Patent Application
20070054081
The present invention relates to an anchoring device for apparel to be worn by a female, and more particularly, to a double-sided adhesive anchoring device that can be attached between a garment and a wearer to maintain the garment in place against a wearer's skin.
In many of today's fashions for women, the clothing seemingly is required to defy the laws of gravity and/or the natural curvature of the female form in order to appropriately and tastefully cover the wearer. Women's fashions, such as, low-cut, halter, backless, and/or strapless tops and dresses, routinely gap from or slip on the wearer, which may result in exposure of an undergarment and/or, in the worst case, the breasts of the wearer. Another problem area for a woman is a garment that “rides-up” and becomes uncomfortable and/or unsightly during normal wear, such as bathing suit bottoms or underpants that do not stay in place over the wearer's buttocks. The woman wearing such garments may need to routinely pull-up, pull-down and/or straighten the garment, which can be an annoyance to her and unattractive to those about her.
To address this problem, anti-slip mechanisms have been suggested that attempt to prevent undesirable movement of a garment by frictionally engaging the wearer. However, these devices tend to undesirably pinch and/or rub against the wearer causing discomfort and do not always provide the desired result. Fashion tape and spray adhesives are also known as a quick fix to address certain of these problems, but often do not stick well to the wearer and/or the fabric, may cause damage to the fabric upon removal and/or laundering, and require replacement/reapplication after each use.
Accordingly, there is a need for a durable garment anchoring device that can be attached to a garment and to a wearer's body to maintain the placement of the garment against the wearer's body that overcomes one or more of the foregoing deficiencies.
An anchoring device for temporarily adhering a portion of a garment to a wearer. The anchoring device includes a fabric substrate having a first surface and a second surface with a first adhesive disposed on the first surface and a second adhesive disposed on the second surface. The first adhesive may be a semi-permanent fabric adhesive to adhere the anchoring device to the material of the garment and the second adhesive may be a temporary body/skin adhesive to adhere the anchoring device to the skin of the wearer. In an embodiment, the garment anchoring device may be disposed along an inside edge of the fabric of a garment, such as, along a neckline of a blouse, top or dress, to hold the item against the wearer. In another embodiment, the garment anchoring device may be used along an edge of a leg hole of an underpant or swimsuit bottom to anchor the item to the wearer's buttocks and thereby prevent the underpant or swimsuit bottom from riding-up on the wearer.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, further serve to explain the principles of the invention and to enable a person skilled in the pertinent art to make and use the invention. The drawings are not to scale.
The following detailed description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the invention or the application and uses of the invention. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the preceding technical field, background, brief summary or the following detailed description.
A fabric adhesive 302 is disposed on garment side 305 of fabric substrate 306 and a body or skin adhesive 304 is disposed on wearer side 307 of fabric substrate 306. In an embodiment, fabric adhesive 302 is a semi-permanent acrylic-based adhesive for attaching garment anchoring device 300 to the fabric of a garment for several wearings. The semi-permanent adhesive may be a removable, repositionable adhesive, as one of those available, inter alia, through the 3M corporation of St. Paul, Minn.
Body or skin adhesive 304 may be readily detached from a wearer's skin without the use of solvents and is reusable for attaching garment anchoring device 300 to the wearer's skin upon the next wearing of the garment. A body or skin adhesive according to embodiments of the present invention should be capable of adhering to that part of the body to which it is to be attached and to the fabric substrate 306. In an embodiment, the body or skin adhesive will be a pressure sensitive adhesive, which is intended to mean an adhesive that is inherently tacky, visco-elastic and cohesive in its normal dry state. In an embodiment, body adhesive 304 may be a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) silicone based skin adhesive for temporarily securing garment anchoring device 300 to a wearer. In various other embodiments, body or skin adhesive 304 may be a medical grade, pressure-sensitive adhesive, such as a medical adhesive of acrylate ester/vinyl pyrrolidone copolymers, dimethyl silicone polymers, or acrylate polymers. Such medical grade skin adhesives have a low level of allergenicity, i.e., are nonirritating to the skin, and have good water resistance to continue to adhere when the skin perspires. In addition, suitable medical grade skin adhesives may possess sufficiently high cohesive strength to allow clean removal of the adhesive from skin and other properties that allow it to accommodate skin movement without losing the bond and without excessive skin irritation.
In another embodiment, fabric and body adhesives 302, 304 may be waterproof to continue to secure garment anchoring device 300 to the garment and wearer even when the garment is wet. Waterproof or water impermeable adhesives suitable for use in the present invention may include natural rubber latex based adhesives, synthetic rubber based adhesives and hot-melt adhesives.
In an embodiment, fabric adhesive 302 and body adhesive 304 may be protected by removable cover layers 310, 312 prior to use. As shown in
In use, cover layer 310 is removed from fabric adhesive 302 on the garment side 305 of garment anchoring device 300. Garment side 305 is then attached to an inside edge of an article of clothing, for example, the leg openings of bathing suit bottom 624 as shown in
While various embodiments according to the present invention have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of illustration and example only, and not limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art that various changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the appended claims and their equivalents. It will also be understood that each feature of each embodiment discussed herein, and of each reference cited herein, can be used in combination with the features of any other embodiment. All patents and publications discussed herein are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/711,038 filed Aug. 18, 2005, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60711038 | Aug 2005 | US |
