US2651037A

US2651037A - Foundation garment

Info

Publication number: US2651037A
Application number: US265945A
Authority: US
Inventors: Lewis Benn
Original assignee: LEWEL Manufacturing Co Inc
Current assignee: LEWEL Manufacturing Co Inc; LEWEL MANUFACTURING COMPANY Inc
Priority date: 1952-01-11
Filing date: 1952-01-11
Publication date: 1953-09-08
Anticipated expiration: 1970-09-08

Description

Sept 8, 1953 E. LEWIS 2,651,037

FOUNDATION GARMENT Filed Jan. 11, 195?,

INVENTOR.

EEN/V L E WIS ATTORNEY Patented Sept. 8, 1953 FOUNDATION GARMENT Benn Lewis, Maplewood, N. J., assgnor to The Lewel Manufacturing Company, Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New Jersey Application January 11, 1952, Serial No. 265,945

3 Claims. (Cl. .2-28) This invention relates to foundation garments.

It is an object of my invention to provide a foundation garment which in addition to the usual supporting and restraining functions will impart to the wearer a stylish nipped-in waist.

It is another object of my invention to provide foundation garment of the ycharacter described which has but few more parts than a conventional undergarment, is inexpensive to manufacture, and simple to put on and adjust.

Other objects of my invention will in part be obvious and in part will be pointed out hereinafter.

My invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the foundation garment hereinafter described and of which the scope of application will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings, in which is shown one of the various possible embodiments of invention,

Fig. 1 is a front view of a lay gure wearing a girdle constructed in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a rear view of said gure;

3 is an enlarged rear view of the upper half of the girdle as it appears when laid on a plane surface;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional View taken substantially along the line 4-4 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a perspective View of a buckle which constitutes one of the parts of said girdle.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the reference numeral lil denotes a foundation garment embodying the present invention.

The foundation garment, by way of example, may comprise a corset, corselette, pantie girdle or girdle. For the sake of simplicity, the invention has been shown in the accompanying drawings and will be described herein as embodied in a girdle.

rlhe foundation garment includes a sheath for encircling the body from above the umbilicus to below the hips. Said sheath, per se may be of conventional construction. It may comprise a vertically elongated tube including circumferentially resilient portions. In the preferred form oi my invention the tube is made in one piece out of circumferentially resilient material, for instance being knitted of resilient yarn and therefore being longitudinally resilient as well. Such a girdle is commonly known as a two-way stretch girdle. It should be understood, however, that the foundation garment need not be longitudinally or circumierentially resilient nor of a single piece of material. If desired, the foundation garment may consist of several panels, as is customary, including both resilient and nonresilient panels, the non-resilient panels, oi course, being fabricated from a flexible material such, for instance, as cloth. Indeed, it often may be desirable to include a vertically non-resilient panel so as to enhance the conventional gureshaping function of the garment. To this end I may incorporate a vertically elongated diamond shaped panel l2 of non-resilient cloth superimposed and stitched on to the front of the girdle with the longitudinal axis of the diamond coincident with the longitudinal front center line of the girdle.

The overall contour of the foundation garment is principally convention-al; that is to say, where, as here, the sheath consists of a tube of knitted elastic material, the diameter of the tube from top to bottom is, in general, uniform so that if the tube were laid on a plane surface, its two side edges would constitute straight lines parallel to one another. In the event that at least a substantial portion of the sheath constitutes nonelastic flexible panels, the sheath when laid on a plane surface would have its side edges outwardly bowed with the maximum width in the vicinity of the hips.

In a conventional foundation garment the width of the sheath near the top edge either is uniform, as is the case if the sheath is a tubular elastic knit fabric, or the width gradually reduces toward the top edge in the event that at least a substantial portion oi the sheath consists of flexible non-resilient fabric panels. However, in aocordance with a feature of the present invention the sheath is constricted near the top edge as inw dicated at I4 in Fig. 3, the constriction being present in the garment as manufactured, i. e. before it is donned.

The lower edge of the constriction is at or slightly above the region of the foundation garment corresponding to the portion of the body immediately above the pelvis, i. e. the portion oi the body in the plane of the umbilicus. The constriction, although sharp, is not abrupt and extends upwardly for a comparatively short distance, e. g. about one and one-half inches, the plane l of minimum width being about centrally disposed between the upper and lower edges of the constriction. At the plane of minimum width the sheath is approximately three-quarters of an inch narrower than above and below the `constriction, i. e. about three-eighths of an inch to a side. The upper edge of the constriction is well below the upper edge of the garment, e. g. about two inches. In other words, the garment is so constructed as to have a constricted zone whose lower edge is in the region of the umbilicus, said Zone extending vertically approximately one and one-half inches. The construction of the remainder of the garment, ysave for said constricted zone, is conventional except as will be pointed out hereinafter.

The constriction may be provided in any suitable manner well known to the art. For instance, in the eventl that non-elastic panels are used, the constriction can be formed by suitably cutting the panels. Where, as here, the sheath consists of a single continuous tube of elastic knitted material on which the fabric panel l2 simply is superimposed and stitched, the constricted zone can be fashioned in the knitting process, for instance, either by decreasing the number of stitches in the knitting process as the plane of minimum width is approached and thereafter increasing the number of stitches, or by increas" ing the tension in the yarn as said plane is approached and reducing tension as the plane is left.

In accordance with another feature of my invention the foundation garment includes a circumferential belt i8. .Said belt is longitudinaliy resilient, i. e. resilient circumferentially of the girdle, optionally being non-resilient transversely. Preferably the belt is less yielding, i. e. harder to stretch, than the underlying part of the sheath. The belt is comparatively narrow, e. g. in the order of an inch. The bottom edge of ti e belt is between the plane of minimum width the lower edge of the constriction.

A portion of the belt intermediate its ends, e. g. the center of the belt, is permanently sccured to the outside of the sheath, preferably at the front, for instance by rows of stitching i9 which hold the panel l2 in place, said part of the belt being concealed beneath the panel for the Sake of appearance. The two ends of the belt are free. It may be mentioned at this point that, if desired, the belt may be made into two parts with each part having an end secured to the sheath, the space between these ends preferably being fashioned of a circumferentially nonresilient material.

The sheath and belt are provided with interengageable means for detachably couplingr the ends of the belt to the sheath with the belt under tension. More particularly, each free end of the belt has mounted thereon a buckle including three

parallel bars

22, 24, joined to one another along one set of ends by a transverse bar 28, the other set of ends being free. One outer bar 22 has its free end provided with a retroverted nger whose tip is aligned with and spaced from the free end of the short middle bar 2li. The finger 30 forms a hook. The other outer bar 2E has its free end provided with a .right angle finger 32 extending toward the bar 22. 'The adjacent edges of the outer bar 26 and middle bar 24 include disaligned humps (it, 36.

Each free end of the belt has its tip turned back and stitched as indicated in Fig. 4 to provide a vertical loop 38 open at its top and bottom. Each loop has an outer bar 22 inserted therein, the nger 3@ serving to hold the buckle against accidental displacement.

The sheath has secured thereto, as by stitching, a band 40 of any suitable material, optionally, but not necessarily, circumferentially elastic and, if elastic, less resilient than the sheath.

'I'his band is located in the same plane as the belt, i. e. in registry therewith. The band is so fashioned as -to provide a circumferentiallyspaced series of vertically extending pockets having their upper and lower ends open. This may be accomplished, for instance, by securing the ends of the band to the sheath, as with lines of stitching 42, and providing a series of rows of stitches 44 parallel to the stitching 42 and spaced at uniform intervals therebetween. The band, and therefore each of the pockets, has a height which is slightly less than the lengths of the outer bars 26 so that said bars at the two free ends of the belt can be inserted in any pair of selected pockets by a user. The fingers 32 prevent the bars 26 from accidentally slipping out of the pockets in which they have been inserted. However, the finger is not long enough to interfere with deliberate action of the wearer in inserting or removing a bar from a pocket.

The combined length of the belt and band exceeds the circumference of the sheath at the constricted zone when the foundation garment is not being worn, in the event that the sheath is constituted of a knitted elastic tube. However, said combined length is considerably less than the waist measurement of the wearer in the plane of the umbilicus so that the belt and band will exert a constricting force. The amount of constriction exercised can be varied selectively by placing the bars 26 in different pockets. rhe maximum constriction is attained when the two bars are in immediately adjacent pockets and minimum constriction when the two bars are in the outermost pockets.

The joint effect of the narrow belt in the plane of the umbilicus and the constricted zone of the girdle in said plane is to nip in the body of the wearer with comparative abruptness immediately above the pelvic region thereby providing stylish and desirable plateaus immediately above the hips. This appearance will be achieved by the use of either the constricted region of the sheath or the belt in the location specified. However, in accordance with the preferred form of my invention, both said means are employed to give a sharp, i. e. comparatively abrupt nip-in and thus a figure appearance of high style.

It thus will be seen that I have provided a foundation garment which achieves all the objects of my invention and is well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention, and as various changes might be made in the embodiment. above set forth, it is to be understood that all matter herein described, or shown in the accompanying drawings, is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

l. A foundation garment comprising a circumierentially resilient sheath for encircling the body in a region from above the umbilicus to below the hips, said sheath having a constricted portion below the upper edge of the garment in the region of the umbilicus, said garment being wider above and below said constricted portion, said constricted region being about one and a half inches wide and the maximum reduction in circunlrilference being about three-quarters of an inc 2. A foundation garment comprising a circumferentially resilient sheath for covering the 'torso from above the umbilicus to below the hips, said sheath having an upper edge and a lower edge,

.5 said sheath having a sharply constricted portion which extends circumferentially around the garment in a horizontal plane substantially coincident with the umbilicus, said constricted portion having an upper edge and a lower edge, the upper edge of said sheath being above the upper edge of said constricted portion and the lower edge of said sheath being below the lower edge of said constricted portion, said constricted p0rtion being about one and a half inches wide, a belt about one inch wide, means to attach said belt to the sheath at the eonstricted region of the garment and with portions of the belt extending around both sides of the garment, and means to adjustably tense the belt.

3. A foundation r'garment comprising` a creumu ferentially resilient sheath for covering 'the torso from above the umbilicus to below the hips, said sheath having an upper edge and a lower edge, said sheath having a sharply constricted portion which extends eircumferentially around the garment in a horizontal plane substantially coinci- 6 dent with the umbilicus, said constricted portion having an upper edge and a lower edge, the upper edge of said sheath being above the upper edge of said constricted portion and the lower edge of said sheath being below the lower edge of said constricted portion, a circumferentially resilient belt which is less resilient than the sheath, means to attach said belt to the sheath at the constricted region of the garment and with portions of the belt extending around both sides of the garment, and means to adjustably tense the belt.

BENN LEWIS.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 735,843 Temple Aug. 11, 1903 2,104,203 Levy Jan. 4, 1938 2,222,687 Rosenthal et al. Nov. 26, 1940 2,468,622 Glick Apr. 26, 1949