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Abuse of Empire style robe to thermal insulation and body discomfort

Youngjoo Na (Department of Clothing and Textiles, Inha University, Incheon, Korea.)
Jisu Kim (Department of Clothing and Textiles, Inha University, Incheon, Korea.)

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology

ISSN: 0955-6222

Article publication date: 3 August 2015

224

Abstract

Purpose

Empire style fashion, Greek-Roman style robe with bare shoulder and chest and short sleeved with long gloves which created a slim silhouette, was worn even in winter season in Europe, where average temperature is 0-5°C. Most women suffered with catching cold and thousands caught flu and tuberculosis of the lungs, called muslin disease. The purpose of this paper is to find out clothing insulation of the robe by measuring the thermal resistance and to guess how cold they felt in this robe in winter time.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors performed the investigation on original robe shape with based on historical evidence and data, such as drawings, sketches, pattern books and sewing books, and reproduced a representative robe costume and tested its thermal insulation. The fabrics of robe were thin wool, silk and cotton following the literature evidence and preserved costume. Thermal insulation of the robes was measured using thermal manikin with the test method ISO 15831. The authors analyzed the thermal insulation of reconstructed robes with an inner cotton breech as for daily use and tested them wrapped with cashmere shawl on manikin shoulder as for severe cold weather.

Findings

The dress robes had the range of 0.61-0.67 clo regardless of the type of fabric materials, and 0.80-0.81 clo with the cashmere shawl. These values were not enough for women to keep body temperature or comfort in winter time.

Originality/value

This study combined fashion historic theory for costume reproduction with clothing science and technology for thermal insulation. Combination of costume history, construction technology and measurement engineering is the ingenious idea, and the combination of historical and scientific research evidences interdisciplinary originality.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (#2013004808) and Inha University Grant.

Citation

Na, Y. and Kim, J. (2015), "Abuse of Empire style robe to thermal insulation and body discomfort", International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 587-599. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCST-01-2014-0006

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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