In Wal-Mart’s rocky attempts to sell trendy clothes a couple years ago it learned some very important lessons — one being that it is difficult to sell a huge volume of skinny jeans to your shoppers when analysts say the average American woman wears a size 12 to 14. 

Since its fashion foray fumble, Wal-Mart has since gone back to the drawing board and is now trying to tailor its stores to meet local demand. 

In Canada, that means Wal-Mart has decided to launch Black Koi, what it calls “the company’s first line of women’s apparel designed specifically for petite Asian customers.” 

The Black Koi collection includes dresses, jackets, shirts and skirts, and is designed “to fit petite customers, 5′ 3″ or under, with tailoring suited specifically to Asian body types.”

Wal-Mart said its merchants have looked at AC Nielsen and census data to identify multicultural population clusters around stores. Some of its Canadian stores already carry Asian food and housewares, while signage is shown in English and Chinese.

The Black Koi line, available in 16 of its stores, comes after Wal-Mart said customer response to its Bollywood Signature line of clothing targeted at South Asian women was so positive, it launched a follow-up collection this fall.

(Photo: Reuters)