Patent Application
20200178625
This invention relates to outerwear fabric garments and, more particularly, to a garment that can easily be inverted from a first garment to a second garment, and reversed from a third garment to a fourth to be worn as a coat, jacket, cloak, cowl, shawl, car coat, poncho, dupatta, hijab, nursing garment, blanket or vest.
Jackets or coats that can be converted or reversed to accommodate changing weather and temperature conditions, different fashions, and/or different levels of physical activity are well known. Inner and outer garments are popular, such as a vest detachably fastened within a jacket shell or an insulative component also detachably fastened within an outer garment. Such convertible garments may be configured as two or more independently wearable components such as the vest within an outer jacket, or may have additional layers or linings selectively attached to a basic garment. Another approach to convertibility has involved a garment from which traditional parts such as sleeves or hoods are separable.
Existing convertible jackets generally do not provide for adequate body ventilation and unrestricted arm and shoulder movement when fully assembled. Ventilating panels of materials such as mesh preserve the unitary construction of garment areas to which they are joined and therefore do not contribute to freedom of arm and shoulder movement. Conversely, pleated or extensible panel constructions in convertible garments complicate orientation and attachment of the garment components.
Each year the fashion industry attempts to modify fashion styles. For example, dresses may vary in length, shape, neckline, and other characteristics. Outerwear may have similar variances. It would be advantageous to provide a single garment that could be employed for use in a variety of different situations, since contemporary styles display a tendency to change rapidly.
In the late 1990s, fashion retailers began selling to the mainstream consumer the latest fashion designs shortly after being debuted at fashion shows. Known as fast fashion, retailers began to manufacture the newest clothing trends quickly and inexpensively to allow the mainstream consumer to buy current clothing styles at low prices. Fast fashion is synonymous with the phrase, disposable fashion. Due to cheap fabrics and poor construction, garments began to fall apart quickly, so buying a new garment was often less expensive than making alterations.
Several problems exist for the consumer who wishes to maintain a current wardrobe. With the exception of fast fashion garments, the cost of manufacturing clothing has substantially increased over the past few years. Fast fashion garments are intentionally manufactured to fall apart after their first wear. Despite low prices, in the long run the consumer ends up spending, twice as much to replace the original garment. Alternatively, the cost of higher quality garments has increased significantly over the past few years due to the increased cost of manufacturing, fair labor wages and materials. Accordingly, it is difficult for many consumers to afford the cost of updating one's wardrobe. Further, with respect to articles of clothing comprising outerwear, styles not only vary, but depending on the social occasion require differing outerwear.
The use of traditional shawls has significant disadvantages. Certain clothing designs, such as shawls, require an individual to wrap a shawl over the shoulders. Traditional shawls or blankets, worn as shawls, are merely rectangular pieces of fabric that do not include sleeves, through which arms are manipulated and must be held in place by the person on whom it is draped. In addition to sleeves, traditional shawls or blankets, worn as shawls, do not include pockets.
Therefore, there is a need for a stylish garment that provides the user with warmth, will stay in place during periods of activity, and can be converted for a different style when desired.
A number of patents disclose garments that can be converted or reversed, but none discloses a hoodless coat, jacket, cloak, cowl, shawl, or blanket that can be inverted in such a way as to preserve equal length sleeves before and after inversion, pockets in both original and inverted forms, and/or a fastener or clasp. Moreover, conventional garments that can be converted or reversed often suffer from constraining body movement and excess material in at least one of the configurations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,682, issued Nov. 26, 1985 to Hiliquist for CONVERTIBLE JACKET describes a convertible jacket comprising a sleeveless body garment in the general form of a vest and an upper component comprising, as a unit, two sleeve portions connected by a yoke portion incorporating a neckhole and, optionally, a neckhole extension such as a collar or hood. The yoke portion of the upper component is so configured as to substantially cover the upper back and shoulder area of the body. The upper component, when combined with the vest, forms a selectively convertible jacket providing a second layer of construction upon the upper back and shoulders, minimum restriction of arm and shoulder movement and positive body ventilation. The upper component can be oriented and attached to the vest by fastener means and can be detached and removed from the vest. Such attachment or removal may be effected without regard to whether the vest is being worn.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,402, issued Nov. 11, 1980 to Roach for MULTI-FUNCTIONAL CONVERTIBLE GARMENT describes a multi-functional convertible human garment adapted for furs and the like comprising four pieces: a jacket member, a first extension member, a second extension member, and a belt member. The members utilize zipper-type slide fastener means permitting certain members which are locatable adjacent one another in various combinations to be inter-engaged with one another in various assemblies. Thus, the garment can serve as a jacket, a stole, a street length or car coat, and a maxi or full length coat.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,316,288 issued Feb. 23, 1982 to Henrickson for INVERTIBLE OUTERWEAR GARMENT describes an article of clothing for use as an outerwear garment. The garment comprises a planar integral portion having an elliptical configuration. Invertible sleeves are attached at armholes in the integral portion at a position allowing for use as shawl-length outerwear and additionally for inverted use as floor-length outerwear. Reversible kimono sleeves are provided. The garment is available in only two sleeve lengths: full length, longer sleeves, and street length, shorter sleeves. The material is sufficient to form a hood. No pockets are provided. Moreover, there is no provision for a clasp in this reference. A number of dimension ratios along axes is disclosed, none of which are present in the inventive garment of the present invention.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided an invertible, tailored, contoured, fitted garment, such as a coat, jacket, cloak, cowl, shawl, or blanket, resulting in two tailored, contoured, fitted garments. A long pattern piece having a shawl collar is provided, as is a short pattern piece having a cowl collar. First and second pattern sleeves are provided for forming sleeves. An elongated armhole is provided to which the first and second pattern sleeves are removably attached. The long pattern piece and the short pattern piece each have at least one pocket. The length of the first and second sleeves of the original garment are substantially equal to the length of the first and second sleeves of the garment after inversion thereof. A fastener in the form of a clasp, a snap, a zipper, a metal retainer pair, a hook and loop fastener, or a button and hole fastener permits attachment of a wraparound portion to the body of the short, inverted garment.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an invertible, reversible, tailored, contoured, fitted garment, such as a coat, jacket, cloak, cowl, shawl, or blanket.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an invertible and reversible garment that preserves substantially equal lengths of sleeves before and after inversion.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an invertible and reversible garment that provides pockets in both original and inverted forms.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an invertible garment that provides wearable ease in both directions of arm movement without excess material in either of the configurations.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an invertible garment that has provision for a fastener or clasp.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention are more readily apparent with reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.
A complete understanding of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the accompanying drawings, when considered in conjunction with the subsequent detailed description, in which:
Like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views of the drawings.
Although the following detailed description contains specific details for the purposes of illustration, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that variations and alterations to the following details are within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the exemplary embodiments of the invention described below are set forth without any loss of generality to, and without imposing limitations upon, the claimed invention.
An invertible, reversible, tailored, contoured, fitted garment is provided having a long front pattern piece with one or two pockets. A short back pattern piece. A long front pattern piece and a short back pattern piece are provided, as are two pattern sleeves. When the garment is inverted, the short front pattern becomes the back yoke pattern piece (not shown) of the garment and the two sleeves are substantially equal in length to the sleeves in the original garment.
Referring now to
A yoke seam A1 runs transverse to the major axis of garment 10 at the upper portion thereof. Likewise, a back yoke D1 runs transverse to the major axis of garment 10, as shown. A shoulder seam C1 connects the front of garment 10 to the back thereof.
An optional first clasp I1′ is positioned inside garment 10 midway along a first side thereof to mate with snap J1′ at the inside, opposite side of garment 10, when required. An identical pair of clasp and snap I1, J1 is provided at the lower extremities of garment 10. Although the clasp-snap combination I, J for both fastener pairs is preferred, other fastening means can be substituted to provide the same function, including but not limited to hook-and-loop fasteners, a zipper, a button and hole, a metal retainer pair, magnetic fasteners, and the like, not shown.
Two pockets K1, K2 are provided in the preferred embodiment. Garment 10 can include only one pocket K1 or K2 or no pockets, if desired, depending upon the preference of a wearer, not shown. Accordingly, any number of pockets or no pockets used with garment 10 are considered within the scope of the present invention.
Referring now also to
The yoke seam A1 of original garment 10 is now identified as a side seam F2 of inverted garment 10′. Likewise, the back yoke D1 of original garment 10 is now a back neck D2 of inverted garment 10′. A shoulder seam C2 connects the front of garment 10′ to the backthereof.
The clasp I1 and snap J1 of original garment 10 are now referred to as letters I2 and J2, respectively, of inverted garment 10′ and are used to fasten the wraparound portion thereof to the body thereof, as shown.
The two pockets K1, K2 of original garment 10 are now identified as letters K1′ and K2′ of inverted garment 10′. Once again, any number of pockets or no pockets used with garment 10′ are considered within the scope of the present invention.
Referring now to
Referring now to
In operation, a person, not shown, wearing original garment 10 first unfastens the clasp and snap fastener I, J, slips garment 10 from her shoulders, and removes her arms from sleeves S1, S2, and inverting sleeves S1, S2. Now that original garment 10 has sleeves S1, S2 inside out, the garment is inverted, ready for wrapping and wearing as a short orientation inverted garment 10′. The wearer places her arms in sleeves S1, S2 of inverted garment 10′ and wraps loose cross body wrap H2 around her body, fastening clasp I2 and snap J2 together. The extremities of sleeves S1, S2 can be cuffed or sleeves S1, S2 can be removed altogether.
All references throughout this application, for example patent documents including issued or granted patents or equivalents; patent application publications; and non-patent literature documents or other source material; are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties, as though individually incorporated by reference, to the extent each reference is at least partially not inconsistent with the disclosure in this application. (For example, a reference that is partially inconsistent is incorporated by reference except for the partially inconsistent portion of the reference). All patents and publications mentioned in the specification are indicative of the levels of skill of those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains. References cited herein indicate the state of the art as of their publication or filing date and it is intended that this information can be employed herein, if needed, to exclude specific embodiments that are in the prior art.
The terms and expressions which have been employed herein are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, but it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed. Thus, it should be understood that although the present invention has been specifically disclosed by preferred embodiments, exemplary embodiments and optional features, modification and variation of the concepts herein disclosed may be resorted to by those skilled in the art, and that such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of this invention as defined by the appended claims. The specific embodiments provided herein are examples of useful embodiments of the present invention and it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be carried out using a great number of variations of the devices, device components, and method steps set forth in the present description. As will be obvious to one of skill in the art, methods and devices useful for the present methods can include a great number of optional composition and processing elements and steps.
As used herein, “comprising” is synonymous with “including,” “containing,” or “characterized by,” and is inclusive or open-ended and does not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps. As used herein, “consisting of” excludes any element, step, or ingredient not specified in the claim element. As used herein, “consisting essentially of” does not exclude materials or steps that do not materially affect the basic and novel characteristics of the claim. In each instance herein any of the terms “comprising”, “consisting essentially of,” and “consisting of” may be replaced with either of the other two terms. The invention illustratively described herein suitably may be practiced in the absence of any element or elements, limitation or limitations which is not specifically disclosed herein.
Since other modifications and changes varied to fit particular operating requirements and environments will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention is not considered limited to the example chosen for purposes of disclosure and covers all changes and modifications which do not constitute departures from the true spirit and scope of this invention.
Having thus described the invention, what is desired to be protected by Letters Patent is presented in the subsequently appended claims.
