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Ask a petite what it’s like shopping for denim and chances are you’ll sooner be met with a shrug than an actual answer. I get it. Being 5’1”, finding straight-size jeans that fit perfectly off-the-rack is like making an 11:11 wish—cute but a little starry-eyed.
It’s a given that inseams are often too long, but just as frustrating and common: rises that are too high and fading and pocket placements hit in all the wrong places. I try to work around these fit issues by shopping almost exclusively “cropped” silhouettes (and then repeat-purchasing the styles I like in various washes); asking friends what they recommend, and poring over online reviews and sizing guide lines to glean the most accurate description. It’s not a foolproof formula, but it’s gotten me this far.
Petite jeans for women—and clothing in general—is an appealing proposition in theory; in practice not so much. It’s not that I don’t want to believe in brands’ best intentions to tailor proportions to smaller frames, it’s that far too few have successfully managed to do so. The silhouettes so often veer into honey-I-shrunk-the-clothes territory, and the storytelling and styling surrounding the category also tends to feel less premium compared to anything straight-size. Over the years I’ve developed a kind of Pavlovian response to eschew anything labeled petite.
Nelle Atelier, a new direct-to-consumer label specializing in petite clothing, wants to solve all of this. The brand, which is founded by Madeleine Cohen and officially launches online on November 30 (with a special holiday popup on December 16 at Eva Joan Repair Shop in New York City s West Village), is looking to reinvent the category by offering wardrobe essentials for women under 5’4” that is “tailored to fit straight off the rack.”
“Half of women in the U.S. are under 5’4”, Cohen says, a statistic she underscores from her research. “This isn’t a niche, but half the population of customers—and a completely underserved market.”
Nelle Atelier debuts with jeans—three styles in two washes each—that are handmade in Los Angeles with Candiani denim (sourced from the namesake Italian textile company known for its premium, sustainable materials). Cohen, who is 5’1” herself, was adamant about launching with jeans. She considers them to be the “the ultimate wardrobe staple” and the chosen silhouettes—a straight-leg, boyfriend, and flare—the foundation of any well-rounded denim collection.
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Cohen—whose has worked in product strategy and innovation at Estée Lauder, Casper, and Bala—says the idea for Nelle Atelier came to her a little under year ago after standing in front of her closet and realizing she hated all her jeans. She turned to Google to look up “best jeans for short girls” but was far from impressed with what the search results yielded. “Nothing that came up was attractive to me, or matched any of the brands in my wardrobe,” she says. “I was looking for something premium in quality, and aspirational from a brand perspective.” That didn’t exist—so she decided to create it herself.
During the development phase, Cohen says she tried on at least a hundred different pairs of jeans to make sure there wasn’t already another brand out there doing what she intended to. As for the labels who are offering petite sizing, Cohen says Nelle Atelier’s differentiating factor is its dedication to solving the proportion issue, which goes beyond simply cropping the hem.
“The hardest thing about jeans for shorter bodies is the rise and knee placement, so we adapted all our rises to shorter torsos, and then our knee placements to shorter legs,” Cohen says. In order to strike this delicate balance, Cohen says she used fit models that were 5’2” and who wore sizes 26 and 29. To capture an even broader range of the spectrum, a lot of wear-testing took place, the results of which helped her realize just how petite her customer actually was; instead of starting at a size 24, she decided to go down to a 23. The inseams are different for each style, she adds, and based on the kind of shoes she envisions one would wear with them.
The Emily, a straight-leg jean, comes in a coal-washed black and medium-blue sapphire wash and has a 25 ¾–inch inseam. The Claire is a boyfriend style designed in a light and dark wash with a 27-inch inseam, and then you have The Lea, a bootcut flare with a 31-inch inseam in a true black and selvedge-like deep indigo.
As someone who’s always on the hunt for a great fitting jean, I was particularly keen on trying Nelle Atelier’s initial denim offerings, available in sizes 23 through 32 and ranging from $218 to $258 in price. (This in line with contemporaries like Closed and Triarchy who source similar raw materials from the same textile mill.)
I was most drawn to the straight-leg Emily, since it’s a silhouette I wear often. The 25 ¾–inch inseam, which Cohen says is meant to work with sneakers, flats, and ankle boots, hits right above my ankle bone so the full shoe can be admired.
As skeptical as I was, from the moment I tried them on, I was in love. The straight-leg fits like a dream. They have a mid-rise waist that’s snug but not suffocating, with room throughout the upper thigh and a perfect taper down the calf to the ankle. Made of 98% cotton and 2% elastane for a smidge of stretch, the cut looks so good with most of my shoes, from chunky black boots to little black Mary Jane flats and mesh sock ballerinas. A subtle, but crucial, tailoring eye-trick is to have just the right amount of skin peeking through in order elongate the leg—and these deliver. The fly is zippered—a small detail anyone whose dealt with buttons mysteriously popping open can appreciate. The dark blue wash is elegant and versatile for work or weekends, while the black has hints of grey that feels equal parts relaxed yet elevated.
The fading on both washes starts mid-thigh and stops under the knee, completely in proportion with my leg length. The Emily does run a size large; I’m normally a 24, but similar to my Agolde and Citizens of Humanity jeans, Nelle Atelier’s 23 fits best.
I don’t often wear boyfriend or flared jeans, so I didn’t end up trying those silhouettes, but Cohen says the former is made of 100 percent cotton (i.e. a rigid denim) for a cool, casual look that can be styled with a boot in the day and a heel at night. The flare jean meanwhile has a longer inseam since Cohen says it’s a style that is mostly worn with heels and works perfectly with a 2- to 4-inch heel. “I call it the evening jean.” The composition is similar to the Emily at 98% cotton and 2% elastane for a more polished look.
Although denim will always be at the core of Nelle Atelier, it’s just the beginning for Cohen, who has plans to expand into other clothing categories in the near future. “We won’t be as trend-driven,” she says, “but we will be seasonal.” Until then, I’ll be telling all my petite friends where to buy their next perfect pair.
Shop Nelle Atelier denim, below.
