Patent Application
20130078889
A brassiere which is commonly known as a bra is an undergarment that covers, supports and elevates a woman's breasts. A bra usually consists of a cup for each breast, a center panel, a band running around the torso under the bust, shoulder straps, side panels connected to the torso band and a back strap interconnecting the side panels. Bras are typically made of a fabric such as cotton, nylon, spandex and lace. The cups may be supported by underwires made of metal and sometimes coated with plastic. The bra is usually fastened with a hook fastener typically located at the central portion of the back strap.
A problem occurs when the bra is worn under a dress or blouse/shirt which is low cut in the back. In that regard, the back strap extends across the low cut area and is exposed and visually unattractive. It would be desirable if a bra could be provided which avoids the problem of a visible back strap, that could be worn with a garment having a low cut back.
An object of this invention is to provide a woman's bra which can be worn with a garment having a low cut back, but wherein a back strap is not readily visible.
A further object of this invention is to provide such a bra which can be readily incorporated with otherwise conventional bra construction.
In accordance with the preferred practice of this invention the back strap or at least the central portion thereof would be made of a transparent or nude or flesh colored material so that it could extend across the low cut back of a garment and not be readily visible.
In a preferred practice of this invention the back strap is detachably secured by fastening structure at one end to an adjacent side panel so that the fastening structure can be readily manipulated to permit the bra to be worn by or removed from the woman.
A key feature of this invention is that back strap 20 is transparent or nude or is flesh colored so that when it extends across the open area of the low cut garment at the back, the back strap is not readily visible.
Another important feature of the invention is that the fastening structure which is used for permitting the bra to be worn by and removed from the woman is at a location other than the central portion of the back strap which would span across the open low cut back 26 of the garment 24. As illustrated in
If the fastening structure is located at the front of the bra, the back strap 20 could be permanently secured (such as by stitching) to the side panels 16. If desired, however, even where the fastening structure is at the front, the back strap 20 could be detachably secured to the side panels 16 to provide the option of replacing one back strap with another. Any known fastening structure could be used such as hooks, Velcro, clips, etc.
By locating the fastening structure at a location other than the central portion of the back strap, the back strap 20 is of a unitary uninterrupted structure between its ends so that it is free of any detachable fastening structure (such as hooks) in the central portion of the back strap that might otherwise be visible when worn with a garment having a low cut back.
As noted, in the practice of this invention the back strap 20 is transparent or nude or flesh colored. The remainder of the bra could be of any color including being of the same color as the back strap itself. More likely, however, the invention would be practiced with bras of conventional colors which are not transparent or nude or flesh colored and thus differ from the color of the back strap.
In the practice of this invention using a flesh colored back strap the color of band 20 could be of distinct colors to match the skin color for different ethnic wearers. The use of a transparent back strap provides a greater assurance of minimizing the visibility of the back strap. A nude back strap would also be of reduced visibility. When a flesh colored back strap is used, the invention could be practiced where there is not a perfect match with the skin color or tone of the woman, but where there is enough of a match so as to minimize the visibility of the back strap or at least have its visibility not so significant as to detract from the use of a garment having a low cut back.
In an alternative practice of the invention, a garment having a low cut back could be worn without a visible back strap by completely omitting the back strap. This could be done by securing the side panels directly to the inner surface of the outer garment by any suitable interconnecting fastening structure on the outer surface of the side panels and the inner surface of the garment. One suitable form of fastening structure would be Velcro, although hooks/loops, clips, etc. could also be used. In this practice of the invention, the free ends of the side panels thus terminate spaced from each other without any interconnecting back strap. The fastening structure on the outer surface of the free ends of the side panels would be detachably connected to the complementary fastening structure on the inner surface of the garment near the low cut back to selectively secure the bra to the garment without any bra back strap being in the low cut back. The low cut back provides ready access to the fastening structure on the side panels and to the complementary fastening structure on the garment to facilitate attaching the bra to or detaching the bra from the garment.
As is apparent this invention provides various techniques whereby a woman can wear a garment which is low cut in the back and minimize a visually unattractive bra back strap being visible in that low cut back area.
