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"  The polos would nearly reach his knees. The pants had to be cuffed or hemmed. And the shirts, even the ones he liked at Steven Alan, were always too long to be worn untucked. At 5&amp;#039;8&amp;quot;, Peter Manning isn&amp;#039;t the sort of guy you&amp;#039;d see and think, Wow, he&amp;#039;s little. But whenever he went shopping, that&amp;#039;s what it felt like, even when he was ten-years-old, when he wanted bell bottoms. Until his mother told him, &amp;quot;Peter, by the time I shorten them, they won&amp;#039;t be bell bottoms.&amp;quot; By current estimates, a quarter of American men are Manning&amp;#039;s height or shorter, a size that means \u2014 length-wise at least \u2014 that the size S and XS garments sold at major retailers throughout the country will need alterations; if you&amp;#039;re short yourself, you know how hard it can be to find inseams under 30 inches, the typical industry minimum. At age 44, this is the problem that Manning has dreamt his whole of fixing, both for himself and for others. So, after two years of developing a line, he just launched Peter Manning, the brand, which caters to guys with a constant sizing dilemma. Numbered from 1 through 5, the clothes are for guys from 5&amp;#039;3&amp;quot; and 125 pounds up to 5&amp;#039;9&amp;quot; and 170 pounds. They&amp;#039;re the sort of pieces you might find at the best store in your local mall: washed plaid shirts, chino pants, a sweater or two \u2014 basics, basically, made in foreign factories where Manning&amp;#039;s hardest challenge was explaining his new sizing system. &amp;quot;You can&amp;#039;t allow for any nuance and everything has to be specified,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;Over and over.&amp;quot; Manning&amp;#039;s growing customer base comes to him for this sort of attention to detail: Right now, as an online-only business at petermanningnyc.com, he&amp;#039;s had orders in the hundreds for his first season, Spring 2012. He&amp;#039;s hoping that number increases as he adds denim, wool sweaters, and a jacket for fall tailored by Martin Greenfield, which will top out at $695. Before that, most prices were under $100. &amp;quot;In the beginning, I didn&amp;#039;t want to exclude anyone who might not be able to afford it,&amp;quot; he says. But is a luxury line one of his goals? Absolutely. &amp;quot;I want short guys to go into a Barneys or Saks and ask where the Peter Manning section is.&amp;quot; Like petites for women, but without so much stigma. It was a branding firm that told Manning he had to name the line after himself (they&amp;#039;re right, it is a good name for a men&amp;#039;s clothing brand). And with a background producing theater and then a New York apartment development, it&amp;#039;s impressive a novice could pull off clothes so wonderfully simple in his first season. But when you&amp;#039;re designing for yourself, it probably gets a bit easier. &amp;quot;All I want is for these guys to put something on and think, Yeah, it fits.&amp;quot; Thanks to him, there&amp;#039;s now a chance it will. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/a14805/peter-manning-070912/>