WAISTBAND STAY

Abstract

An economical waistband insert or stay for use in a waistband of a garment to help provide and maintain a neat appearance to the garments during wearing is disclosed. The waistband stay may be integrated with the waistband and of simple construction, to be worn on or as the inner surface of the waistband of a an apparel item or bottom garment (e.g., trousers, pants, shorts, skirt, etc.) and/or as the outer surface of the bottom of the wearer's top apparel item or garment (e.g., shirt, t-shirt, blouse, etc.) to limit and/or restrict the relative movement of the apparel items from sliding with respect to each other when a person moves such as while moving, reaching, standing, sitting or squatting. The waistband stay device may be produced separately from the garment and inserted or attached to the apparel item using an adhesive layer.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present disclosure and application claim priority to and the benefit of US provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/127640, filed Mar. 3, 2015, to Manfred Becker and titled: WAISTBAND STAY the contents of which are incorporated herein for all purposes.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to accessories for clothing. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to improvements to accessories for apparel and to apparel for providing a more comfortable and controlled fit of the apparel item during wear and use.

BACKGROUND

Personal appearance is of some importance in human society and culture. In some societies, the wearer of even informal clothing and apparel may be expected to have a neat and clean appearance, and most individuals make at least some attempt toward providing a neat and tidy appearance with their clothing including to insure their shirt remains neat and tucked in the pants, trousers, skirt, etc.

The mainstream styles of apparel change with time—recently, there has been a tendency toward less formality in business apparel. Even the wearing of jeans and other informal wear may be accepted in many environments now, which environments previously required more formal attire.

Generally, some informal apparel does not require certain accessories (e.g., belts, suspenders, etc.) which might be expected or required with the wearing of more formal attire. Depending upon the cut and fit of such apparel, in many cases the fit around the waist and hips may be sufficiently good that no belt may be required. In other instances, the trousers or other apparel items may include sufficient elasticity at the waist such that no belt may be required. This may be true for men's trousers and apparel as well as for women's apparel items such as skirts, dresses, slacks, etc.

Generally for some time now, apparel items such as slacks, pants, trousers or skirts may ride up and/or down vertically about the person's waist when the person sits, bends at the waist, reaches, squats down or partakes in other activities involving such movements. Inner or invisible belts are generally known and have long been designed to attempt to move around the waist to attempt to adjust evenly and to limit the apparel item from riding up or down. Since such devices have not proven effective, generally, trousers or skirts must be readjusted almost every time a person stands from a sitting or squatting position if one desires to maintain the most professional and tidy appearance.

One drawback to such beltless attire may be that the waistband often tends to gather or “bunch up” in the vertical direction, i.e., across its width, with no belt extending there around to provide some stay of the material in this direction. This may be particularly true when a person may be seated or bends at the waist, as the front of the apparel waistband tends to gather within the folds of the lower stomach and/or midriff area of the body as the person bends at the waist. Often times, the resulting generally horizontal creases which form around the front of the waistband, tend to be set in place if the person remains seated for some time (e.g., driving, working at a desk, etc.) and remain after the person stands, resulting in visibly unkempt appearance due to the waistband creases.

Accordingly, there long remains an unmet need for a waistband stay for use with trousers, skirts, and virtually any other apparel items or garments that may be used by a person to prevent as many of the known problems and drawbacks during normal wear.

While there have been many attempts by others to solve problems in the similar area, there remains a need for a more effective solution. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,410, to Liebowitz discloses a longitudinally stiff stay which may flex more easily in left to right orientation. The installation of the Liebowitz stay may be understood to be with the stays having their elongate axis oriented generally vertically, (i.e., parallel to the height of the wearer), rather than extending circumferentially there around, as in the present waistband stay. This may be opposite the present stay construction, with its flexible nature along its elongate axis allowing it to curve around the waistband of the apparel, while still providing sufficient lateral stiffness as to generally preclude folding or creasing of the waistband.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,723,993 issued on Apr. 3, 1973 to Burton B. Ruby, titled “Trousers Waistband Structure,” discloses an elastic waistband assembled integrally with the trousers. The flexible elastic nature of the Ruby waistband construction, teaches away from the lateral stiffness disclosed in the Liebowitz reference. U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,366 issued on Aug. 13, 1996 to Kohji Kato, titled “Elastic Waist Structure For Trousers And Skirts,” discloses a garment construction having one or more elastic bands installed along the waistband of the garment. The elastic bands are concealed by fabric covers to provide a finished appearance for the garment. Kato discloses that slidable inner fabric panels “prevents formation of wrinkles or furrows outside the trousers or skirt” (Abstract), but it has not been proven in practice. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,836 issued on Feb. 9, 1999 to Luis F. Quinones, titled “Waist Band Trouser Or Skirt Holder,” discloses a waistband construction in which a separate waistband may be removably secured to the inner waistband of the trousers. Quinones further discloses that the separate waistband includes an elastic band which allows the separate structure to remain in place around the wearer's waist as he or she sits or squats, with the trousers moving as required to accommodate the flexure of the wearer's body. The elastic then draws the trousers back to their original position when the wearer stands. The Quinones waistband structure may be thus directed to controlling vertical movement of the trousers, particularly at the back, where tensile forces tend to draw down the back of the waistband when the wearer sits or bends at the waist.

U. S. Pat. No. 6,253,384 issued on Jul. 3, 2001 to Peter J. Valentino, titled “Partial, Removable, Reusable Waistband And Its Holder,” describes a waistband having an adhesive coating on each side thereof. The Valentino waistband may be intended to be adhesively secured within a trouser waistband, and adhesively secures the upper garment (shirt, etc.) within the waistband of the lower garment. The Valentino adhesive waistband may be only a partial device, as noted, and may be intended for use at the back of the upper and lower garment interface, where tensile forces are applied which tend to pull the upper garment from the lower garment as the wearer bends at the waist. This may be unrelated to the problem addressed by the present invention, wherein the present stay increases the frictional force at the interface of the abrasive material and the wearer's skin or the wearer's shirt or blouse tucked within the skirt or trousers of the wearer to preclude gathering, creasing, and wrinkling thereof as the clothing may be compressed at the front or rear as the wearer bends or sits.

SUMMARY

The device of the present disclosure alleviates various problems of the prior art device by providing an economical insert stay for use in a waistband of a garment to help provide and maintain a neat appearance to the garments during wearing. The waistband stay may be integrated with the waistband and of simple construction, to be worn on or as the inner surface of the waistband of a an apparel item or bottom garment (e.g., trousers, pants, shorts, skirt, etc.) and/or as the outer surface of the bottom of the wearer's top apparel item or garment (e.g., shirt, t-shirt, blouse, etc.) to limit and/or restrict the relative movement of the apparel items from sliding with respect to each other when a person moves such as while moving, reaching, standing, sitting or squatting. The waistband stay device may be produced separately from the garment and inserted or attached to the apparel item using an adhesive layer.

The disclosed waistband stay device may also prevent compressive wrinkling of the waistband particularly at the front of the garment, where such wrinkling would otherwise occur when the wearer bends at the waist.

The present disclosure relates generally to a waistband stay device for use with the waistband and/or top apparel item for maintaining the relative positions of the top (e.g., shirt or blouse) and the bottom (e.g., trousers, short, skirt, etc.) apparel items or garments during movement while wearing the garment including the waistband stay device. The waistband stay device may also prevent the top from sliding excessively upwards relative to the bottom when the wearer sits, squats or bends and otherwise moves while wearing the garments. The waistband stay device may include a strip of material or pad that may be permanently attached to the inside surface of the waistband of the trousers or skirt near the top edge. The waistband insert strip of material may be in the form of a continuous piece that extends completely around the waistband or, alternatively, may be in the form of a plurality of strips of material or pad inserts or segments that are located, spaced about the waistband of the garment.

The waistband stay device may have a first side and a second side and may be composed of a variety of materials and/or layers of materials. The waistband stay device may include a first or base layer of a woven, cotton material having a first side thereof and may have an adhesive material coated thereon for securely and permanently attaching the waistband stay to the inner surface at or near a top edge of the waistband. The adhesive coating the first or inner surface of the first base layer may be of any known and appropriate material but may alternately be secured to the apparel item using any known and appropriate device, material, coupling or other attaching means. The second side of the first base layer strip of material may be coated with an adhesive material including a suspension of an abrasive material that may be coated thereon for directly bonding the abrasive material to the outer surface of the second side of the strip of material waistband stay using any convenient bonding technique that may be conventionally available in the art. When the waistband strip of material may be properly attached to the inner surface of the waistband of the garment at or near the top thereof, the coated abrasive material will provide a frictional drag against the wearer's body or against another garment, shirt or blouse, worn by the wearer and tucked inside of the waistband. The frictional drag created by the abrasive surface of the strip of material will help to limit the relative movement of the pants or skirt with respect to the shirt or blouse to reduce and/or eliminate the need of the wearer from constantly pushing “tucking in” a pulled out shirt, blouse, or other garment.

The above and other aspects of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment taken together with the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure may take physical form in certain parts and arrangement of parts, a preferred embodiment of which will be described in detail in the specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings which form a part thereof, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a pair of trousers having an inner waistband surface area including an integrated waistband stay strip of material according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of a pair of trousers having an inner waistband surface area including an added plurality waistband stay strips of material having an alternate shape and adhered to the waistband area of the trousers according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a front perspective view of trousers having an inner waistband surface area including an added plurality waistband stay strips of material having an alternate shape and adhered to the waistband area of the trousers according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a front plan view of differing size waistband stay strips of material having a further alternate shape and located on a peel away substrate according to an alternate embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a front perspective view of a waistband stay strip of material of FIG. 4 shown at an extreme magnification according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to all of the figures and initially in particular to FIGS. 1 through 3, there is illustrated a waistband stay device 10 for providing better holding of a bottom garment 18 (e.g., pants, jeans, trousers, slacks, kilt, shorts, or skirt, etc.) to limit the relative displacement of a top garment (e.g., top, t-shirt, dress shirt, blouse, etc.) with respect to the bottom garment 18.

The strip of material 12 of the device 10 may include opposing surfaces 19 and 20 one of which may include an abrasive material 21 and the other thereof may include a coating of an adhesive material for securing the device 10 to the inner surface 14 of the waistband of the garment 18. The strip of material 12 may include a woven material including any type or combination of materials including cotton, polyester, rayon, microfiber and/or any combination thereof to provide the device 10 to be integrated into the garment. More particularly, the strip of material 12 of the device 10 may include a first surface or side 19 which may include the abrasive material 21 located thereon and the other or second side 20 may include the adhesive 22 for adhering the device 10 to the garment 18. The device 10 may also be secured to the garment 18 using any known or appropriate device, coupling or mechanism such as by stitching 11 as shown in FIG. 2. Additionally, the device 10 may also be made integral with the garment 18 during production of the entire garment 18 such that the device 10 is made an integral portion of the construction of the garment 18 and included in the sale thereof.

The abrasive material 21 may be any one or a combination of a silicon carbide, an aluminum oxide, diamond, and/or any similar abrasive having generally, approximately a sixty (60) microns particle size on average and most preferably within a range of +/− approximately 4 microns. The abrasive material 21 may be bonded on the strip of material 12 using any known or appropriate adhesive material 27 which will include the abrasive material 21 in suspension and may be spray coated on the strip 12 of the device 10 and then allowed to dry (and/or be cured) to secure the abrasive material 21 to the surface of the strip 12 as best shown in FIG. 4. The adhesive material 27 for adhering the abrasive material 21 to the surface of the strip 12 may preferably be applied using a spray coating process.

The first surface 19 of the strip of material 12 of the device 10 including the abrasive material 21 may be defined as a frictional means for creating sufficient friction at the interface of the bottom garment 18 and a top garment so that when worn by a user, the first surface 19 of the device 10 will be forced against the top garment (and/or vice versa) while the second surface 20 of the device 10 will be secured to the inner surface 14 of the garment 18. It should also be understood that the shape (round, rectangular, square, triangular, oblong, elliptical, etc.) and size of the waistband stay device 10 may be of any type as shown in FIGS. 1 through 3. Referring in particular to FIG. 4, it is disclosed wherein each waistband stay device 10 may be initially and removably adhered to a plastic substrate 23. Once removed from the substrate 23, each waistband stay device 10 may be applied to the waistband of the garment 18 such that the adhesive 22 of the second side 20 of the strip of material 12 may adhesively secure the device 10 to the garment 18. Once the waistband stay device 10 is secured to the garment, 18, the frictional interface of the abrasive material 21 of the strip 12 against the top garment will create sufficient friction and frictional force to limit and/or prevent the top garment from moving with respect to the bottom garment 18 during wearing of the garments, to thereby better maintain the neat and “tucked-in” appearance of the person wearing the top and bottom garments.

Once the waistband stay device 10 is installed in the garment 18, and the garment 18 located about the waist of the person and over the lower portion of a top garment (i.e., the shirt is tucked into the pants), the waistband stay device 10 will act to prevent slipping of the top garment with respect to the bottom garment 18 (i.e., to limit the top garment from moving from its originally adjusted position on the wearer). Any tug or pull on the top garment will be resisted and limited by the waistband stay device 10 coupled to the bottom garment 18 due to the frictional interface of the abrasive material 21 on the surface 19 that abuts the respective clothing or garment of the wearer.

While a particular embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described, it may be to be understood that the present invention may be not limited to the embodiments described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A waistband stay comprising:

a strip of material having a first surface to be secured to an inner surface of a garment, the at least one strip of material further having an opposing surface;

an abrasive material attached to the opposing surface of the strip of material, the abrasive material having an average particle size of approximately 60 microns;

an adhesive material for securing the strip of material to the inner surface of the garment; and

wherein the abrasive material extends outwardly from the opposing surface of the strip of material for providing frictional engagement at an interface of opposing exterior surfaces of garments to be worn by a wearer.

2. A garment including the waistband stay device of claim 1.

3. The garment of claim 2 wherein the garment is a pants including a waistband and wherein the waistband stay device is for application to the waistband of the pants.

4. The garment of claim 2 wherein the garment is a shirt including a lower portion and wherein the waistband stay device is for application to the lower portion of the shirt.

5. The garment of claim 2 wherein the abrasive material has an average particle size of approximately 60 microns within a range of +/− approximately 4 microns.

6. The garment of claim 3 wherein the abrasive material has an average particle size of approximately 60 microns within a range of +/− approximately 4 microns.

7. The garment of claim 4 wherein the abrasive material has an average particle size of approximately 60 microns within a range of +/− approximately 4 microns.