The review that said no

there are one thousand one hundred and eighty five reviews on this site, and sixty one of them are not about the clothes at all.

They are about bodies. You can find them by searching for the words women use when they are being specific instead of polite. Hips. Bust. Postpartum. Curvy. Petite. A height, given in feet and inches, as though offering evidence.

They are the most useful thing anyone has ever given this house. Not because they are flattering. Because of what they let us see.

What sixty one women said

A woman who is five foot two and plus size wrote that the one size cut was perfect for her. One wrote that a piece fit over forty six inch hips and still opened easily enough to nurse a baby. Another, at five foot five, said a garment was very long on her and she rolled it, and that she would be ordering again anyway.

Several wrote the same sentence in slightly different words: that a kaftan was flattering rather than, as one of them put it, tent-like the way other kaftans can be.

Read enough of them together and a pattern comes up that has nothing to do with measurements. The women who loved the fit were not the ones closest to a sample size. They were the ones who had given up on being held in.

And then the ones that said no

Of those sixty one, fifty two are five stars and nine are four. Three of the nine are the ones worth reading twice, because all three are a body meeting a pattern that was not drawn for it.

One woman wrote that the fabric was lovely and the piece well made, and that it did not fit over her bust, because she is fuller there. She wondered whether it might be let out. Then she asked a question, gently, at the end. Maybe it is just not meant for a fuller figured body.

Another, five foot eight and in a large, wrote that a pair of our pants would not pass her hips. A third, five foot nine with a long torso, said a jumpsuit only just fitted her and that anyone long in the body should think twice.

I want to answer all three honestly rather than reassuringly.

We cut in two sizes, S/M and M/L, and some pieces in one size only. That is not a philosophy. It is what a house of around thirty artisan families making to order in their own homes can hold. Every size we add multiplies the patterns, the cloth lots and the sampling, and the way we work does not multiply easily.

So the truthful sentence is this. An open piece, something that falls rather than closes, works across a very wide range of bodies. The three reviews that said no were all about pieces that have to pass over something: a bust, a hip, the length of a torso. Those are the places a pattern either fits you or does not, and when it does not, it is the pattern that failed, not the woman wearing it.

What to do with that

If you are fuller through the bust, wider through the hip, or long in the torso, write to us at support@myrahpenaloza.com before you order rather than after. Tell us the piece and tell us your measurements. Some garments can be let out by the tailors who made them, because they are the actual tailors and not a warehouse. Some cannot, and we would rather say so than take the order.

If it arrives and it is wrong, you have 10 days from delivery to exchange it for store credit. We do not do cash refunds, and I would rather you know that now than discover it in a policy page.

And if nobody has ever cut for your shape, start with something open. The pieces that fall from the shoulder keep being right on the days your body is not what it was last month.

Why the four star ones stay up

We could have answered those three with a discount code and let them sink down the page. A great many brands would. But a wall of five stars tells a woman nothing she can use, and she knows it. The review that says it did not fit over my bust is doing more work than the fifty two above it, because it is the one that lets the next woman decide before she waits six weeks.

Sixty one women told us about their bodies. Fifty eight of them were telling us where the cut is right. Three were telling us where it is not. Those three are the ones we owe something to.

Thank you for the specific ones. The height, the hips, the honest four stars. Keep writing them exactly like that.

With love from Bali,
Myrah