So jeans are one of the trickier things to buy when you’re petite and the fit can be pretty standard for most brands and personally I’ve rarely liked the style of the jeans that I find in petite ranges, let alone trying to find your size on the rack.  In my experience, in London, the smallest sizes always go first!

After years of trial and error, as well as fluctuating sizes, I have found the brands that fit best for me at 5ft. These are Gapkids and Benetton. At Gapkids, the age 12 jeans in my opinion are cut quite generously so they seem to fit me like a glove (okay less so after giving birth!) What’s more is that they are super cheap in comparison to lots of the adult brands. a) because there is no tax  on children’s clothes b) because there are pretty much reduced items all year round and non traditional styles and designs get marked down c) there are often flash sales with a percentage off for a weekend or other discounts.

This means no cutting of huge swathes of material at the bottom of the jean, no getting a tailor to hem the bottoms and justifying getting lots of different styles as they are so cheap! And that they are the perfect length. Hooray! The downside however, is with fun designs, spotting a little kid wearing the same as you, but as I tend to stick to plainer ones these days, this isn’t an issue with jeans. (Other pieces are a different story!). Then the other minus is that you don’t get a super smart luxe finish like you can on some pairs of denims.

The Benetton fit is also very good for me as Benetton tends to be cut small for the petite Italian lady, hailing from over there. Whilst I don’t have the Italian tiny waist, hips & bottom (only waist) I fill out this area and the length ends up being pretty good on me. Some of them end up having wrinkly bottoms with a bit of extra material, but this is quite a good look sometimes – if it’s good enough for Kate Moss…!

I do have a few other pairs from over the years but these don’t fit as well I wouldn’t say – Miss Sixty – way too long for me, 7 For All Mankind – again needed tailoring, Ralph Lauren – still too long but not a bad fit.  TK Maxx is another good place to have a browse as the jeans there are the ones that don’t sell well from other shops so you’re bound to find some rejects which actually fit you perfectly!