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In this study, the use of various clothing descriptors have been used to provide some insights into clothing perception for 88 female students. The use of clothing descriptors to categorize different aspects of clothing is a vital component of clothing selection, given the assumption that explicit use of clothing descriptors may reveal implicit clothing categories. Season, income per month, and total clothing descriptors used were shown to differentially affect the use of various clothing descriptors such as brand, colour, quality, quantity, and size. The results of this study have provided partial evidence for the effect of IT on the use of clothing descriptors, perceived clothing functionality, and effects of financial constraints on brand perception. Moreover, clothing descriptors seem to be useful in illuminating underyling schemas and processes for clothing selection. Implications for future research are discussed in terms of clothing selection and purchase.

The traditional way of wind protection is to use wind‐proof fabrics as outer covers of clothing systems which resist moisture vapour transfer from the inner body, and this can cause associated discomfort. To solve this problem, three design methods are proposed in this paper. These are: (1) to cover the windward areas of the clothing systems with impermeable fabrics and the leeward areas with permeable fabrics; (2) to block the air movement within the insulating materials of the clothing systems, and (3) to have even air pressure distributions over the circumference of a clothing system. The practical value of these designs is evaluated by testing clothing assemblies on a cylindrical togmeter located in a wind tunnel.

The changes in the Czech Republic brought by the transition process had a significant impact on all sectors of the economy and none more so than on retailing. Presents the initial findings of a long‐term longitudinal study of clothing retailing in the Czech Republic examining the retail format and merchandise assortment structure of clothing retailing in the period of 1994‐1999. The research focused on Czech towns and specifically excluded the capital city of Prague. From the analysis of the retail format development two broad conclusions emerge. First, the smaller towns appear to be more conservative in terms of structural change. Second, there appears to be more extensive changes in retail format patterns occurring in the larger towns. .

The purpose of this study was to investigate the similarities and differences in single‐ and dual‐parent family households in their selection and acquisition of children's clothing. Respondents included 247 parents of students enrolled in grades K‐12. Significant differences were found in the following items considered. Lack of money was more of a problem for single‐parent families than for dual‐parent families, p = 0.002. Single‐parent families paid for clothing more often by cheque or cash than did dual‐parent families, p=0.009; dual‐parent families used store credit cards more frequently than single‐parent families, p=0.03. No significant differences were found in sources, important purchase factors or satisfaction when selecting and acquiring children's clothing. For all parents, the four most important factors considered when selecting children's clothing were fit, what the parent likes, care required and price. Please note that in the US most children begin school at age 5 in kindergarten (K); ele‐mentary school continues through age 10 at grade 5; middle school encompasses ages 11–13 in grades 6–8; and high school includes ages 14–17 in grades 9–12.

The aim of this paper is to find out if there is an optimum combination of the three layer clothing system and if so to indicate how this layered system may be applied to the development and marketing of outdoor clothing.

Seven fabrics typically used in outdoor clothing systems were chosen for the experiments; two fabrics for base liner, two for the mid layer and three for the outer shell. A total of 12 different clothing systems, which are all possible combinations that a consumer may create as clothing systems, were then established using the selected fabrics. To evaluate the effectiveness of the clothing systems, the water vapour permeability of each of these varying combinations was measured under both isothermal conditions and non‐isothermal conditions.

When three layers of fabrics, each developed to be base liner, middle layer and outer shell, were assembled into a simulated clothing system, it was expected that they would function together as a whole, exerting some influence over each other. In this paper, it was found that the behaviour of water vapour permeability changes if a layered system is applied within a clothing system. Furthermore, it was also found that an optimum combination of the three layer clothing system does exist although the combination may differ according to the ways in which the clothing system is evaluated.

These findings may be used for the development and marketing of three layer outdoor clothing systems as consumers will benefit by being offered the clothing system that will provide them with maximum comfort.

With the application and development of intelligent clothing and wearable technology, the term “micro-interaction” has gradually entered people’s lives. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The paper takes the concept of “micro-interaction” as the design principle, starting from the consumer demand, combing the realization mode of the intelligent safety clothing in recent years, and finds out the existing problems in the design of the intelligent safety clothing.

Under the concept of micro-interaction, a new theoretical model has been proposed to study intelligent safety clothing. Finally, the paper also emphasizes the importance of the industrialization of the proposed model.

The paper proposes a new research and development mode for intelligent clothing in safety protection area which is a pioneering study and can be valuable for safety clothing manufacturers to produce more functional and attractive products.

The effects of body motion, clothing design and environmental conditions on the thermal insulation of clothing systems were investigated by using a newly developed fabric manikin. The manikin was covered with four typical clothing systems, and the changes of thermal insulation of these clothing systems and the heat lost from the clothed manikin were examined under various walking speeds (0–1.2 km/hr), wind velocities (0–2.2 m/s), and ambient temperature (—20°C–20°C) inside an environmental chamber. Out of this work, better understanding of the reduction of thermal insulation, owing to the combined effects of body motion and wind, are achieved. Also, the work showed the significant effect of ambient temperature on the effective clothing thermal insulation and the advantage of using aluminium foil in the construction of clothing for use in cold environments. Finally, the work revealed the fact that body motion can have a very significant effect on the clothing thermal insulation even though body activity is low. This explains why people, when they feel cold, like to increase their activity level in order to increase heat production rather than reduce their activity level to reduce the heat lost.

In order to pursue men's suit wear comfort, the basic data on an accurate men's suit comfort analysis with clothing pressure is required. Therefore, in such investigation, it is difficult to find out ideal persons as test subjects. In the measuring experiments, we used dummies designed for resuscitation practice to obtain the clothing pressure with both normal standing posture and movement patterns and compared these data with subjects' to give the relationship of clothing pressure between the dummy and subject. The correlation between the measurements with dummies and the subjects' are shown. It turns out that the dummy D1 and D6 are mainly as intended in pressure measurement with normal standing posture. But the dummy D2 and D3 are not. It turns out that the dummy D1 can imitate the human shoulder's movement patterns well, and the dummy D4 and D6 are mainly as intended. But the dummy D2 is not. It turns out that all the dummies have a certain limitation to be placed in clothing pressure measurements. It also shows that instead of subject to use dummy to investigate clothing pressure with both normal standing posture and movement pattern, not only dummy's features such as compression hardness, form and size, but measuring postures are also needed to take into consideration.

The purpose of the paper is to simulate the effect of clothing insulation and activity on the interaction between the human body and the environment.

A thermo-physiological model, integrated into a Fluent CFD software package is applied. The temperature of the skin surface, clothing surface and heat flux (dry and total heat flux) through layers of clothing with different insulation level are numerically investigated in function of the clothing insulation and the different activities performed indoors.

The increase of the clothing insulation leads to increase of both skin and clothing temperature. Higher temperature difference ΔT between the room temperature and skin temperature provokes more dynamic change of the skin temperature and decreases the thermal comfort of the person. The increase of the metabolic rate, however, leads to more uniform skin temperature, regardless the temperature difference ΔT. With the increase of the clothing insulation for a constant metabolic rate the total heat flux remains constant, but the dry heat flux decreases, while the evaporative heat flux increases.

The joint influence of clothing insulation and indoor activities on the thermal interaction between the body and the environment is assesses using a thermo-physiological model, integrated in a CFD software package.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the heat and moisture transmission through different types of textile materials or material combinations used for male business clothing.

In this study, eight different material combinations, which simulate four‐layer male business clothing system were tested using the sweating cylinder under two environmental conditions (10°C/65% RH and 25°C/65% RH), and at two sweating levels (100 and 200 gm⁻²h⁻¹), in order to evaluate the heat and moisture transmission properties of material combinations.

The results show how combinations of clothing materials that simulate male business clothing system influence on the dry and evaporative heat loss between the cylinder surface and two different environment conditions as well as to different sweating levels.

The sweating cylinder can be used for measuring the heat and moisture transmission through clothing materials or material combinations in order to find out the best combination of textile materials, which simulate clothing system. Measured thermal comfort properties of material combinations evaluated with a sweating cylinder can provide valuable information for the textile and clothing industry by manufacturing/designing new textiles and clothing systems.

The paper investigated the heat and moisture transmission through combinations of clothing materials that simulate male business clothing system. In the past few years, clothing materials containing microencapsulated phase‐change materials (PCMs) have appeared in outdoor garments, particularly sportswear; therefore, we decided to investigate the combinations of standard used textile materials as well as of materials, containing PCMs, which simulate male business clothing system.