I have been meaning to write up these dispatches from short men. "I don't believe I'm a freak size," emails Davy, who is 5ft 6in, 35in chest, 29in waist, "but getting clothes to fit is extremely difficult, with the honourable exception of Gap and their x-small size." Gap does seem to do well from these correspondents (Paul from Wakefield says, "Their extra-small in anything is perfect for me"); otherwise, frustration abounds.
"Could you point me in the right direction for small men's clothes?" asks Michael from London. "Everywhere I look I see wonderful displays of beautiful clothes that I can't have." We'll try, but you already know the choice is woefully limited.
"Anglo-Saxon sleeves invariably cause me trouble," says Yehuda. "For instance, I spotted a merino sweater at Daks the other day in the world's best ever colour - a real crimson - but it was cut for an orang-utan, or maybe an upper-class Brit (long thin body, long thin arms)." He says he has the same problems at Smedley and M&S. "On the other hand, long-sleeved T-shirts and merino sweaters from Uniqlo (size: small) fit snugly and neatly without being tight."
Paul from Wakefield, who also finds suitable sizes at H&M, takes matters into his own hands. "I recently bought an overcoat from Reiss. Every one I'd tried before was too long or too voluminous. This one's perfect. The only problem was, of course, the sleeves were too long." Paul's solution: a good seamstress. "It's got concealed but working buttons, and she threw me into a panic as she thought she wouldn't be able to make the alteration. After seeing how upset I was, she tried - and it looks great and the buttons still work."
There'll be more investigation into small sizes. In the meantime, perhaps the secret, says Paul, "is finding a skilled, understanding seamstress".
· Charlie Porter is associate editor of GQ (m-f-a-s@hotmail.com).
