Clothing can be used as a tool to adjust one’s image in society. Western society’s infatuation with the slim body type has caused great discomfort for the large-size female. Hence, the effective use of the clothing "tool" is most important for the large-size female. This study was designed to determine if the place of purchase of clothing limited or enhanced the effectiveness of the clothing "tool". The objectives of this study were to determine if large-size women who shopped in department stores differed in self-esteem, body satisfaction, and design line preference from large-size women who shopped in specialty stores and to determine if relationships existed among these variables.

Data were collected using a modified version of the Baggs Scale. The Likert type instrument was comprised of 10 self-esteem, 7 body satisfaction, and 14 design line preference items. The remainder of the instrument was composed of demographic information. The instrument was pre-tested twice using the female employees of The College of Human Resources at Virginia Tech. The final sample of 59 large-size females was derived from a random sample of female employees at Virginia Tech.

The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, and Pearson Product Moment Correlations. The sample exhibited a high positive self-esteem, low body satisfaction, and a preference for clothing with vertical orientations. Significant correlations were found to exist among the variables.