About Us

Short Couture was created by me, Hayley Chalmers, with the simple aim of bringing beautiful, affordable clothes to shorter women.

 

 The idea for the business was born from painful first-hand experience.  I’m 5’ 1” and have never been able to find great clothes that fit well!

 

 I had the idea a few years ago but with no knowledge of or experience in the fashion industry it was too scary. I’ve been an IT manager for 12 years, I didn’t know where to start.

 

 Finally a couple of years ago I got brave and decided that I would do it. It took me 18 months to research the fashion industry and ecommerce, until I finally had products and a website ready. I funded it with my life's savings. The hardest thing was finding suppliers. I had to buy everything, every zip, button, clip, shoulder pad, interlining and if course all the fabrics. I didn’t know just how many different types of shoulder pads there are!

 

The suppliers don’t make it easy for us to find them. The whole industry seems to work on contacts. They don’t advertise, many have no Internet presence at all!

 

Wow – what a learning curve.

 

 

I created a survey for market research and found that the hardest styles to find are smart clothes to wear to work. I can agree with that. I could never find work clothes.

 

So I have tried to create a collection of petite exclusive styles that you can wear to the office. The dresses can easily be dressed up for the evening for those Desk to Dinner occasions.  All the garments have been designed to have shorter sleeves and leg lengths but very importantly, the body and the ‘rise’ – the distance from the hip to the waist - have all been shortened. No more trousers that fasten around your ribs!

 

Every garment is a petite exclusive design. Additionally, everything is designed and manufactured in England. The UK still boasts an abundance of highly skilled factories and workrooms and I am proud to support them - I will never outsource production to the Far East. This also means that I have greater control over the quality of our clothes and can visit our suppliers’ factories frequently.

 

Please take some time to have a look around the site and see what is on offer. I welcome any feedback, requests or suggestions you might have.

 

Please feel free to email me via  hayley@shortcouture.com

 

or get in touch through Twitter – @shortcouture

 

or my Short Couture Facebook Page