Wardrobe Tips for Petite Women

“Petite Style, the Ultimate Fashion Guide for Women 5’4” and Under,” by Susan Ludwig with Janice Steinberg (New American Library: $8.95).

Four-feet, 11-inch Susan Ludwig, who has counseled petite women on how to dress and lectured nationally on the subject for years, has put her expertise on paper with good results. With co-author Janice Steinberg, she provides more tips and wardrobe strategies than are typically found in books aimed at the petite market.

The authors include, for example, a chart listing a wide variety of fabric types and what image each is likely to create on a petite wearer (Angora is “soft to touch but gives the illusion of bulk,” while felt “is very stiff . . . for ‘50s costumes.”)

Ludwig and Steinberg have a gift for memorably describing wardrobe-planning principles, among them this pointer for keeping fabric motifs properly scaled: “prints/ plaids no larger than my hand.”

And for those readers who like to see just how much difference following such advice can make, the book includes color photographs of four head-to-toe petite makeovers.