite designers who say that they have trouble getting their line into stores because the stores feel that it wouldn't sell well (are we back to the part where people are ignorant of what "petite" is again? Because from what I've heard petite lines at many mainstream stores like Banana and Ann Taylor do well). So what should be done? After all, with the exception of FASHION's annual size issue, mainstream magazines aren't really going to want to discuss petite lines (which IMHO is really ignorant of them...they wouldn't do the same for a plus size...think about it Lou Lou's forums has a 14+ board, but NO PETITE!!), no matter how hard we try (is there anyone in the media/fashion industry who reads this board and is willing to comment? Because I would *LOVE* to hear from you).
