Hang Tag Review #35 - Michael Kors "Jet Set" Hang Tag

Today's hang tag is from fashion house Michael Kors. This hang tag is from a Jet Set collection of his label. The front is a soft gold with "Michael Michael Kors" in negative white. The tag hang vertically, but the text is aligned as though it hangs horizontally.

The reverse is similarly simple in design to the front. Again we see "Michael Michael Kors," although this time in gold on white. Underneath there is product information, here designations that this is a "Jet Set Item" and the color is Vanilla.

The front of this tag is gorgeous. The soft gold is wonderfully rendered here, it looks expensive but not at all trashy. It also works well on the standard thing paperboard that the tag is constructed from. The white boarder is nice as well, it frames the tag and helps the gold stand out. The labeling is also interesting. The alignment is unexpected without being entirely random.

Likewise, the reverse, while being fairly practical, is nicely arranged. Again, the gold works. There is also a certain irreverence to the descriptions. "Jet Set Item" is the line, not simply Jet Set or Jet Set Collection or any other designation.This encapsulates the aspirations of this perfectly - its an item for people who think they are jet setters, almost like describing a sleeping bag as a "Camp Item." I also love the color of Vanilla, as Vanilla can also mean plain and standard. Who would put Vanilla on their product? Why not call it cream? It is that perfect nihilistic attitude towards money and wealth.

This tag also contains an interesting NS or "No Size." If you remember, I previously covered an Ann Taylor "Size None" hang tag, here we have the reverse No Size.

The only thing I will take this tag to task for is the awful "Name by Name Brand" trend. Calling sub brands by portions of the full name is lazy and cheap, and needs to go away. I'll let it slide here because the rest of this tag is so nice.

Ann Taylor Loft "Size NONE" Hang Tag

Today we have something a little bit unusual. There are a lot of common elements that emerge if you spend enough time looking at hang tags (as evidenced by the Glossary page), but every now and then, something unique catches my eye.

Here, we have an Ann Taylor Loft hang tag with a very unique feature: It says "NONE" on it. At first glance it looked like perhaps an error printing, which had me excited, especially since I found it alive in the wild. Upon comparing it to some other tags, it turns out "NONE" is the size!

This was attached to a scarf, and so it stands to reason that it wouldn't have a specific size. However, I was surprised that the space was not left blank, or printed as One Size Fits All, which even has its own accepted abbreviation (OFSA).

The use of None is problematic in my view for a few reasons. First, it looks like an error or omission. Without taking the time to compare it to others, one wonders, what was supposed to be printed here? A color? Care instructions? The None just leads to more questions. Secondly, "NONE" is not the most accurate descriptor. The scarf clearly has a size, it can be measured. Even if we accept the proposition that in clothing "sizes" are only useful as they categorize and compare human bodies, NONE isn't really accurate, as we already have a bucket for those products that do not rely on the S/M/L size hierarchy, OSFA.

The only positive I could come up with was from a "body-positive" view that rejects the idea that people should conform to the sometimes unrealistic standards of fashion sizing, and that this one simply says that its buyer cannot be reduced to a single size from their complex self. I reject even that notion, however, as NONE rather implies to me that the size is immeasurable, non-existent, non-computable. Personally, I would not want to be told that my size was so unusual it could not be expressed in written terms, I'd much rather just exist somewhere along the OSFA spectrum.

That aside, I was really excited to find a hang tag with something I had not seen before and that gave me a chance to examine it. Interesting stuff.