Designing Plus Size Fashion: Technical Guide for Creating Flattering Clothing
Written by Rachel Blaydes
Designing for plus size bodies is about fashion that celebrates the body with silhouettes that exude style, comfort and confidence. New and established fashion brands have many opportunities to expand their size ranges. A large percentage of the population falls into the plus size category, and the market share in this area is likely to continue expanding. In the US market, the average women's dress size is 16/18 misses or 20W and the average size for men is XL. You can help bring designs that fill the void to this market of beautiful bodies.
Understanding Your Target Market: Collecting Feedback and Asking For Help
Before you start designing plus size clothing, you should understand how and why they are designed differently. Often, plus size clothes start at size 18 for women and XL for men in the US, size 16 in the UK, and size 44 in the rest of Europe. Designing plus size garments is not harder than designing straight sizes, but it is often not taught in schools, which can make it feel like an intimidating area to approach.
One way to get a sense of the differences is to order multiple sizes, or a run, of several styles and brands. Examine the differences in grading across each brand and test the fit to see how it looks and moves on a human form. Look at the shaping of the side and shoulder seams, the use of style lines, and darts. Pay particular attention to the areas that accentuate certain features, such as bust, waist, and hips. As these garments are for a fit review only, they can be returned to save costs.
Pro Tip: You will see more differences when comparing woven clothing.
Websites tend to offer a wider size range and allow you to view the brand's size charts. Find companies that use a numeric (0-30) and an alphanumeric system (XS-6X) to compare how they grade their sizes.
Gather feedback on what people who wear plus sizes are looking for when they are shopping and what they feel is lacking. A fun way to do this is to host a try-on party! Another option is to ask specific questions on forums about how plus size clothing can continue to be improved. You will find more success if you can identify a hole in the market, such as in style, comfort, or fit.
The industry is not always forthcoming, but ideally talk with industry professionals that wear or specialize in making plus size patterns and garments. Seek out designers and patternmakers to network with and ask for their advice and tips for success. They have experience doing what you want to do, so come to them prepared with questions and listen to their words with intent.
How can you find these experts? Attend a local or online networking event and ask attendees if you can pick their brain. You can also reach out to industry professionals and alumni from your school on social media.
To save time and probably money, work with a consulting agency that has experience making plus size clothing. This will allow you to work closely with a team of professionals who can guide you through the process. Partnering with a company like The Squad Nation that has done extensive body type research will eliminate some of the challenges of trying to figure out what measurements to base your size range on.
Grading Plus Size Patterns: The Cut and Spread Method and Body Positive Designs
Creating flattering plus size patterns requires more consideration and attention to detail than straight size or block patterns. Block patterns cannot simply continue to be graded up at the same interval because they do not properly account for the proportions of fuller figures.
Plus size bodies are curvier, and therefore need more adjustments than just width. Human bodies do not necessarily expand at a linear rate between size measurements. Plus sizes need a unique grading system that accounts for additional volume, separate from straight sizes.
Establish a base size fit model and measurements. Create a sizing chart for your proposed size range. Identify size range models that fit the range to validate the grade and adjust as needed. Expect to conduct more than one fit test.
When grading your patterns, be mindful of the amount of ease needed to make the garment comfortable, meaning the intended roominess of the garment. When working with woven fabric, the amount of ease added will be similar between fabrics because you don't need to account for any stretchiness.
On the other hand, knit fabrics should be sample tested by making a basic t-shirt to understand how much the fabric stretches. This will help you gauge how much ease is needed for the correct fit.
Perform a basic stretch test by stretching a 10” x 10” square of your fabric horizontally and vertically along a ruler. The fabric should be stretched only enough to measure the reasonable stretch that would occur during use.
Pro Tip: Measure your knit fabric's recovery, or ability to return to its original size and shape, to understand how that will affect the garment's wearability and lifespan.
Once you are working on your silhouettes, the easiest way to grade paper patterns is the “cut and spread” method, which is done by drawing vertical lines that are parallel to your center front (CF) and center back (CB) and horizontal lines that are perpendicular to your CF/CB. There are usually two or three lines in each direction to proportionally adjust for the larger sizes.
After your lines are drawn, cut along them, and then you can spread the pieces out to fit the measurements of the size that you are grading up to. For physical patterns, tape the pattern pieces to a larger piece of paper and trace the new pattern onto a piece of paper. Don't forget to add the seam allowances!
To make the process easier, you can purchase pre-made slopers, which are basic, starter patterns that are meant to fit like a second skin, and are used to ensure that the measurements will fit the intended body. Once you have a solid sloper set, you can move on to altering the patterns to suit your designs. When grading patterns, standard zero points (0,0) act as the origin for every pattern piece, which is then increased or decreased by the relevant amount.
Pro Tip: When you are ready to start grading the pattern, the curve of the armhole may also need to be graded to accommodate a larger bicep.
Pro Tip: It's critical to keep track of and maintain the center, or zero point, on your patterns to ensure that the pattern pieces are graded evenly to maintain the design's integrity.
When envisioning your looks, focus on designing comfortable, stylish clothing. We had the pleasure to interview Janet Barber, a freelance pattern maker and team manager of RENEN. She noted, “During the process, consider how the wearer will get in and out of the garment.” Create garments that accentuate the features of the body and don't attempt to hide them as if they don't exist.
Plus size people know what they look like, and they want to have options that make them feel attractive and empowered. Design clothes that your target market will want to wear! To understand how body positivity affects the clothing industry, check out our blog, Body Positivity.
Plus Size Dress Forms: Bringing Draped Garments to Life
Using a plus size dress form will make fit checks more accurate and allow you to drape ideas. Good news! They are not more expensive than dress forms created to represent a straight size. They are available in a variety of sizes, and some companies allow you to custom order specific measurements. If you are offering a wide size range, you may need to order more than one dress form to cover the full size range.
Pro Tip: Look for dress forms with arms and legs to maximize the amount of garments that you can drape!
To create multiple sizes, there is a variety of padding that can be purchased to adjust body measurements. You can also purchase an adjustable form that has several knobs on all sides for easy size accommodation. Adjustable dress forms generally go up to a size 24. A good starting point is having a dress form in your base size and using fit models for your full size range. Dress forms are commonly used when the fit model is not available.
To make draping with additional padding easier, some kits come with a white slip to put over the pads. It is made of knit fabric, and is meant to act as the new outer layer of your dress form. You can make your own by sewing together two rectangles of a lightweight, knit fabric that are slightly smaller than the measurements of your form. This keeps the fabric taut when fitting or pinning fabric to the dress form.
Clothing company Universal Standard has been making size 00-40 clothing for years, which is a wider range than most companies offer. Their base size uses 16 and 18 as “medium,” which is the average size of the American woman. They also offer a Fit Liberty program that allows customers to exchange their clothing for a different size if their size changes within the first year.
Utilizing 3D Software: Easy Size and Color Experimentation
Patterns can also be created and easily graded using 3D design software. The virtual model's measurements can be adjusted to the desired size and body shape. This is an efficient and cost effective way to test how your garment will look on a variety of body types. You can experiment with various fabric types to visualize how the texture and drape will affect the overall design. These software programs allow you to test your color choices against multiple skin and hair colors. When testing a graphic pattern, you can adjust the scale, positioning, and colorways to decide which will work best.
Clothing design software gives you side-by-side windows to view the 3D design on a computer generated body and the 2D pattern pieces. You can adjust the flat patterns or the garment to see how the changes affect the view of the finished product. The patterns can be graded and viewed on your full size range of models. The patterns can also be exported and printed so you can create a physical garment.
Pro Tip: Find establishments near you that offer large format printing services to save yourself the headache of printing the pattern pieces on 8.5” x 11” paper.
Designing plus size clothing should focus on bringing well-thought-out, stylish pieces to market that give the wearer confidence! There is a big opportunity to design for all genders that are waiting to wear your flattering designs. Listen to the feedback that you get throughout the process and your customers. Perfecting the skills necessary to design for plus size bodies will give you a competitive edge in an evolving market.