The Clothing Industry Ignores Short Men
Men’s fashion needs to better accommodate below average height
Standing in front of a mirror, I rummage through a large stack of clothes. Trying on each sweater, I look in dismay as the sleeves are too long and the length bellows past my waist. I continue to try on multiple styles, but the end result is the same. By the end of pile, I realize that none of them fit. This is a common experience for me, and an experience that affects many men below average height.
Short men in the United States have a limited market for clothing that fits off the rack.
The fashion industry for men has only recently begun to expand. Fast fashion and trends dominate style blogs and retail stores, but exclude men below average height. Take a trip to any local mall, and you’ll see the struggle to find clothes that fit off the rack for short men.
Many brands do offer a wide range of clothes, with many types of fits. But these still only address a very specific type of build for men. That of a taller, broader man. Yet, average height for American men ranges from 5'7" to 5'9.” I stand at 5'5" on the lower end of that range, which makes off the rack clothing a near impossibility. Many men are below average height in the United States, yet very few brands create clothes for them. This makes little business sense, because it excludes a large percentage of consumers in men’s fashion.
Slimmer fits have emerged over the past few years, but they still feel lacking. Brands like J. Crew and Banana Republic advertise sizes down to S and XS, yet they are not cut well to accommodate a shorter height. Not only that, but the available options in these sizes are limited in each brand.
To deal with the lack of options in the fashion market, short men have a few options. We can use a tailor to help edit the proportions of the clothes, but this can cost a lot of money over time. Other times, we try and shrink clothes but end up ruining the material after repeated washes. But most of the time, we accept the clothes as they are and wear them baggier and longer then they should be.
Some brands, including Peter Manning NYC, do create clothing for shorter men. But there are very few companies dedicated to this demographic. Pricing is often more expensive for these clothes as well, due to the limited amount of options in the market.
Some of this may be because of the current ideal image for men. It is rare to talk about body acceptance for men, and it has been a repressed conversation for years. Especially with the current media pressures of attaining a specific, unrealistic image. Movies and television often project the ideal man as overly muscular, tall, and with the proportions of a Marvel superhero. But very little of the male population is actually like that. Nor is that image easily attainable for many men.
On the positive side, the fashion industry for men is finally growing. New brands launch every month, and the Internet allows for more options and greater accessibility than ever before. Shopping online helps men find more options than the local mall. But there is still a noticeable lack of options for short men, and that needs to change. Hopefully, this will soon be a problem of the past, and that more brands will accommodate this over time.
For any short men reading this, there are several resources emerging to deal with this issue. I recommend The Modest Man, which gives fashion advice tailored (pun intended) for the shorter man. YouTube and Reddit also offer growing fashion communities with advice for the short man. But most important, make your voice heard. Companies will continue to produce the same fits and styles until they realize there is a large market that needs more options.
📝 Read this story later in Journal.
🗞 Wake up every Sunday morning to the week’s most noteworthy Tech stories, opinions, and news waiting in your inbox: Get the noteworthy newsletter >
