P A C K A G I N G

P L U S   C L O T H I N G   L A B E L S

Plus is an organization that I created for my senior design thesis at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The project was focused on an awareness campaign for women's body image as it relates to clothing sizes, in hopes of changing the perspectives we have on body size. 

M O R E   A B O U T   P L U S

The clothing tags were designed as part of a proposal for a new clothing grouping system, which I titled The Circle System. This would not replace the conventional sizing system of either numbers or Small, Medium, Large, etc. The intention of this labeling system was for grouping purposes. Currently in retail situations, there are two main categories for women's clothing: Plus sizes and everyone else. This is an exclusionary practice that leaves 67% of American women (those wearing size 14 and above, also known as plus sizes) feeling poorly about their bodies, because they are too large to fit into normal clothing.

The Circle System was developed as a way to eliminate the Plus vs Everyone Else system that has unofficially become the norm. Taking the meaning of the term "plus" literally, I focused on the fact that no matter how large or small, between every size increment there is a necessary addition of more fabric. This is what led me to what I call an additive grouping system, in which the transition to each new group is signified not with a word, but with the addition of more circles. The circle begins empty, then is partly shaded, then solid, and then a new empty circle is added, and so on. All circles are the same size, and all categories represent a range of three sizes. There is much less of a contrast between one group and the other, because the transition is gradual and constant throughout.