| Brassiere construction using multiple layers of fabric -> Monitor Keywords |
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Brassiere construction using multiple layers of fabricRelated Patent Categories: Foundation Garments, Breast Or Chest, E.g., BrassieresBrassiere construction using multiple layers of fabric description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070123147, Brassiere construction using multiple layers of fabric. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/248,787 filed on Oct. 11, 2005, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to fabrics and garments that provide support, shaping, and/or comfort to formable body areas, such as soft tissue areas. Body-shaping garments such as a brassiere or other body-shaping garment construction are fabricated with multiple layers of elastomeric fabric. [0004] 2. Summary of Related Art [0005] In the garment industry designers seek to develop women's body-shaping garments (e.g., brassieres, lingerie, girdles, stretch pants, and swimsuits) that are comfortable to wear, figure-enhancing, lightweight and aesthetically pleasing. In particular, brassiere constructions have two principal goals: (a) wearer comfort and (b) lift support for the breasts. The two principal goals can be mutually exclusive. [0006] A brassiere is an example of a garment that provides support, shaping, and/or comfort to a formable, soft tissue area. Various types of brassieres have been designed to be lightweight, comfortable and give breast support. Many brassieres incorporate stretchable or elastic materials for wearer comfort. However, many of these brassieres support the breasts by utilizing constrictive materials. For example, constrictive materials may press the breasts against the body with such pressure as to cause irritation and discomfort. Alternatively, constrictive materials may press, bend or poke the wearer's skin. Examples of such constrictive materials used in bra design include, but are not limited to, underwires, heavy elastic materials, pads and seams that press directly on the skin of the wearer. [0007] Additionally, while wearing a body-shaping garment, the wearer may experience several changes in the garment position as the body moves. These changes may impact negatively the comfort of the wearer. For example, the movement may cause the wearer to have areas where the body and the garment are not in direct contact. Furthermore, the garment may slide along the body as movement occurs. The separation of the garment from the formable body area during movement typically results in an undesirable loss of body shaping or support. In other words, when the garment moves as a result of body movement, it may fail to return to its original position. Comfort of the garment may be impacted as well. Wearer movement and resulting shifting of the garment may cause the wearer to reposition the garment back to its original position on the body to achieve original comfort and shaping [0008] U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,951 to Cole et al., entitled "Method of Fabricating Two Layer Cups and Brassiere," which issued Nov. 13, 1984, discloses a brassiere cup molded from two layers of stretchable materials. However, the resulting cup has a non-stretchable crown portion, a substantially non-stretchable longitudinal cup portion and a unitary multidirectional stretchable periphery. The lack of stretch in the cup after molding, limits wearer comfort and garment shaping ability. [0009] U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,462 to Smith et al., entitled "Fabric Laminate and Garments Incorporating Same," which issued Sep. 5, 1995, discloses a multiple-layer stretch fabric used to form discrete portions of a garment in which it is desired to provide certain control properties. Although the selective use of stretch control laminate fabrics provided a step forward in the art, the fabric laminates of the '462 patent are intended to be used only selectively and not over the entire body of the garment. If the materials of the '462 patent were used as the principal fabric forming the garment, either the garment would be too constricting, and/or the entire garment (rather than only selected portions of the garment) would have the same controlling features throughout. [0010] German Patent No. DE20114873, entitled "Brassiere," which published Nov. 11, 2001, discloses two padded bra cups that are at least partly isolated from each other. In addition, each padded bra cup includes two stretchable woven fabric layers. However, the two stretchable woven fabric layers are essentially flexible along only one axis (i.e., either along the X-axis or Y-axis, but not both). That is, the '873 patent discloses the inner and outer fabric layers are each only elastic in one direction while they exhibit in all other directions practically no or at least very little elasticity. Although the use of these stretchable woven fabrics was yet another step forward, the limitation of the stretchable direction to only one axis restricts the potential level of comfort and control provided by the brassiere formed with such fabrics. In addition, the '873 patent shows a woven fabric with capability of stretching in one direction rather than an elastomeric knit fabric that would have increased capability of stretching in multiple directions. Furthermore, brassieres with woven fabric cups are a niche market, with the majority of brassieres being made with knitted fabrics. [0011] U.S. patent application Publication No. 2005/0221718A1 to Falla entitled "Brassiere" published Oct. 6, 2005, discloses a brassiere that has two layers of fabric and an anchor support panel in the cup. The three layers are preferably made of fabric with one-way stretch. The anchor causes the brassiere to remain flat against the body of the wearer. The application teaches away from the garment of the present invention as it states that brassieres formed primarily of stretchable fabrics may not provide sufficient support. [0012] It should be noted that three dimensional shaping ability with minimal garment slippage on the body and dynamic body shaping typically is not available in body-shaping garments such as brassiere cup designs (e.g., cups made from two-ply stretchable fabrics). In fact in typical brassieres, wearer movement causes loss of shaping ability and garment slippage. Moreover, though body-shaping and brassiere constructions have been implemented with LYCRA.RTM. (a registered trademark of and commercially available from Invista S. a r. I. of Wichita, Kans. and Wilmington, Del.) elastane products, further improvement in the level of comfort, shaping ability and support of such LYCRA.RTM. spandex-based products is a desirable goal. [0013] Therefore, there is a need for body-shaping garments that have multiplelayers of elastomeric knitted fabrics, such as LYCRA.RTM. spandex-containing fabrics, or at least fabrics stretchable in more than one direction, that can provide improved comfort, shaping ability and support to the wearer. Such fabrics should stay in place as the wearer moves. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0014] Some embodiments utilize advances in the development of new fabrics in body-shaping garments including an engineered brassiere construction that contains multiple layers of fabric to provide for maximum comfort, shaping and control of the body of the wearer of a brassiere or other body shaping garment during movement and/or static conditions. It has been found advantageous to include multiple layers of particular materials in selected locations in a body-shaping garment such as a brassiere (e.g., bra cups or wings) in order to better provide the desirable features of comfort, body shaping and support. In the present invention, the layers of these fabrics may take on predetermined shapes and may be arranged in predetermined orientations relative to each other in the design of the cups of the brassiere construction. The layers of these fabrics may be used either alone or in combination with other materials that are sewn or otherwise applied to the fabrics. The layers of fabrics in the garment of the present invention may be molded. [0015] One embodiment provides a body-shaping garment, such as a brassiere, including: a breast-receiving cup having an inner fabric layer and an outer fabric layer. In addition, in this embodiment the inner fabric layer defines a first X-X' axis and first Y-Y' axis and the outer fabric layer defines a second X-X' axis and second Y-Y' axis, and the inner fabric layer and outer fabric layer are oriented such that the first X-X' axis of the inner fabric layer is at a first angle .THETA..sub.1 to the second X-X' axis of the outer fabric layer. In order to ensure that garments of the present invention have 3D shaping ability, minimal slippage on the body, and maximum wearer comfort, the fabrics used to make such garments may have particular isotropic hysteresis properties. Further, for this embodiment of the present invention, the inner fabric layer and the outer fabric layer together provide a material having hysteresis values for each fabric layer with an S value defined by: S = std .function. ( H L & .times. L , H W & .times. W , H L & .times. W ) mean .function. ( H L & .times. L , H W & .times. W , H L & .times. W ) .times. 100 .times. % .ltoreq. 10 .times. % . Considering that the hysteresis values of the inner and outer fabric layers must be added to determine the overall hysteresis value of the fabric, the combined hysteresis values of the inner and outer layer may suitably be less than about 20%. [0016] Further, in the above embodiment, the brassiere includes: a left cup; a left wing part; optionally a left shoulder strap; a bridge; a right cup; a right wing part; optionally a right shoulder strap; a fastener; and a mating fastener or hook band. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the left cup is attached at one edge to the left wing part and at an other edge to one end of the bridge, when present, the left shoulder strap is connected at one end to a distal end of the left wing part and at an other end to an upper part of the left cup, the right cup is attached at one edge to the right wing part and at an other edge to one end of the bridge, when present, the right shoulder strap is connected at one end to a distal end of the right wing part and at an other end to an upper part of the right cup. Moreover, the fastener is connected to the distal end of the right wing part and the mating fastener is connected to the distal end of the left wing part. [0017] Another embodiment includes a brassiere comprising a pair of cups, each of which further comprises an inner fabric layer and an outer fabric layer. In addition, the brassiere may include an angular orientation of the inner fabric layer relative to the outer fabric layer that can be determined by a value of a first angle, .THETA..sub.1. Further, the inner fabric layer and the outer fabric layer have sufficiently isotropic hysteresis as defined further in the specification that allows the brassiere to conform to movements of the breasts with minimal slippage on the body. [0018] The brassiere of some embodiments may be at least one of an unbanded underwire, a banded underwire, a hidden underwire, a demi-cup underwire, a soft cup invisible support and a triangle soft cup minimal bra. The pair of cups may be at least one of full, half or partial coverage type cups. The brassiere may also be molded. [0019] The inner layer of fabric defines crossed axes X.sub.4-X'.sub.4 and Y.sub.4-Y'.sub.4, and the outer layer of fabric defines crossed axes X.sub.6-X'.sub.6 and Y.sub.6-Y'.sub.6. A first angle .THETA..sub.1 is defined as the angle between axes X.sub.4-X'.sub.4 and X.sub.6-X'.sub.6. The first angle .THETA..sub.1 may vary from about 15 degrees to about 165 degrees. The second angle .THETA..sub.2 is defined as the angle between a direction of maximum elasticity of the outer fabric layer (i.e., X.sub.6 in FIG. 1) and a horizontal direction of the garment (i.e., X.sub.g in FIG. 1). The second angle .THETA..sub.2 can vary from 0 degrees tol80 degrees. [0020] Variation of the first angle .THETA..sub.1, the second angle .THETA..sub.2 and the isotropic hysteresis of each the inner fabric layer and outer fabric layer may determine the shaping, comfort and control of the brassiere. The first angle .THETA..sub.1 and the second angle .THETA..sub.2 may be predetermined in accordance with at least one of bust shape, bust density, and bust volume. By varying the angles .THETA..sub.1 and .THETA..sub.2, it can be possible to change the bust appearance, shape, and volume by changing the cup construction. [0021] The shaping further comprises at least one of a minimizing effect, an up-lifting effect and a fuller bust effect. The shaping may be fully maintained during movement in multiple directions while at the same time the garment may stay in full contact with the wearer's body. Continue reading about Brassiere construction using multiple layers of fabric... Full patent description for Brassiere construction using multiple layers of fabric Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Brassiere construction using multiple layers of fabric patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Brassiere construction using multiple layers of fabric or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Brassiere and method of manufacturing parts of a brassiere Next Patent Application: Brassiere frame Industry Class: Foundation garments ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Brassiere construction using multiple layers of fabric patent info. 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