Shopping for petite clothign was never easy for me. I’ll find a brand, start browsing, and find that their clothes don’t come in petite sizing nor petite-friendly inseams.

Quince is a brand that I really like, because it’s fun to shop on their site and they make timeless styles that I want to wear again and again. But for petites? In this review, check out what I’ve tried and how it all fits on my petite frame. Be sure to look at the photos!

My petite disclaimer

As you read this review, keep in mind a few things about my perspective:

  • I’m a petite woman measuring 5-foot-2 and around 107 lbs.
  • I’m an “XS” across the board in most brands I wear, and I wear an XSP in petite brands (or XXSP in LOFT).
  • I often have trouble finding tops, bottoms, dresses, skirts and shorts that don’t drown me or make me look like I borrowed a friend’s ill-fitting clothing.

As you read my petite review about Quince’s women’s line, I’m writing from the perspective of someone my size who’s been challenged all her life in finding good fits from clothes at non-petite brands.

Quince’s new “petite-friendly” category

I originally wrote this Quince petites review because I had tried some things from the brand, and it didn’t go so well. I located a few things like acceptable cropped shirts or pants that have available shorter inseams and called them petite-friendly.

Quince debuted a page for us petite gals, though: it’s called the Petite-Friendly section. I have thoughts, because I want this to be easy for you, and to learn from my findings.

Quince gives a few parameters that helped curate the products in their petite recommendations for women:

  • tops that are cropped, “shrunken” or are a bodysuit style
  • pants with 26” inseams or shorts inseams of 4”

The only part I don’t “agree” with are the dresses: they’re listed as “Minis under 35” and midis under 44.” I don’t quite agree with these selections because I’ve tried the Quince dresses with these measurements, and they don’t fit my 5’2” stature right out of the bag. They require hemming (and I have had my Quince dresses hemmed - specifically, the Tencel Jersey Maternity & Nursing Wrap Dress). I like it a lot, but as a midi-style dress, it was gigantic in the length at first.

Anyway, in this review, I’ll go through some of the Quince apparel that has worked for me as a 5-foot-2-woman, what hasn’t worked out for me without hemming or tailoring and lastly, what I suggest for your shopping.

Quince petite dresses

Are there any petite dresses from Quince?

I tried dresses from Quince as my first foray into the apparel for women from the brand. After all, the models in the dresses look amazing, and the styles, fabrics and colors are so timeless and classy. I couldn’t wait to try some best-selling dresses and I did just that.

Here is what I tried (and keep in mind that I tried these styles with my hopes high for a good fit):

The verdict: every dress ran too long (it’s not a huge surprise). The best of the bunch was the Tencel Mini, which fit me a little bit more like a “Midi.” It was kind of flattering, but the torso felt too long, like it was sagging toward my waist, and that’s not the intended fit.

Regardless of those critiques for my petite form, here are the photos, so you can see for yourself how the Tencel Mini Fit and Flare dress looked. I even saw another petite blogger who reviewed this one and commented that the Mini also hit her at the knees.

Next, the Linen Swing Dress: it ran too long on my entire body (as well as wide at the chest and frame). It didn’t flatter me at all, and that made me a tiny bit sad because I wanted it based on how great it looked in the model photos on the Quince website.

Lastly, the Tiered Maxi Dress was so long that it looked like it was my big sister’s dress that I borrowed—and this was in XS! It was not even worth taking photos of because I looked like I was playing dress-up. I wanted to look just like the model in the photo wearing it, and bring this dress on vacation! My dream did not come true.

Overall, I was disappointed, but it was one of those times I realized that I just need to be shopping at stores that make petite clothes like LOFT, J.Crew and Madewell.

Suggestions for products

I don’t really have any recommendations for petite-fit dresses from Quince. My guideline is to assume that if you are between 5’0” and 5’3,” that dresses will fall longer on you than they do on the models in all the photos.

Please do keep reading though, because there is hope for you in Quince’s pants and tops!

Quince petite pants

I’m just going to break it to you honestly: most of Quince’s pants are tailored to the bodies of non-petite women who are taller than 5’4” or so. This means that styles like the Linen Pants, Ankle Pants, Wide Leg Pants, Utility Pants and Joggers are going to hit too low on petite women like me.

There is good news, though: While I have not tried Quince’s pants yet, I noticed that Quince does make petite-style pants with shorter inseams than normal. A normal inseam is 28” or longer, Quince is making some of the Ponte Pants collection in inseam lengths of 24,” 25” and 26”. This is huge news!

Quince petite bottoms styles with shorter inseams to try

A few petite-friendly Quince bottoms to try ASAP before they sell out are:

  • Bella Stretch Relaxed Straight Jeans (I may be doing a better job than Quince themselves at curating the best petite picks, because I own these jeans in a 26” inseam, and they’re NOT listed in the Petite Category page!)

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I wholeheartedly recommend skipping straight to my Quince denim jeans review because Quince jeans have been my petite-friendly hottest find of the season. With 26” inseams available in some styles, I feel AMAZING in these, and they fit better than some officialy petite-sized styles I’ve gotten from brands like Ann Taylor and LOFT.

I’ll also reiterate once again what I keep saying about Quince, and that is that the prices on these pants are unbelievable for the cool and timeless styles, as well as the quality I’ve seen from the brand.

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Shorts

I actually did have good luck with the jean shorts from Quince; they’re unfortunately discontinued at the moment, but I’m hoping they’ll come back either identically to these cutoff vintage-vibe jean shorts, or similar.

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When it comes to shorts, I like a 3” inseam if it’s performance shorts or athletic shorts, or 4” if it’s something like retro-style denim shorts.

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My best advice is to click over to “Size & Fit” below the product images, to find out just how tall the model in the photos is. Then, do the math, depending on if you are 5’0” or 5’4” and try to think about how those shorts would look on you, with a shorter stature. It seems to me that as of right now, Quince usually doesn’t list inseam lengths for shorts.

There are currently a few petite-friendly shorts to consider on the Petite product page.

Quince petite shirts and tops

So… Quince does not quite make petite shirts. Judging by how the XS fit me in dresses, we’ll go with a safe assumption that most shirts from Quince for women are going to run too long for petites, as they’re sized for an average woman (who is taller).

The one shirt I’ve tried from Quince so far that I am OBSESSED with is the Flowknit Breeze High-Neck Tank. I now own it in two colors and wore them both all summer.

The reason it fits me is because it’s a cropped style. These days, I do a little French tuck of whichever top I’m wearing into my shorts, pants or skirt anyway, so the fact that this shirt runs shorter makes it excellent for petites. You can find it in my list of the most affordable finds from Quince.

Try it: Flowknit Breeze High-Neck Tank

Shirts & Blouses

Many of the Quince shirts and blouses do not run cropped. If you’re like me and looking at the models wearing the blouses, you’ll see most of them are un-tucked styles like peasant blouses, utility blouses, halter tops and button-downs like the boyfriend shirts and Oxford shirts.

I would avoid these, as an honest petite shopping suggestion. They’ll be too long for short women.

Tees

Unless you see a cropped tee (and I see a few!) among Quince’s tee section for women, I’d be telling you that Quince’s standard tees will run too long for petites. Many of them are styles that hit below the waist or at the hip, and for petites, we’d look like we are drowning.

Try this: Second Skin Cropped Tee

Tank tops and camis

Quince makes a lot of tanks and camis for all seasons of the year. I noticed that styles like muscle tanks, cowl neck tanks, linen tank tops and silk V-neck tanks run LONG. Go for cropped styles, or styles that seem to run shorter, to complement a petite body type.

I have one suggestion and it’s a cropped style. Try this: Mongolian Cashmere Cropped Tank

Then, check out my Quince cashmere review.

Bodysuits

While I haven’t tried the Quince bodysuits, petites may actually have luck here because they are stretchy (a portion of the material breakdown is Spandex) and even if they bunch up from being too long, you can hide it by tucking in to pants, shorts or a skirt.

Try these: All Quince bodysuits

Button-downs

I’ll just be honest: Quince’s button-downs for women are not going to be great fits for petite women like me. They run long, so that they can be worn “out,” and for petites, they’ll hit too far past the typical flattering point.

If you’re set on a button-down style from Quince, try a “boxy shirt” or one of the flowy silk blouses that’s cropped closer to the waist. I think this section of shirts is the least friendly to petite body type needs.

I tried the 100% European Linen Short Sleeve Shirt, and exactly as you’d expect, it’s just too “big” overall (even in size XS!) and does not hit at the right spot for flattery on my frame.

Skirts

My note to you as a petite woman is to shop Quince’s skirts with the disclaimer that they are not petite sizing. Your best bet would be to try a mini skirt and have it run a little long. The midi skirts will fall past the knee of a petite woman, and I’m going to describe how the maxi skirt fit me here.

My tip: consider that the models on the Quince website are typically 5’9”. They’re far from petite: the’re TALL. In the model photo for the Court Sport Pleated Tennis Skirt, which I think is adorable, it looks like it hits high up on the thigh, but then I realized the model is a head taller than me.

I really wanted a maxi skirt, and I liked the look of the linen one from Quince. I tried the 100% European Linen Maxi Skirt and sadly, this is when I found out that “maxi” actually means “should hit at the calf,” not at the ankle nor drag on the floor.

I chose not to have this one hemmed, and as you can see in the photo, I might be drowning in it a little bit. It should probably be brought up at the bottom hem by 1.5-2 inches or so. Maybe that is a project for next summer. (My son joined me in this photo!)

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Maternity

If you’re a petite woman shopping Quince maternity, I’d suggest keeping in mind that products like joggers, leggings, button-down tops and tees are going to run long, either at the ankles or toward your waist and hips. (See my Quince maternity line review to see how it really fit me!)

Of course, maternity clothes are unique in that every woman is carrying her baby differently and dresses her baby bump in her own way. I personally found it nearly impossible to get petite maternity clothes when I was pregnant, so this is just my disclaimer. I’m going to try Quince maternity apparel in my next pregnancy, regardless!

Update: Like I mentioned above, I did order the Quince Tencel Jersey Maternity & Nursing Wrap Dress in two colors. I needed nursing and maternity dresses, and I wasn’t liking what I saw anywhere else. I had these both hemmed about 2 inches off the bottom, and now they fit like petite sizing.

Swimwear

While swimwear is not typically a petite thing, I’m writing this because I want to tell you that I tried three Quince bathing suits, and had good luck with them all. The one-pieces don’t run too long (if you can find your size). I had to size up to a size S in swimwear, and I actually had to get a size L in the bikini top! Here is what I got:

Intimates

Just a quick note, and to not leave out the fact that I tried Quince underwear, I’m leaving my recommendation for Quince Intimates in this petite review. The bodysuits are in this section, and those are the ones that fall into Quince’s own recommendations of petite-friendly apparel within their site.

Accessories

Socks, wallets, bags, travel luggage, backpacks, belt bags, you name it: I have it from Quince. If you’re feeling down because Quince doesn’t make so many petite clothing items, shop around for a few of my favorite accessories.

My two cents is that, as I’m a petite woman, any time I wear a gigantic bag, I feel like I’m being weighed down. So, I go with smaller accessories like small belt bags, crossbody bags that can support the weight over the shoulder

If none of these interest you and you want to have Quince products because they’re so eye-catching, timeless and affordable, check out my Quince Home Collection review to see if anything I’ve gotten for our new house tickles your fancy for your abode.