Patent Application
20160037880
The present invention relates to a fashion accessory referred to herein as a styling accessory styling that can be accommodated to different users and/or transformed to serve as a multifunctional adornment to enhance the image of the wearer.
Not applicable.
Not applicable
Today, there is an increasing awareness of style and the need to appear attractive, garner attention and elicit a favorable response from ones friends, associates at work and others that we may meet. The demands on a fashion accessory are substantial. They must appear dramatic (for one reason or another) and interesting. They are often at their best when they appear novel or unusual. However, at the same time, they must fit in with relatively rigid protocols dictated by past fashion, current trends, and a certain hard to particularize “sense of fashion.” Thus, the development of fashion accessories that stand out and yet fit within the above parameters presents a substantial challenge to designers.
As a result, the number of successful introductions is very limited, and the number of tried and failed entrants represents a substantial cost to innovators. Thus, despite the necessity for innovative personal adornment to enhance the beauty of an individual, create a sense of status or create attraction, while at the same time being efficient on cost of the adornment, creates inherent and substantial conflicts and challenges. Moreover, costs of introduction must take into account, not only design costs, but also other new product costs, such as market education, advertising, tooling, sales costs and so forth.
In accordance with the invention, costs associated with the inventive new product may more effectively be utilized on a garment that is at once traditional and innovative, while allowing the user a large measure of self expression. Notwithstanding the facility for self-expression, the structural elements act as an anchor, at once assuring that user expression will remain in a range consistent with mechanical stability, accepted aesthetic limits and a quality look.
Moreover, the subject design, in addition to allowing a wide range of self expression, also is adapted to accommodate users within a large range of clothes sizes. Efficiencies in cost can be maximized with the inventive personal adornment that is manufactured with the facility of being able to be worn in a plurality of configurations and/or as different types of adornments. The inventive accessory, referred to herein as a styling accessory, can be used in different arrangements. More particularly, the inventive styling accessory can be arranged or configured in many different configurations, allowing personal creativity. Resulting arrangements may function as a bracelet, belt, headband or necklace.
Moreover, the structure of the inventive styling accessory is such that that the wearer of the strap-like accessory may choose to snap down essentially every snap that the wearer does not choose to leave free.
Snap shapes can be varied, as can their size and color. For example, the female decorative side can be any shape (i.e. pyramid shaped, cone shaped, heart shaped etc). Also, snaps can be employed in the invention in any material, such as plastic, wood, ceramic, bone, horn, any metal, or precious metal such as gold, silver, and platinum, etc.
In accordance with the invention, an accessory for personal adornment that transforms into a plurality of adornments each having a plurality of configurations is provided. The styling accessory can be transformed, for example into such accessories as a bracelet, a belt, a headband, and single and double strap necklaces.
The inventive accessory comprises a leather ribbon, which is, for example, one centimeter in width. Any material, and most preferably a flexible, bendable or formable material, may be used in place of leather.
The top surface of the inventive styling accessory may carry forty-two 42 snaps disposed its length, with equal, for example, numbers of female and male snaps. The leather may have a finished and unfinished side, with the male portion inserted through the leather ribbon exposing a, for example metallic, rounded knob on the finished or unfinished side of the ribbon. Female snaps are likewise disposed along the length of the leather ribbon.
A styling accessory is adapted to be configured into different configurations for performing different corresponding functions and comprises a band having a length and a width. The length is at least ten times the width. The band has first and second surfaces. The band is made of a material capable of being formed into a curved shape. A plurality of male snaps are disposed along a first portion of the length of the band. A plurality of female snaps are disposed along a second portion of the length of the band. The second portion is adjacent the first portion. The female snaps mate with the male snaps.
The first and second portions styling accessory comprise at least 95% of the length of the styling accessory. One of the surfaces is finished, and said female snaps extends between the finished surface and the other surface. The female snaps each comprise a cavity configured to matingly engage said male snaps, said cavity being oriented to be disposed on said other surface.
The male snaps of the styling accessory each comprise a protrusion configured to matingly engage said cavity on said female snaps. The protrusions may be oriented to be disposed on said finished surface.
The protrusions may be configured to matingly engage said cavity on said female snaps. the protrusion may be oriented to be disposed on said other surface.
At least one of said surfaces is finished and said female snaps extend between the finished surface and the other surface. The female snaps each comprise a cavity configured to matingly engage said male snaps, said cavity being oriented to be disposed on said other surface.
Optionally, the styling accessory may have at least one of said surfaces is finished. The protrusion is oriented to be disposed on said other surface, and said female snaps extend between the finished surface and the other surface. The female snaps each comprise a cavity configured to matingly engage said male snaps, and said cavity is oriented to be disposed on said other surface. the protrusion on said male snaps configured to matingly engage said cavity on said female snaps, and may be separated by a third portion of the length of said band, and further comprises an additional male snap positioned on said third portion. The additional male snap comprises an additional protrusion mating with a female snap, and said additional protrusion is positioned on said finished surface. The additional male snap is closer to the closest of said female snaps, than it is to the closest of the other male snaps.
The styling accessory may have has a width between 0.5 cm and 7 cm and a length between 80 cm and 120 cm, and the center to center separation between snaps may be between 1.6 to 3.0 cm.
The styling accessory may have a width between 0.5 cm and 7 cm and a length between 80 cm and 120 cm, and the center to center separation between snaps may be 1.8 to 2.9 cm.
Thus snaps, optionally numbering twenty-one male snaps and twenty-one female snaps may be positioned 2.5 cm (one inch) apart from each other.
The structure and use of the invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which:
Reference is first made to
Stitching may be made by machine. Alternatively, and more desirably, stitching may be done by prepiercing the leather with holes for receiving the thread, and then lacing the leather together with a first thread end entering one finished side of the band and exiting the other finished side of the band, for example, a band made of two strips of top grain cowhide glued back to back. A second thread end enters the same hole at the other finished side of the band and exits at the said one finished side of the band. The process is continued until one edge of the band is thus stitched. The opposite edge of the band is then secured in the same fashion.
Referring to
In
Referring to
As an alternative to individual metal snaps mounted on a leather band, the engagement structure may take the form of an integrally molded, for example a single plastic injection molded part comprising a band, female engagement structure and male engagement structure. The male engagement structure may take the form of male engagement knobs having the same operative structure (knob and waist) as a conventional brass snap.
The snaps are applied in conventional fashion, for example using a template to assure uniform or other desired spacing between the snaps.
Female engagement structure may take the form of a hole, for example an hourglass shaped hole with a reduced diameter midway between the finished and rough sides of the band to promote engagement with the knob on the male engagement structure. Generally, the widest diameter on the knob of the male engagement structure should be larger than the smallest diameter of the hourglass shape which comprises the operative portion of the female engagement structure. Such integrak structures thus incorporate mating male and female engagement structure found on other items, such as the flexible plastic size adjustment structure in the rear band of some modern baseball caps.
In accordance with one preferred embodiment, there are forty-two snaps, comprising twenty-one male snaps and twenty-one female snaps. The snaps are separated by 2.5 cm, as measured center to center along the length of band 12. The resulting 105 cm length works well over a range of, for example, women's sizes. If wrapped around the waist, the 2.5 cm size adjustment increment works well across a range of, for example, women's waist sizes, due to the compressibility of the body where it contacts the garment.
Conversely, if doubled up to act as a headband or hair band, the doubling of inventive accessory 10 over itself effectively results in size adjustment increments of 1.25 cm. Flexible band 12 has multiple functions of use and may be adjusted in size after being configured to perform the desired function as selected by the wearer according to the wearer's needs and preferences. The provision of a higher degree of resolution in the adjustment of the inventive styling accessory 10 when used as a headband or hair band accommodates the smaller degree of flexibility offered by this part of the body, which is relatively hard and incompressible due to the thinness of the epidermal, dermal and subcutaneous lipid cellular structures of the anatomy in this part of the body and the hair which may tend to be arranged in very compact configurations and be substantially incompressible.
Use for multiple functions by average to large men may be accommodated by 2.8 cm spacing of the snaps on a 105 cm long strap, optionally increased to a width of 2.8 cm. Aesthetic considerations may suggest narrower or even much wider band dimensions, but widths between 0.5 cm and 7 cm and lengths between 80 cm and 120 cm are contemplated by the present invention.
Referring to
To create a necklace flexible band 12 goes over a user's shoulder, behind and around the neck, over the other shoulder, and across the other end of flexible band 12. Styling accessory 10 can be secured by strapping one or more female and male snaps together, perhaps looping the band over itself to achieve a desired ornamental or weighting effect.
To create a belt adornment the flexible band 12, in much the same manner as a conventional belt is positioned around the user's waist and is snapped in position.
Referring to
Referring to
Inventive styling accessory 410 illustrated in
Inventive styling accessory 510 illustrated in
While a number of illustrative embodiments of the inventive caddy have been described above, it is recognized that certain modifications will be obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art. For example, any sizing variation that contains the same components of snaps (ex: equal distanced, equal numbered male and female snaps). For example, one may increase, for example double, the size of the styling accessory to about 200 cm, or reduce the size, for example by one-half the size at disclosed. Such modifications are within the spirit and scope of the invention which is limited and defined only by the appended claims.
