CA1089152A - Brassiere having a bottom stretch band - Google Patents

Abstract

BRASSIERE HAVING A BOTTOM STRETCH BAND

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

A brassiere which has a pair of cups, opposed side portions extending laterally from these cups and a pair of back portions extending from the side portions also has along lower regions of the cups, side portions and back portions an elongated continuous stretch band. which is in a stretched condition extending around the body of the wearer, when the brassiere is worn. This stretch band serves to anchor the brassiere to the body of the wearer so as to oppose undesirable displacement of the brassiere during wearing thereof.

Description

~, B~ChGROUND OF TEIE INVE~JTl:O~ .
~, The present invention re].ates to brassieres.
ile many different types of brassieres axe presently .
, available, up to the present time all of. the known brassieres 1 suf~er from certain dr~lbac~s. Thus, while a brassier should . . .
~I give the wearer the capability of holding the breasts .in place, at the same time the brassieres should give to the wearer , considerable comfort and freedom of movement.
!~ However, it has been found from experience that with the conventional brassieres there is an unavoidable creation ~? of considerable discomfort due to various types of body movements !
carried out by the wearer o~ the conventional brassieres. Thus, ~. as a result o arm movements such as upward or lateral arm ; . Ii movemen~s, conventional brassieres unavoidably slip with respect ~-:
' to the body, as a result of certain types of kody movements, so that conventional brassieres unavoidably ride upwardly along the .3body or slip laterally along the body. The result is that the .
. t3 lower edge region of a conventional brassiere does not remain ¦ .
, at the xegion of the location where it was in-itially placed. I
,',.Thus, conventional brassieres unavoidably creep up beneath the j .
jbreasts and shift laterally along the 10Wer portions o~ the ¦~
breasts, or a combina ion o~ thes2 shifting ~ovemen-~s take place, 1 ;, . .
.thUs creating a considerable amo~lnt o~ disco~ort and pxeven~ing the conventional brassieres frc~. fulfillin~ their intended functions.

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SU~RY OF THE INVENTI ON
It is accordingly a prlmary obje~t of the.present invention to provide a bxassiere ~hich will avoid ~he above rawbac};s.
, ; , 1 ',', !1 Thus, it is an object of the present inven~ion to provide a brassiere ~ith the capability of remaining at its ' lot~Jer portion sui~stantially at the location in which this i; lower portion was initially situated, even though t~ wearer of I ~ the brassiere carries out all types of body and arm movements.
!l At the same time, it is an object of the pxe~ent - ~1 invention to pxovide a brassiere which will, while ulfilling the above objects, nevextheless give the wearer of the brassiere 1~ a considerable amount of reedom of movement and considerable 10 1 comfort, ~Ihile still maintaining the breasts relatively in ;
; ~1l place.
ii It is moreover an object of the present invention I ~i to provide a brassiere which can achieve the above objects while ¦, at the same time being relativel~ inexpensive and cxeating no particular discomort to the skin which is engaged by ~he brassiere. ¦~
,j In accordance with the invention the brassiere has a pair o~ cups, opposed side portions connectea to and extending 1~ laterally fro.~ the cups, with the latter being situated between 1-20 li these side poxtions, and a pair o~ back portions w~ich respective-ly extend ~ m the side porti~ns and terminate in free ends. i, A pair of shoulder straps extend rom upper parts of the back portions to upper parts of the cups. A pair of astener portions are fixed to the free ends of -the ba~k portions ana for~ a releasable ~astener means for fastening the brassiere on the wearer on the back of the wearer. The cups as well as the side ~ and bac~; portions all have lower regions distribu~ea along the ¦~ botto~ of the brassiere. In accordance with the particular .', .,'., i c~ il ... ~.. .. . . . .. .. . . . . .. . .. .. . .

!' 1089152 , .
I¦ fea~ure Ojc the invention there is an elongated continuou T , i' stretch band which is fi~ed to and extend3 continuousl,y along ' the lo ~r regions o~ the cups as ~ell as the si~e and back , portions, this stretch band erminating in free ends which are '~ res~ectively fixed to the ~astener portions. Thus the stretch 3, band is in a s~rek~ed condition when t'ne brassiere is worn with the fastener portions attached to each other, ~s a result of , this construction, the stretch band serves to anchor the brassiere I', to the body o~ the ~7earer so as to oppose undesirable displace~en~
,~ of the 'brassiere due to lateral or vertical movements of the body,¦
' or combinations of such movemenLs.
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~i BRIEF ~ESCP~IPTIO~ OF DRA~ GS
~i - The invention is illustrated b,y wa~ of exam~le in Lhe ; ', accompanying drawings which form part of this applic2tion and ,' , ~ in whi~h: ~ t , ~1 -FIG. 1 shoT.rs a brassiere of the invention in a front , ,~ elevation view with the rear portinns of the brassiere exLendin~ , , ~ 1~ outwardly from the side portions thereof so as to more clearly ;~illustrate the details of the brassier ol- the invention; ', 20 ~' FIG. 2 shows the brassiere of FIG~ 1 in a condition '~where the bras~iere has been laterally stretched 'beyond the 3i condition thereof shown in FIG. l;
, FIG. 3 illustrates the 'brassier o~ ~IG. 1 in a con~ition ~here the brassiere 'nas been ver-ti~all~ stretched behond the ~ : ~ ~
condition thereof sho~m in FIG~ l; and '-, ~ ~ FIG. ~ is a fragmentary section taken along line 4-4 ~1 !
or FIG. 3 in the dir~ction of the arrows and showing a~ an ''' . ~ , .
enlarged scale, as com~axed to ~IG. 3, ho~,~ the s-tretch band of ,the invention is fixed to the brassiere. 3 ~08915Z
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l,DESCRIPT~ON OF A PREFE~RED EMBODI~ENT
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I'Referring now to FIG. 1, the brassiere 10 of the - invention illustrated therein includes a pair of cups 12a and j 12b lhich have, respectively, outer side edge regions fixed, " as by suitable stitching, ~o stretchable side portions 14a and i 14b~ xespectively. These stretchable side portions form ,¦ extensions of and are integral with a pair of stre~chable back I
portions 16a and 16b which normally are-situated at tne back ' of the wearer but which are illustrated in FIG. 1 extending .
~ laterally beyond the side portions 14a and 14b, so as to more clearly illustrate the structure of the inventinn. The brassiere 1, l - also includes a pair of snoulder straps 20a and 20b respectively ¦
~ixed to and extending from upper parts of the bacX portionsl~a ~ and 16b and also being aajustably connected to upper parts of : ,~ the cups 12a and 12b, by way of known clips 22a.and 22b, these I .
clips being permanently connected tnth the upper parts of the cups and haviny portions through which end xegions of the shouldex straps are looped so as to be fi~ed to the clips in an adjustable ~j manner as is well kno~m~ ~
il A pair of fastener portions 24a and 24b are respectively !
" fixed to free ends of the bacX portions 16a and 16b, these fas~ener portions orming a fastener means for releasably ~astening~
the brassiere on the weaxex at the bacX of the wearer. Thus the ~ fastener portion 24a carries at lts side which is not visible ~ ¦
:~ in ~IG. 1 hooks to be received in a selected one of a plurality , :
: ~ of rows o~ eyes of the ~asLener portion 24b, so that in ~his . ~ well ~;nown manner it is posslble to provide an adjustable fastener'~

means for releasably fastening the brassie~ on the body of the ~: ~ wearer.

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The cups 12a and 12b, as well as the sicle portions l~a, 14~s a;id bacX portions 16a, 16b, all have lower re~ions to which, ~
in accordance with the invention, an eloncJatea continuous stretch ! :
band 26 is fixed. This elonyate~ continuous stretch 'band is made or any well kno~m longitudinally s~ixetchable ribbon~type of sheet material, and it will be seen ~rom FI~. 1 that the stretch band 26 e~tends continuously along the lo~er regions o the cups as well as the side and back portions, The stretch band 26 terminates in a pair of fre~e ends ~Jhich are respectively i~ fi~ed to the fastener poxtion 24a and 24b as illustra-ted.
FIG. 4 illustrates in particular how the atretch bana 26 is fixed to the remainder of the brassiere. Thus, the stretch~ ~
band 26 has an upper edge region wnich overlaps a lower edge I ~-xegion of ~he cups, side, and back portions, the stretch band 26 being shown in ~IG. 4 at a part thereof which overlaps a art of the side portion 14b, although it is tcSs be understood 1.
that the same construction will be found along ~'ne entire botto~
o~ the brassiere. Thus, the stretch band 26 where it overlaps the bo~tom xe~ion of t'ne 'brassiere is, for exa.nple, stitc'ned to the various parts distributed along the bottom o~ the'brassiere by lines of stltchin~ 28, thus leavi~ along the bottom of t~e ~ ¦
brassiere a continuous uninterrupted portion of the band 26 which is '~ee to stretch and contract. O course ~he side !
portinns 14a, 14b and bac~ portions 16a, 16b, are also ma~e o~
a strekcha~le elastic sheet makerial so tha~ these portio~s-of the brassiere~can~stre~ch and contract together~with the stretch band 26. : ' t The ~articular brass.iere whicn is illustrated is oj' a type similar to that wl-~ic;n is sho~n in U~S~ patent 3,545,a~5-~
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,' Thus, the cups 12a and 12b respectively have not only the outer .
side ed~e rec~ions t~Jhich are respectively ~ixed wi-th the side . portions 14a and 14b but also inner side edge reg.ions which are adjacent each other. These inner side edge xegions of th2 `, cup have uppex edge sections 30a and 30b which conv2rge downwardl~
~; toward each other and lower edge sections 32a an~ 32b which diverge dow~rardly at~a~ from each other. The u~per edge section 30~ of the cup 12a forms a continuation.o~ the lower e~ge section , 32b of the cup 12b, ti7nile the up~er edge section 30~ of the cu.p 10 i' 12b ~orms a continuation of a lower edge section 32a of the cu~
. 12a, and these continuous edge sections are made o~ an elastic stretchable material. I-t will be noted that the bo~tom .ends of these edge sections are fixed also to the stretch band 26.
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: ,. These continuous edge sections of the inner side regions of the ~, cups of course cross each other as illustrated in~the dxat~Lng, : , and at the region where they cross each other they are separate . l~ from each other, in the manner shown in greater detail in the t : 'i, a'~ove U.S. patent 3,545,4a5. As a result o~ this eature while ~; ~ll the breasts are maintained ~irml~ in place, nevertheless there I ~:20 ¦¦ is a considerable freedom oS movement and considerable comfort. ,~

". The illustrated brassiere 10 also includes a substantially~
. triangular body 3~ oi s-tretchable sheet materiàl~ This body 34 ; ~.~is s~itched to the ed~e sections 32a an~ 32b, while extending .; therebet~7een. This hod~ of sheet ~aterial 34 has a 10~7er region hich is also stitched to the stretch band 26 :~hus, while the above-desc.ribed brassiere will achieve ~- all of the advantages o~ the b:~assiere as shown in U.S. - .
patent 3,545,a~5, it t~7ill also ~rovide addit;onal advantages as is aL~parent from a comparison o~ FIG. 1 w.ith FIGS. 2 and 3. Thus,~.
the stretch ~and 25 o the brassiere o~ the invention will serve . ~
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108915~ 1 reliably to anchor the brassiere to t'nc body of ~he w~arer, keeping the breasts in place ~hen the ~earer moves, hends, or raises her arm3.
r~hus, when ~'7itll a conventional bras.siere the ~Jearer throws her shoulders bac};, the tendency i.s for the cups to move apart fro~ each o,ner, thus causincJ the upper parts of the cups also LO rnove apart from each othex with the result that a con~entional brassiere necessarily ~ields in such a way that the lower part of such a conventional brassiere moves upwardly.
O* course, if the wearer of a conventional brassiexe raises her arms, then also the entire brassiere will ride upwardly on the body o~ the wearer. ~lhen under these conditions the wearer o li a conventional brassiere returns the body to its normal positio~, !
the conventional brassiere does not return to the position from hich it has been displaced, so that the brassiere stays in the position to which it has slipped u~wardl~, ~Jith the result that considerable discom*ox~ is encountered and the brassiere gathers together benea-th the breasts at a locacion displaced upwardly ~ro~ its initial location.
20 ,~ In contrast, with the brassiere o~ the invention i*
body movements such as t'nrowing back of the shoulders tend to stretch the brassiere horizontally at its ~ront part, the stretch band 26 will respond by stretching so as to assume, or exa-.lple, a condition as illustrat~d in ~IG~ 2 ~.J~ere the stretch band has become elongated and *urther stretched to ~-provide between the fastener por~ions the distance L' wnich is greater than the distance L shown in FIG. 1. Thus, as such : ~
. ~ stretching talies place the stretcn band of the invention grips . ,.
the hody ~lith a greatex fo-ce and oppOSe5 any tendency o~ the ~: . ~7~
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brassiere l:o ride u~ th~ body of the ~earer while a-c the same .

time yivincf t'ne bra~ssiere the capability o contractin~ back co its conaition sho~n in FIG. 1 whcn t-he ~learer resumPs the :' normal body ~osition.
,i I:E the t~earer should, for ex~nple, raise her arms, jj then a condition as sho~7n in FIG. 3 will be provided. Thus, it will be noted in FIG. 3 ~hat the discance ~' fxo.~ the tops of il the cups ~o the bottom e~ge o~ the stretch band is ~reater than ' the distance H indicated in FIG. 1. Thus in this case also . because of the elastic gripping of the body by the stretch -band, the stretch band 26 will oppose any tendency of the i brassiere to ride upwardly along the body, and instead it is the up~ex regions of the side portions 14a, particularly at ,. . ~
their narrow parts ~'nich extend along the upper outer side . edge regions of the cup ~hich yield, the bottom o~ the~brassiere ,;
remaining in a substantially unc'nanyed position and at its initial location, as is apparent fro~ a comparison of F~GS. 1 ¦
, and 3. Thus, in th.is case also ~hen the shoulders are lowered '~ in response to downward movement of t'ne arms, when the wearer ~ 20 ~ resumes a normal position, the bottor?. o~ the brassier has not ; ~ shifted from its initial posi-tion s.ince it was retained in this position by the elas'cic s~retch band 26 of the invention, ~; ; Instead it is the upper elastic side porcions l~a and 14b ~Yhich contract while the brassiere returns to its initial condi-tion.
of course part OI this stretchiny to provide the condition `-; illustrated in FIG . 3 is alsQ ta,~en up by -the elastic back portion lGa and 16h. However, the imporcant ,-eature of the ~ invention is that t';le continuous 5tretch band 26 serves to !:

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' m~in~:ain the botto~ o:E ~he brassiere in a substantially unchanged `~ location irrespective of movernents o~ the body ~7hich might j resul-. in condi~ions as i.llustrated in FIGS 2 and 3 ox in ', combinations of the movements which rnight result in combinations i~ of these conditions. Thus il the wearer raises only one arm ..
or in co~bination with raising one arm should twist the body about the waist, or i any other ~.ovemen-ts, such as ~ending movemen~s are made either by themselves or in combination wit'n ~1 other movements, nevertheless the brassiex~of the invention will ~
1 effectively remain substantially at its initial location so as ¦ :
to avoid any possible discomLort which might result irom riding up of the brassiere.
; It is particularly to be noted that the elastic i~
~ , stretch band 26 os the invention is a xelati~ely inexpensive - 1~ co.~ponent which nee~ only be con-tinuously stitched to the lower i~
', part o~ the brassiere, so that the stretch band of the invention ~-1l can be joined to the remainder of t~,e brassiere at a very low :~ li cost. Thus from the standpoint o~ materials as well as labor the cost of the brassiere is hardly increasea by provi~ing the 20 ! brassiere with the structure of the invention~
~ Furthermore, as is pa~ticulaxly apparent ~rom F~G. 4, ; when the brassiere is worn the stretch band 26 will create no particulax discomfoxt particula~iy at the s~in of the wearer.
0~ course the stretch band 26 of the brassiere o~ ¦
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. the invention need not necessarily be used only with a brassiexe '. :
o the type illustrated and sho~7n in the above U.5. patent 3,5a5,~45~ l~nile the stAretch band o~ the invention does indeed . . I
present certain advantages when used wi-th this par-iicular tyDe -' ', .
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` ~0~9152 I
,~ o br~ssiere, because in e~:fect ihe portion of th~ stretch band .
26 e~iending to tlle riyht in FIG. 1 beyond the edge section 32b forms an extension of the latter, while the portion of the strctch band extellding to the left be~ond the edge section 32a forms an extension o~ this edge section, nevertheless the ¦ stretch band of the invention can be used ~Jith many di~ferent ; types o brassleres, even those which do no~ necessarily have j, the details of the particular brassiere shown in the arawing~.
¦J It is preferred, ho~,Jever, to use the stretch band of the 10 , in~ention with this paxticular type of brassiere because with j~ this particular construction when the upper edge sec-tion 30a il is stretched, this stretc'niny is transmitted without interruption j', from the section 30a along the section 32b and then along the ~, lo~Jer right portion of the stretch band 26 in FIG. 1 where it . extends to the right beyond the lo~er edge section 32b o~ the " rigllt cup 12b of FIG. 1. In the same way stretching of ~he '~ upper edge section 30b will be transmittea along the lower ¦l edge section 32a of the left cup OL FIG, 1 ~ro~ thls lower .I jl edge section 32a alon~ the part of ihe stretch band 26 which 3 20 !¦ extends from this lower ed~e section 32a all the way up ~o the 1.3, fastener portion 24a. Thus with this particular ~pe of '~ brassiere the stre-tch ~and 26 is of particular advantage because ~
it permits the independent stretching o~ the inner edge sections !
. , i o~ the cups to be transmitted continuously all the way up to li the ~astener portions.

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Claims (5)

1. A brassiere comprising:
an elongated continuous stretch band extending along the lower region of the brassiere;
a pair of cups fixed to said stretch band, a pair of stretchable side and back portions attached to the associated cup and stretch band;
a pair of fastener portions attached to the associated side and back portions;
a pair of stretchable shoulder straps fastened t?
and extending from the upper region of an associated cup to the rear of the associated side and back portion;
a pair of stretchable inner facing cup edges, including upper regions converging downwardly towards each other and lower regions diverging downwardly away from each other and fixed to said stretch band at positions spaced apart from each other, the upper region of the edge of one cup being a continua-tion of the lower region of the edge of the other cup, said edge overlapping at an intersection spaced apart from said stretch band, said edges being at least partially separate from each other at said intersection; and a substantially triangular body of stretchable sheet material situated between the intersection and the lower region of said edges and fixed to the lower regions of the cup edges and stretch band.

2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said triangular body of sheet material has a lower edge region fixe?
to said stretch band at a central portion thereof.

3. The combination of claim 2 and wherein said side and back portions are made of a stretchable sheet material capable of stretching and contracting together with said stretch band.

4. The combination of claim 3 and wherein said shoulder straps include elongated portions fixed to and extending along upper edge regions of said back portions up to said fastener portions where said shoulder straps terminate in free ends respectively fixed to said fastener portions.

5. A brassiere having a pair of cups, opposed side portions connected to and extending laterally from said cups with the latter being situated between said side portions, and a pair of back portions respectively ex-tending from said side portions and terminating in free ends, a pair of stretchable shoulder straps extending from upper parts of said back portions to upper parts of said cups, and a pair of fastener portions fixed to said free ends of said back portions and forming a releasable fastener means for fastening the brassiere on the wearer at the back of the wearer, said cups as well as said side and back portions all having lower regions distributed along the bottom of the brassiere, the improve-ment comprising an elongated continuous stretch band fixed to and extend-ing continuously along said lower regions of said cups and side and back portions and terminating in free ends respectively fixed to said fastener portions, said stretch band being in a stretched condition when the brassiere is worn with said fastener portions attached to each other, whereby said stretch band serves to anchor the brassiere to the body of the wearer to oppose undesirable displacement of the brassiere due to lateral or vertical movements of the body, or combinations of such move-ments, said cups respectively having outer side edge regions connected with said opposed side portions, respectively, and inner side edge regions situated adjacent each other, said inner side edge regions of said cups respectively having upper elongated side sections which converge downwardly toward each other and lower elongated edge sections which diverge downwardly away from each other and terminate in lower ends spaced apart from each other and fixed to said stretch band, the upper edge section of one cup forming a continuation of the lower edge section of the other cup, and the upper edge section of the other cup forming a continuation of the lower edge section of said one cup, said edge sections at said inner side edge regions of said cups being stretchable along their entire lengths, and said edge sections at said inner side edge regions of said cups crossing each other at the intersection between said downwardly converging and downwardly diverging parts thereof, the intersection spaced apart from said stretch band, said edge sections where they cross each other being at least partly separate from each other and a substantially triangular body of stretchable sheet material situated between and fixed to the downwardly diverging lower edge sections of said cups to afford independ-ent stretching of each of the continuous edge sections, the upper elongated stretchable edge sections which converge downwardly toward each other respectively having upper ends connected to said non-stretch-able shoulder straps at said upper parts of said cups, so that an up-ward pull at either shoulder strap will be transmitted diagonally downwardly across the front of the brassiere along a continuous stretch-able edge section to the stretch band toward that side of the body which is opposite from the side where the upwardly pulled shoulder strap is located.