Should You be Using Grading to Create Plus Sizes?

Being size inclusive is an important initiative to any brand. Additionally, if your customers are calling for this, you have to deliver. 

Too often, the response seems to be to contact your grader and just ask for some extra sizes to be added on. It’s a pretty simple thing to do once the grading has been established. The grader adds them on and you feel that it’s taken care of. Garments are produced and your products start to sell. But then the worst thing happens- you start getting emails about the fit of the larger sizes and the returns start to roll in. 

What do you do now? 

First of all, the grader is not at fault so don’t start assuming they graded the pattern wrong. They were performing a task asked of them. If they were concerned enough about your project, they would stop you to say “Hey, I don’t think this is the right approach”. Or, they may not be experienced enough in pattern making to give you a forewarning about the outcomes. 

When grading a pattern, you start with the base size and establish how all other sizes will proportionately get bigger/smaller from this point. Sizes are not treated as individual entities. They are basically a formula. When this formula is applied it works to preserve the base fit proportions and fit initiatives pretty well for a handful of sizes. 

However, once you are adding many sizes on, this formula loses its integrity and distortions occur. For instance, a shoulder grade increases as the sizes get bigger. Our bone structures are pretty similar in this area so the grading isn’t extreme. However, there are those that need a larger size because they have a broader shoulder, so the grading works for them. But when you get to plus sizes, this does not mean that this customer is proportionally bigger everywhere. They may be needing this extended range because they have a bigger bust or bigger hips, but rarely a bigger shoulder (in terms of women’s wear). 

Creating a New Pattern

There comes a point in the grading where you really need to reassess the customer body shape and ask the question of how can you better serve their figure. This is when you need a new pattern for this range. This pattern will be made to fit this customer, taking into account their figure and a functionality that would work for them. This process is just like fitting your base pattern. You work to fine tune and once it is approved the grading can be done for this new range. 

Plus size grading isn’t special

There are typically larger incremental jumps between plus sizes, but the same grading practices apply. It’s not something that is unique to this range. What is unique is the base pattern that was created for this customer. 

It is possible to fine tune certain areas that you may want to grade more or less specific to each range, but this is a discussion to have with your grader. 

How many sizes are too many?

It all depends. Let’s take this from the point of view of womenswear. Your sample size will be a determining factor in this. 8’s and 10’s allow more leeway in size addition. Generally I feel comfortable going up to a 16 in this scenario. However, if your base size pattern is a size 2 or 4 I’d probably tell you to stop at 12 or 14.

 Another factor in the number of sizes you can add depends on the type of garment. Generally, if you are working on a relaxed fit pull-on skirt, we can grade all the sizes and not necessarily have to worry about creating a separate range. A loose hoodie can go up pretty far without distortion because the fit isn’t too specific. However, when you get into fitted garments, you lose the specificity the further up or down you go in grading due to distortions and the change in the body shape. 

These are guidelines, not absolutes.  Please check with your grader regarding style specific sizing questions. 

I Want All the Sizes!

A trend I am seeing in extended sizing is to try to add as many sizes as possible to be then most inclusive brand EVER! Let me stop you here. Even with a larger range, there comes a point where a reset needs to happen because the grading distorts and the customer for these extra extended sizes may not fit the body profile as your intent for this range and a new pattern needs to be created.

Don’t try to cheat the process

If you want to do plus sizes then you need a separate pattern. Don’t assume that you can just take your largest size, confirm the fit is good and then apply a plus sized grading rule to that. This is going to lead to trouble down the road. The best practice is to take your largest size or have your grader go up to a size 20, knowing full well that the fit is going to be crap, and then rework this pattern for your fit. This works because it maintains the proportions as a good starting point. 

When you may not need a separate pattern

If you are finding that you maybe need only two more sizes that you need to add to meet your customer demands or you just want to test the waters to see if you have customer for this new size, I am going to say that you should just grade them on. This is especially true if you are doing something forgiving like athleisure. Creating a brand new pattern is an investment, so this needs to be factored in.

For me, I’ll take a look at the pattern to see if it’s decent to add on to. If I know that it would be an automatic return I’ll probably stop you and say we need to address it differently.  

Your situation and budget are unique and you know what direction your brand needs to go. Hopefully this helps to give you some insight on what you can and cannot do for grading.