Search

Joining the great performance and sustainability is the clothing dilemma of the twenty-first century. Efforts have been made to invent new functional fibers without harming the environment, during the manufacturing process, or even after the product use. COCONA® is a polyester yarn widely employed in sportswear for athletes, given its capacity to maintain the core temperature at an optimal range. The sustainable program launched by this yarn producer depicted adding a biodegradable character to their products while preserving the original functionalities. Our study aims to compare the wear comfort properties namely the air permeability, the water vapor permeability and the drying behavior of the two yarns (regular and biodegradable). In this study, six knitted fabrics were produced: where three using the regular COCONA® yarn and three using the biodegradable COCONA® yarn with the same pattern and machine settings. Results showed that using the biodegradable COCONA® yarn increases the breathability and improves the drying capacity of loose knitted fabrics and it has no significant effect on tightly knitted structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fabric liquid moisture transport properties in multi-dimensions, called moisture management properties, influence clothing comfort. For clothing comfort, moisture must be quickly removed from the body surface in the form of liquids and vapors. This removal depends on the fiber type and textile structure such as yarn and fabric type used. In the fabrics requiring elasticity, such as tights, sportswear, swimwear, underwear, and corsetry, the use of elastane yarn gradually increases, and these fabrics are also fabrics that require high clothing comfort. Because of this in this study, it is aimed that moisture management properties are comparatively researched in plain knit fabrics containing elastane at different ratios. For this aim plain knit without elastane and 3 different fabrics with elastane obtained by 19.7 tex cotton yarn and 44 dtex elastane yarn were used as samples. Elastane yarn was fed to feeders as 1/1, 2/1, and full ratios. Moisture management properties of the samples were determined by an SDL Atlas MMT test device according to AATCC 195 standard. The study results show that elastane content in plain knit fabric strongly affects moisture management properties, and overall moisture management capability (OMMC) decreases with increasing elastane ratio in the fabrics, and thus, high elastane content reduces clothing comfort. Plain knit has the best performance, whereas full cotton/elastane fabric has the worst performance, and 1×1 cotton/elastane fabric is very much close to 2×1 cotton/elastane fabric in terms of moisture management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this review are to (1) summarise the current research of sports clothing as it relates to thermoregulation, comfort, and performance during exercise in the heat, (2) identify methodological limitations and gaps in the knowledge base of sports clothing, and (3) provide recommendations for exercise testing protocols to accurately assess the impact of sports clothing in athletic populations during exercise in the heat. Sports clothing consists of lightweight and breathable fabrics, surface treatments, and various designs which aim to enhance sweat evaporation and comfort during exercise in the heat. Sports clothing comprised of natural, synthetic, and chemically treated fabrics has been investigated during exercise of varying durations (15–120 min), intensities (20–70% VO2 max) and types (fixed intensity, incremental, self-paced), and in an array of climatic conditions (18–40 °C, 20–60% relative humidity). To date, few studies have identified significant differences in thermo-physiological, perceptual, and performance measures between natural and synthetic fabrics or compared the effect of chemical treatments to their non-treated equivalent on such measures during exercise. Collectively, previous wearer trials have failed to replicate the upper limit of training and competition demands when assessing sports clothing in endurance-trained individuals who regularly train and compete in hot and humid climates. Clothing comfort has also been evaluated using simple scales which fail to capture intricate detail pertaining to psychological and sensorial parameters. The incorporation of protocols using hot and humid climates (≥ 30 °C, ≥ 70% relative humidity) and longer exercise durations (> 45 min) is warranted. Future research should also consider exploring the effect of sports clothing on thermal, physiological, perceptual, and performance measures between males and females, and assessing clothing comfort using a multi-dimensional approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, principles of sensorial and thermo-physiological comfort of clothing are briefly explained, and as example of their application, experimental determination of a wearing comfort of men's casual jacket is presented. The measured parameters involve thermal and evaporation resistance, thermal contact feeling, shear and bending stiffness of each layer including the interlining and lining, as well as the properties of the entire textile sandwiches. The used measuring instruments were PERMETEST, ALAMBETA and KES FB1 & FB2. Then the comfort parameters of individual fabrics and parameters of the related sandwiches were displayed by means of column diagrams. These diagrams also involve the algebraically summarized parameters of individual fabrics. In most cases, total values of the algebraically summarized parameters of individual fabrics to some degree exceeded the parameters of the sandwiched (compacted, laminated) fabrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel protective fabric accomplishing with an acceptable level of protective performance and wear comfort has been designed and developed. The protective fabric was tailored by integrating an electrospun PAN–silica aerogel nanofibre membrane with needle-punched viscose nonwoven fabric for simultaneous barrier performance and thermal comfort. The nanofibrous membrane was characterised and evaluated for chemical and thermal protection after sandwiching it within the nonwoven layers. The analysis of PAN–silica aerogel nanofibre revealed that aerogel particles were randomly distributed in the membrane. The nonwoven substrate embedded with the functionalised nanofibre membrane is a lightweight, soft and flexible fabric having versatile protective performance. The newly developed fabric demonstrated satisfactory resistance against radiant heat and liquid chemical penetration. Besides, the improved thermal and moisture vapour transmittance and high evaporative cooling index suggested acceptable thermal comfort of clothing due to the decreased accumulation of perspirations on the material. Moreover, the adequate breathability and moisture management performance indicated diffusion of sweat vapour through the membrane, providing favourable thermal comfort in the clothing-skin microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The type of clothing worn, revealing versus concealing, can affect the performance of women on cognitive tasks. This difference in performance may arise because of changes in body awareness that may draw cognitive resources from the goal task. The present study investigated the influence of the style of athletic clothing and body awareness on visual-motor performance in women. Participants (women ages 18–35 years) were randomly assigned to wear tight and revealing (TR group, n = 40) or loose and concealing (LC group, n = 40) athletic clothing. All participants completed the same visual-motor aiming task to assess spatiotemporal measures of motor performance. In addition to the clothing, participants were primed to be conscious of their bodies via measurements of height, weight, and waist circumference; photographs taken of their bodies; a computerized body-size distortion task; and a mirror in the testing chamber. Results revealed that the TR group had increased movement time variability and did not show performance improvements relative to the LC group. These differences suggest that style of clothing may influence motor performance in women by reallocating cognitive resources towards the body and away from the motor task at hand. This research highlights the interactions between cognitive and motor processes and, potentially, the importance of considering the impact of clothing on performance in many different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mulberry silk is one of the well known silk types. Especially, its lustrous appearance and handle properties make this fiber type an important natural source for textiles. Even if its properties let the fiber to be produced by itself, blending with other fiber types can be preferred in order to reduce raw material costs and make it more affordable. Cotton can be a good companion to this fiber type because of its tendency to be textile material. In this study, mulberry silk/combed cotton blended yarns were produced by using siro and ring spinning systems, in three different yarn counts. These yarns were dyed and then knitted in a laboratory type circular knitting machine. The comfort properties of these fabrics were investigated. According to test results, increasing silk content in the blend and using the siro spinning system positively affected the comfort properties of fabrics, in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we addressed potential biases which can occur when sensorial scores of temperature, wetness and discomfort are repeatedly reported, in transient exercise conditions. We pointed out that, when repeatedly reported, previous sensorial scores can be set by the participants as reference values and the subsequent score may be given based on the previous point of reference, the latter phenomenon leading to a bias which we defined as ‘anchoring bias’. Indeed, the findings shown that subsequent sensorial scores are prone to anchoring biases and that the bias consisted in a systematically higher magnitude of sensation as compared to when reported a single time only. As such, the study allowed recognition, quantification and mitigation of the identified bias which can improve the methodological rigour of research studies involving assessments of sensorial data in transient conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fashion adopts numerous creative ideas and the designers source them. Architecture is also not left out from the eye of designers. Fashion designers used to take their inspiration from architectural buildings normally to create new clothing silhouettes. But what is important to understand here is the nature of relationship between these two disciplines which made them to do so. Keeping this fact in mind, researcher tried to find the connection between 'Fashion' and 'Architecture,' which can serve as fashion element for designers. Clothing Silhouette and motif were the two criteria on which the relationship was investigated. Indian Mughal architectural monuments were selected, since Mughals were considered as the most influential rulers on Indian sub-continent, having unique heritage in terms of religion, arts, music and other ornamental techniques which are in vogue even in the modern era. The outcomes show that similar kind of motifs was used to ornament both textiles as well as walls of architectural monuments at same time frame. Clothing silhouettes of that time were also inspired from the outer shape of the monument. Further, while investigating, a functional aspect—one of the common causes of relationship in terms of comfort in both the disciplines was also found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]