Self-supporting figure control pants
The invention provides a shape controlling outer pant garment with a pant portion and a self-fupporting upper shaped portion which surrounds and compresses the wearer while supported on the pant portion.
The present invention relates to shape-control outer garments. More particularly, the present invention relates to outer pant garments having adjustable shape control at the waist and the midriff of the wearer which do not restrict overall movement.
BACKGROUND AND THE PRIOR ARTPrior art pants are designed to be carried on the wearer's body by fitment at the hips and waist areas with the weight of the pants being supported held up by that fitment. For most wearers, particularly women, the waist and hip sizes are quite different. This has been heightened by the increasing use of pants by women since the original pant designs were focused on the male shape. Since the waist and hips are in close proximity significant patterning is required to get a both a good fit with the necessary holding characteristics, particularly where highly shaped. Custom tailored pants are carefully fitted to both areas. Most pants, however, are sold at retail off the rack in a wide variety of standard sizes. Standardization requires that hip size be the primary focus of sizing leaving the waist size as an important but secondary consideration. An alternative is presented in pants commonly known as hip-hugger which are very low rise as they do not seek to cover the waist to any substantial degree.
Despite the high inventory levels usually maintained to provide for the retail customer and the variety of sizes and shapes of wearers many of these retail pants are either ill-fitting or they require individual adjustments at the waist since hip sizes are more difficult and, thus, more expensive to adjust after the fact. This situation is particularly difficult in the women's fashion trade as an expanding inventory level is required to meet an expanding variety of styles, designs, patterns and colours. The lack of definition is particularly important in highly shaped figures, particularly those of women.
An alternative is provided by an adjustable waistband. Most typically such adjustable waistband areas draw in the garment at the waistband and create a narrowed or expanded shape at the waist which functions to assist in holding up the garment on the wearer.
Unfortunately, due to advancing age and life style choices the soft tissue areas between the hips and the chest are prone to become increasingly less well defined as a person ages. This causes waist fitment to become more problematic as increased tension in the waistband is required to maintain the desired fit and shape while holding the pant in place. The pant garment starts to function more and more as a shaping garment by compressing soft tissues in this area and less as a mere existing-shape fitter.
The typical off-the-rack pant garment is not suited to this ‘new’ function as the soft tissue areas being compressed merely bulge out where the opportunity arises, most often above the pants themselves, leaving an unsightly bulge sometimes referred to as a ‘muffin top’ and a rolling over or bunching of the waistband.
Additionally, waistband structure has been used to assist in compression and maintenance of the garment shape, further compressing soft tissue upward and tending to create a sharp line of definition between the controlled area and the open area above the pant.
In the past this problem has been addressed by various separate shape control undergarments designed to compel this soft tissue to conform to a desirable shape, often referred to as an hour-glass shape or figure, when referring to women. Such shape control garments are well hidden beneath more appealing outwear, including pants, tops etc. These undergarments, such as expansible girdles and traditional corsets, are primarily directed at relatively high load situations and are held in place by pull down supports from the bottom (usually at the crotch area), by pull up supports from the top (usually with a set of straps), by a highly shaped middle section or by a combination of the above with or without internal structural members. Since the focus is on shaping by compression, an adjustment is often provided whereby the circumference may be expanded or reduced by a lace up or by buttons or the like. Pre-shaping of such garments can occur within the garment fabric by a series of shaped fabric panels, with or without structure supports, while the circumference adjustments are substantially uniform over the height of the garment.
To achieve this end corsets and similar garments are known to be highly restrictive. They do not allow free movement of the body particularly in bending and turning and can be extremely uncomfortable.
Another attempt at satisfactory shaping are the body stocking and-or girdle undergarments in which an expansible fabric sleeve is used to control the shape of the wearer.
Unfortunately these undergarments are often uncomfortable and highly restrictive of the free movement of the wearer. With limited movement they have a tendency to roll or slide downwards due to the lack of sufficient vertical stays or boning, making them even less comfortable and less appealing to the wearer.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTIOINThe present invention provides a modern and stylish answer to the growing need for a shape control outer pants garment particularly suited to women, which is adapted to high volume manufacture and distribution and retail off-the-rack or ready to wear sales at a reasonable price.
The present invention provides a self-supporting shaped pants garment in which shaping and support control is provided by an upper portion or extension from traditional pant design and maintains a high comfort level along with freedom of all types of movement by the wearer.
It is an object of the invention to provide a shape control pant wherein the shaping upper portion is secured to and supported upon a traditional pant lower portion and extends across the midriff.
It is an object of the invention to provide a shape control pant with an upper edge also supported vertically upon the pant lower portion while permitting full and free movement of the wearer at the chest bones without interference.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a shape control pant wherein the shaping elements required for soft tissue shaping do not substantially interfere with strucutural elements of the body of the wearer and provide superior comfort and back support particularly while sitting or driving.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention are set forth in the within description, and will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the specification or may be learned by practice of the invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe invention provides a pant garment with entry and exit means with a pant portion adapted to be suspended upon the hips of the wearer, and an upper shaped portion preferably fabricated from a plurality of shaped fabric panels adapted to surround said wearer upwards from said pant portion to and across the midriff, wherein said shaped portion includes means to close about said wearer, a lower edge secured to said pant portion, an upper edge, means to support said upper edge on said pant portion, and adjustable means adapted to compress the midriff inwards and upwards.
The invention further provides a pant garment wherein the shaped portion is hour glass shaped and the adjustment is generally V-shaped opening upwards.
The invention also provides a pant garment the adjustable means extends from the sacroiliac area to the said upper edge of said shaped portion.
The invention also provides a pant garment wherein support includes vertically oriented stiffening elements such as boning.
The shaped pant of the invention 1 in low-rise form is depicted in frontal plan view in
In a shaped pant of regular fit the pant portion 6 would extend vertically further above hip-line 3, as at 9, but still below the waistline 10, see
As shown in
Shaped portion 2 is formed from a series of shaped fabric panels 16 into a classic hour-glass form as at 15 completely surrounding the wearer 14.
Stiffening elements or boning strips 17 are generally aligned vertically to the wearer 14 and preferably extend from lower edge 11 to upper edge 12. Boning strips 17 are secured to or within channels formed in the fabric of shaped portion 2 in a traditional manner and maintain both the hour-glass shape 15 by compression, support the shaped portion and maintain the vertical separation 18 between lower edge 11 and upper edge 12. In
Preferably stiffening elements or boning strips 17 lie along the shaped sides (‘b’ and ‘c’ in
As can be seen, drawing in upon laces 22 draws in upon the hour-glass shape of shaped portion 2 and provides this variable lateral and upwards compression to the soft tissues of wearer 14 between the sacroiliac area and the hip-line 3 to the upper edge of the midriff 4. The shaped portion is held in place and in form by the hour glass shape 15 formed of shaped panels 16 and boning strips 17 in conjunction with this lateral compression.
Upper edge 12 is generally below the bust line 5 and does not significantly engage the rib cage or the upper body of wearer 14 thus allowing the normal full freedom of movement of wearer 14 in the area of shaped portion 2.
An alternative embodiment of the invention adapted to a high rise pant style is shown at 1a in
At
Preferably each panel top a is aligned along upper edge 12 and panel bottom d is aligned along lower edge 11 so that the panels may be readily cut from a single strip of fabric or cut on folded fabric as miror images of each other.
Panel sides b and c are shaped so that upon attachment of each panel to its adjacent neighbour the hour-glass form is created in the finished piece as shown in
center front panels 32 and 33 are shown as a single conjoined piece in
Rear panels 36 and 37 are shown in
Preferably panels 30 through 37 of
Alternatively, upper edge 12 and lower edge 11 may provide a curve or shaped edge which may be joined to or supported upon pant section 6 along a curve adapted to the shape of the wearer 14.
In
While particular embodiments of the invention have been described, it will be understood, of course, that the invention is not limited thereto, and that many obvious modifications and variations can be made, and that such modifications and variations are intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims.
Claims
1. A shape control outer pant garment comprising:
- (a) entry and exit means, and
- (b) a pant portion adapted to be suspended upon the hips of the wearer, and
- (c) an upper shaped portion adapted to surround said wearer upwards from said pant portion towards the midriff,
- (d) wherein said shaped portion comprises: i. means to close said shaped portion about said wearer, ii. a lower edge secured to said pant portion, iii. an upper edge, iv. means to support said shaped portion and said upper edge on said pant portion, and v. adjustable means adapted to compress and redistribute the soft tissues surrounding the midriff.
2. A shape control outer pant garment as claimed in claim 1 wherein said shaped portion is adapted to surround said wearer to the midriff.
3. A shape control outer pant garment as claimed in claim 2 wherein said shaped portion is adapted to surround said wearer across the midriff.
4. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein said shaped portion is hour glass shaped.
5. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 1 or 4 wherein said adjustable means is generally V-shaped opening upwards.
6. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 5 wherein said said adjustable means extends from the sacroiliac area to the said upper edge of said shaped portion.
7. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein said support means include vertically oriented stiffening elements.
8. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 7 wherein said shaped portion is hour glass shaped.
9. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 7 or 8 wherein said adjustable means is generally V-shaped opening upwards.
10. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 9 wherein said said adjustable means extends from the sacroiliac area to the said upper edge of said shaped portion.
11. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 10 wherein said stiffening elements are boning strips.
12. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein said shaped portion comprises a plurality of individually shaped fabric panels.
13. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 12 wherein said plurality of panels is adapted to provide said hour glass shape.
14. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 12 or 13 wherein said adjustable means is generally V-shaped opening upwards.
15. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 14 wherein said said adjustable means extends from the sacroiliac area to the said upper edge of said shaped portion.
16. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 15 wherein said support means include vertically oriented stiffening elements.
17. A shape control pant garment as claimed in claim 16 wherein said stiffening elements are boning strips.
Type: Application
Filed: Jan 19, 2010
Publication Date: Sep 30, 2010
Inventor: Maria Rosa Calautti (Oro Station)
Application Number: 12/656,141
International Classification: A41D 1/06 (20060101);