Garments Design and Clothing Comfort | Types and Factors of Clothing Comfort

Last Updated on 20/02/2021

Garments Design and Clothing Comfort: Types and Factors

Lopa Ajrin Mitu
KCC Women’s College (Affiliated by Khulna University) Khulna, Bangladesh
Email: lopaajrinmitu@gmail.com

 

Introduction
Clothing is the most important necessity of day-today human life. Without food a person can survive for few days but without clothing it is no possible to survive in the civilized environment. The role of clothing are multipurpose e.g. to protect human body form different environmental conditions. To lead civilized life. To feels comfort. To increase attractiveness. To save human body form unusual situation etc. If we want to understand the clothing and design of clothing etc.

Garments design
Garment design is related to beauty of clothing as well as also related to effectiveness. When we buy clothing, we are careful to its beauty, color, design, fashion etc. matters as well as its expected effectiveness. Garment design may vary depending on age, as well as environmental condition.

Garments design for extremely cold weather is very important. Under such situation design of the clothing should be such that air can’t pass through or’ get in easily through the collar, cuff, ankle, front opening and waist opening. If zipper is used in the clothing, should be protected from water and air getting inside through zipper, by using flap on the zipper. The width of flap should be wider to operate zipper and flap when hand gloves are used. Velcro is used instead of zipper for the manufacture of clothing for very old age people and for child’s, which are very easy to operate for them.

Use of Velcro in the clothing has advantage of easy operation but also have some disadvantages, for example, the hook part of the Velcro damages the fabric surface by combing action of the hooks and dirt is deposited in the hooks during washing as a result the performance of the Velcro is reduced.

For the hot weather, clothing is made from very light weight fabric, especially clothing made from very light weight cotton fabric is comfortable to use.

At the end of it could be concluded that the comfort ability of the clothing is related to weigh of weight of clothing, thickness of clothing, heat resistant property of clothing, flexibility or softness of clothing and design of clothing.

Definition of clothing comfort
Clothing comfort is a state of mind when it is at its lowest stress level. Comfort is defined as the absence of perceived pain- and discomfort. Clothing comfort is a state of satisfaction indicating physiological, psychological and physical balance among the person. Balanced process of heat exchange between the human body, the clothing system and the environment. Thermal comfort as an expression of mind that expresses satisfaction with the environment- ASHRAE.

clothing comfort
Fig: Clothing comfort

History of clothing comfort

  • As old as human being
  • People adjusted their clothing according to need
  • Turban in tropical area is an example for protection from ultra violet rays (10 -400 nm)
  • Heavy clothing for North Pole people
  • Dress variation is based on need of comfort
  • Climatic variation pushed people to have different clothing

Emergence of clothing comfort science

  • US army established labs to develop clothing suitable from -50 to 50 °C after WWI
  • ARMY NATICK LABS USA, big contribution
  • First book “Psychology of clothing” on clothing comfort by J C Flugel in 1930.

Types of clothing comfort

  1. Thermal… heat and mass transfer ,
  2. Sensorial…tactile, touching, hand-feel,
  3. Movement…movement of body parts,
  4. Social… status, forces dress,
  5. Psychological…aesthetic sense,
  6. Design is different for kids and old people, colorful dress of ladies,
  7. Functional…helpful for any function, firefighter dress,

Main types of comfort

clothing comfort
Fig: Main types of comfort

Factors determining clothing comfort

  1. External
  2. Internal

1. External

  • Ambient temperature
  • Wind speed
  • Moisture in environment
  • Globe temperature
  • Cultural
  • Overall environment

2. Internal

  • Metabolic rate
  • Level of activities
  • Health position
  • Economic position
  • Social experiences
  • Psychological situation

Thermal discomfort

  • Accumulation of heat in micro climate(between the skin and clothing)
  • Change in skin temperature more than 35°C and less than 30°C
  • Accumulation of sweat on the skin

Used for

Clothing requirement dependents

  • Activities level, Economic background, Social status
  • Age and level of health, Environment, Weather, Certain situation (bridal dress etc.)
  • Faith, Religion, Territorial, culture,
  • Many more factors.

Further material for reading

  1. Introduction to clothing comfort
  2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/30439784/Introduction-to-Clothing-Comfort
  3. Clothing comfort: A key parameter in clothing
  4. http://www.ptj.com.pk/Web-2012/01-2012/January-2012-PDF/Apparel-and-Knitwear-Tanveer-Malik.pdf

References

  1. http://ashrae.org/about-ashrae/
  2. Hes, L.,Thermal comfort properties of textile fabrics in wet state , in Proc. Izmir Internat. Textile and Apparel Symposium 2007: Cesme (Turkey).
  3. Li, M., et al.Factor Analysis on Subjective Attributes Affecting Knitted Fabric’s Comfort Sensation. in First International Workshop on Database Technology and Applications. 2009
  4. Celcar, D., H. Meinander, and J. Gersˇak,Heat and moisture transmission properties of clothing systems evaluated by using a sweating thermal manikin under different environmental conditions. International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, 2008.20(4):p. 240-252.

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  3. Comfort, Appearance and Durability of Fabrics
  4. Clothing for Extreme Cold Conditions – An Overview
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  6. Clothing Physiology: Effects of Clothing on Human Body

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