GB2189375A - A garment - Google Patents

Abstract

A garment for shaping the lower human torso, comprises a front cloth 1, 2, 3, in which at least the areas excluding a central abdominal portion are stretchable, and a stretchable rear cloth 4, 5. The front cloth comprises at least three cloth pieces including a central front piece 1 and left-side 2 and right-side 3 front pieces extending symmetrically about said central front piece in a direction linking the groin with the iliac spine, said front side pieces being folded double at their hem edges, the main stretching direction of said front side pieces being parallel to said folded edges A-A, and there being a strip of elastic material sewn along the respective hem edges of the garment excluding the folded edges of said front side pieces. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A garment This invention relates to a garment for shaping the lower human torso, and in particular to a woman's garment for producing a desired shape in the waist and buttock region, e.g. a panty girdle, body suit or swimming suit.

A conventional garment, such as a girdle, of this type for shaping the body figure is made so as to stretch and tightly fit on the skin of a wearer for controlling the appearance thereof, and a known panty girdle is provided with an elastic band sewn on the entire circumference of the hem edge.

Therefore, since the contracting movement of the skin is especially large on the inside of the thighs, the elastic band tends to dig into the inside of the thighs and feels uncomfortable to a wearer.

Furthermore a gap can be formed between the thigh and abdominal portions to disadvantageously affect the fit of the garment. In another known panty girdle, in order to prevent the hem edges of the girdle from digging into the thigh skin in the bending motion of the legs in sitting or standing, a V-cut stretch lace is fitted to the cuff edges of the girdle or a stretch lace, such as nylon Raschel, is fitted to the entire cuff edges. In such cases, however, the cuff edges can be turned up to defectively affect the sense of stability. An example of such a conventional girdle is shown in Figure 5 of the accompanying drawings.

According to the invention there is provided a garment for shaping the lower human torso, comprising a front cloth, in which at least the areas excluding a central abdominal portion are stretchable, and a stretchable rear cloth, said front cloth comprising at least three cloth pieces including a central front piece and left-side and right-side front pieces extending symmetrically about said central front piece in a direction linking the groin with the iliac spine, said front side pieces being folded double at their hem edges, the main stretching direction of said front side pieces being parallel to said folded edges, and there being a strip of elastic material sewn along the respective hem edges of the garment excluding the folded edges of said front side pieces.

By means of this arrangement, at least in its preferred forms, there is provided a garment freed of the digging-in and oppressive feeling on the skin at the cuff ends of known girdles and body suits, which fits comfortably on the skin, not impairing the locomotive movements in sports and other activities and giving satisfactory and stable feeling without causing any turning up of the hem edges.

Preferably each folded edge of said front side pieces comprises between 0.25 and 0.5 of a respective whole hem-edge circumference, and the seam length of each said front side piece with a crotch gusset is at least 1 cm, and the maximum width of said front side pieces is less than 8 cm.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, eyen if the shaping-up of the abdominal portion is emphasized, the thrusting of the cuff edges into the groin areas of the inner thighs can be prevented and the natural roundish line of the plump flesh crest on the pubis can be emphasized to beautifully shape up the line, by employing a stretchable nylon or polyurethane cloth for the front and rear pieces, and enhancing the lateral elasticity of the central front piece and rear piece, using the same stretchable cloth as that employed above to line at least part of the central front piece.

Furthermore, the abdominal portion can be shaped by employing a decoration cloth consisting of nylon-Raschel lace or others for the central front piece and/or lining the central front piece with a reinforcing cloth, and the soft skin touch of the duplicated left- and right-side front pieces can be appropriately modified by using a different fabric from that of the rear and central front pieces. As to the reinforcing cloth, use can be made of a directional elastic material laterally unstretchable but longitudinally stretchable or the shape of the cloth can be appropriately selected according to the body figure to be shaped such as a diamond, heart, inverted triangular, inverted pentagonal or leaf shape.

Moreover, in another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the natural roundish shape of the hip can be clearly shown through the garment by employing a single molded material piece according to the hip shape as a consolidated rear and crotch piece.

In a yet another embodiment of the present invention, wherein a double elastic stretchable cloth doubley folded back along the waist edge is applied to the waist edge, in place of the elastic band to be lined, any oversqueeze or intrusion onto the waist and thighs or thrusting into skin in sports and other activities is prevented and, thus, natural and comfortable wear feeling excellent in the locomotive function can be afforded to those first time girdle wearers feeling the tightness of the girdle and preferring softfittedness.

Some embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a pattern for a panty girdle according to a first embodiment of the invention, Figure 2 shows a frohtview of a panty girdle made from the pattern of Figure 1, Figure 3 shows a pattern for a panty girdle according to a second embodiment of the invention, and Figure 4 shows a pattern for a body suit according to a further embodiment of the invention.

In Figure 1, there is shown the cloth pattern for a high-leg type girdle according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein 1 is a central front piece, and 2 and 3 indicate, respectively, a left-side front piece and right-side front piece which have been folded double along the lines A-A. Thus, the central front piece 1 and the left-side and right-side front pieces 2,3 constitute a front cloth. Also, the half rear pieces 4, 5 form a rear cloth, and a crotch gusset is indicated by 6 and consists of a cloth, such as nylon or polyurethane, having a main elastic stretchability in the direction indicated by the arrow mark in the figure. The left-side and right-side front pieces have lengths along the lines A-A of between 1/2 and 1/4 of the entire circumference of the hem edges.The main elastic stretching directions Of the front side pieces 2,3 are made substantially in parallel to lines A-A, as shown by the arrows, to give a natural fitting feeling toward the skin. The laterally symmetrical left- and right-side front pieces 2,3 are sewn onto the crotch gusset 6 for a length of 1 cm or more and extend in the directions ofthe lines from the groin to the iliac spines, and the greatest width of the side front pieces is defined as 8 cm or less to prevent the side front pieces from too loosely fitting to the skin and the shaping-up effect to the central abdominal portion from falling off. By constructing the girdle in such a manner, the soft fitting of the girdle to the groin is ensured and the roundish belly on the pubic bone is prevented from being pressed down.On account of these measures, the girdle does not give any stiff feeling to the wearer but proves to be satisfactory even to those wearers putting on the girdle for the first time or disiiking the normal stiffness of a girdle.

In the embodiment of Figure 1 the same fabric is used for the various cloth pieces, however the soft fitting of the garment can be appropriately modified by employing different fabrics for these pieces, for example, power-net cloth may be used for the leftand right-side front pieces. In the example shown in Figure 1 ,the back side of the central front piece is lined with a cloth having an omnidirectional elastic stretchability for shaping the abdominal portion. On the other hand, the central front piece itself can also be variously modified, for example, by separating it into two subpieces at the abdominal center line or replacing a part of it with a non-stretchable satin net to improve the gas permeability.Additionally, the crotch gusset can be changed, for instance, by lining it with a soft polynosic cloth or constituting the crotch itself with a wooly nylon mesh. Moreover, since no hem treatment for preventing edge fraying is required the folded hem edges of the twn side front pieces the production of them is advantageously simple, and the double hem edges fit stably the skin without any hem treatment. On the other hand, in the past when these side pieces were made one-layered, the hems tended to be turned up since they were unstable.

Figure 3 shows another embodiment of a panty girdle. In this example, whereas the constructions of the left- and right-side front pieces 2,3 are similar to those in the panty girdle shown in Figures 1 and 2, the waist edge is fitted with a long cloth 8 having a horizontal elastic stretchability and being doubled back along the line BB. On account of this folded construction, the waist edge does not dig into the skin nor become longitudinally creased and the soft fittedness is extended not only to the thigh portions but also to the waist portion. Furthermore the rear cloth and crotch gusset may be consolidated as a single stretchable cloth three-dimensionally'molded in correspondence with the hip belly.By this molding, the naturally roundish curve of the hip is distinctly exhibited and the girdle is made comfortable to wear. Therefore, the panty girdle in Figure 3 is especially suitable to those ladies wearing a girdle fortheflrst time or disliking a stiff wear feeling.

Additionally, for a baclyfigure requiring buildingup molding in the hip portion in this example, the cloth from the hi;v-rnidslope to the hem can be optionally reinforced with ~a power net or the like.

FurthermorX the-central front piece can also be appropriately modified for example by attaching lace decoration cloth tithe portion surrounded by the chain line or lining the portion-with a cloth vertically stretchable but horizontally unstretchable.

Figure 4 shows a third embodiment wherein the present invention is applied to a body suit (the brassiere portion is omitted). In the present example, the portion indicated by the chain line in the central front piece 1 is formed of a nonstretchable Raschel lace so that the body line can be controlled by shaping the abdominal and waist portion, When it is desired to make the surrounded portion somewhat softer, the portion can be iined with a power net. Furthermore, in the present example, the rear cloth is constituted by the rear pieces 9, 10, and the rear pieces 11, 12 are combined respectively with a half-crotch portion.By means of such cutting of the rear cloth, the hip figure is three-dimensionally shaped up in accordance with the applicants' invention described in Japanese Patent Application No.274,234184 (publication ne. 152802/86). The portion corresponding to the C--C line in Figure 3 i5 sewn on and lined with an elastic cloth so as to form shrink wrinkles. Similarly to those in the examples described above, the left- and-right-side front pieces 2,3 of this body suit are folded double along the lines A-A so as to exhibit their main elasticstretchability in the directions of these arrow lines and extend along the lines from the groin to the iliac spines.Therefore, the suit corresponds satisfactorily to the locomotive movement of the thigh quadriceps without digging into the inner thighs, and is excellent in the stability against the turning up of the hem edges by virtue of the twofold edge construction. Incidentally, the lining of elastic tapes to the portions other than the twofold portions at the hem edges and the dimensions of the two fold cloths should be appropriately dealt with in correspondence with the examples shown in Figures 1 to 3.In addition, the constructions indicated in these figureW can also be optionally introduced, onto the bbdysuit At least in its preferred forms, the garment according to the present invention is satisfactorily stable against the turning up of the hem edges without causing any digging into the inner thighs, and functions weil with the locomotive movement of the body. The garrnbnt pot tions most likely to dig into the skin, due bathe motion of the inside thigh, are folded back double and made to fit the body at the wide ,bortions thereof and no elastic band is sewn-on the-hefnedges. Thus, the garment does not squeeze rotor Compress the belly of the fleshy portion on the pubic bone but three-dimensionally and naturally shapes Up *ie body of the wearer without impai ring thetotorhQtlve function of the legs in sports or other pursuits. Moreover, these is no necessity to sew any special elastic band in the leftand right-side front pieces, and no edge treatment is needed against the fraying of the hem edges. Thus, the manufacture of the garment is very simple.

Claims (14)

1. A garment for shaping the lower human torso, comprising a front cloth, in which at least the areas excluding a central abdominal portion are stretchable, and a stretchable rear cloth, said front cloth comprising at least three cloth pieces including a central front piece and left-side and right-side front pieces extending symmetrically about said central front piece in a direction linking the groin with the iliac spine, said front side pieces being folded double at their hem edges, the main stretching direction of said front side pieces being parallel to said folded edges, and there being a strip of elastic material sewn along the respective hem edges of the garment excluding the folded edges of said front side pieces.

2. A garment as claimed in claim 1 wherein each folded edge of said front side pieces comprises between 0.25 and 0.5 of a respective whole hemedge circumference.

3 A garment as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the seam length of each said front side piece with a crotch gusset is at least 1 cm, and the maximum width of said front side pieces is less than 8 cm.

4. A garment as claimed in claim 1,2 or 3 wherein said front cloth and said rear cloth comprise the same stretchable fabric material and at least the greater part of said central front piece is lined with a fabric having a similar elasticity of that of said stretchable fabric.

5. A garment as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said central front piece is fitted with a decoration fabric or reinforcing fabric.

6. A garment as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the waist edge thereof comprises a doubly elastic stretchable cloth folded back along the waist line and is not lined with any elastic band.

7. A garment as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said rear cloth is three-dimensionally molded by a mold press.

8. A garment as claimed in any preceding claim comprising a unified rear cloth and crotch gusset of the same fabric material three-dimensionally molded by a mold press.

9. A garment as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said central front piece comprises a cloth of longitudinally stretchable but laterally nonstretchable material.

10. A garment as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said rear cloth is reinforced with an elastic cloth of different elasticity.

11. A garment as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said crotch gusset is made of a fabric of mesh structure and the back side thereof is lined with polynosicfabric.

12. A garment substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.

13. A garment substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings.

14. A garment substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings.