Here in Canada, they’ll look at you strangely in stores when you ask about petites sizing, and then point you toward a size XS. There are a few clothes that carry petites, including the Bay, Laura and Reitmans, but their stuff tends to be for older women, and not very fashion-forward. I’m thirty years old and work in advertising; I don’t want to dress like seventy-five year old.

I think it’s because we have about one-tenth of the population in Canada as you do in the USA, so there just isn’t the critical mass in the market to make niche sizing an option. With fashion geared towards the “long and lean” segment of the market, those of us who are vertically-challenged get left out in the dust.

Basically, my only recourse is to take a very expensive trip to New York City about once a year, load up my suitcase with tons of clothes, and then toss out the receipts and smuggle them back across the border. Other than that, I can buy ill-fitting clothes that have to be dramatically altered (seriously, hemlines are one thing, but taking in the shoulders and raising the waist are just ridiculously expensive), or I can just wear old clothes for years on end. Fashionista? I wish!