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The purpose of this paper is to investigate differences in taste in women’s sportswear t-shirts, between Japanese and French people.

A questionnaire survey on the impression of the appearance of t-shirts was conducted using three-dimensional simulations that the authors created. A sensory test was carried out for 24 designs (having varying types of sleeves, bodice length and fitting) on 51 examinees (26 Japanese and 25 French) who voluntarily participated.

Results show that both Japanese and French people most appreciated very short t-shirts and considered sleeveless and tank top shirts to be the most appropriated for exercise. Participants liked a cool, modern, showy, short, special, elaborate and feminine design. Additionally, Japanese people considered that casual clothes that are suitable for exercise are not suitable for wearing outside the gym, whereas this was not notable for French people.

The results of the present study will allow the sportswear industry to better target clients.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a size-changing method with three-dimensional (3D) garment modeling for various body sizes considering vertical body proportions in addition to horizontal dimensions, while preserving the silhouette and ease of the original garment.

Cross-sectional dimensions and shapes of one dress form (the standard body) and jacket bodice were obtained by 3D scanning. The authors calculated horizontal multiplication factors of the relationship between the standard body and jacket bodice, and vertical body proportions. A target dress form was deformed using multiplication factors and vertical body proportions to construct a garment model that fitted the dress form. The method was verified using three different dress forms. The bodices of the jackets were compared with those obtained without adjusting vertical proportions.

Employing the proposed method, jacket bodices were made and fitted on target bodies while preserving the original shape. Jackets bodices made without considering vertical proportions had many wrinkles and deformed shape and poor fit around the bust line owing to the different vertical proportions. The vertical proportion is thus an important factor in the 3D garment modeling of garments of different size fitted on a body.

The proposed method is a new size-changing or grading method for a bodice that preserves the original silhouette.

The proposed modeling method allows the construction of jacket bodice models and jackets of different size considering vertical body proportions. The method is applicable when making individually tailored garments or ready-to-wear garments for different targets.

To suggest a garment for a wider market, the purpose of this paper is to assess the appearance of garments manufactured by a combination of four methods of flat pattern making and four dress forms from different countries. The paper also compares Japanese and British women’s evaluations of these garments’ appearances.

The authors made 16 garments by combining 4 pattern making methods with measurements from 4 dress forms and evaluated their appearance. The four dress forms were from Japan (Kiiya, called “Kii”), France (Siegel & Stockman, called “St”), the UK (Kennett & Lindsell, called “KL”) and the USA (Wolf Form, called “Wo”), and the four pattern making methods were from Japan (Bunka), Italy (Secoli), France (ESMOD) and the USA (Fashion Institute of Technology, called “FIT”). The authors captured 64 sets of pictures of the 16 garments with the 4 dress forms from the front and the side. The authors then showed images of the four garments made using the same pattern making method with measurements from the four dress forms to subjects for assessment. The subjects – 15 Japanese and 11 British women in their 20s – ranked the pictures in descending order of appearance.

Subjects from both countries rated garments manufactured using the Bunka and Secoli pattern making methods with the Kii and KL dress forms, and those made using ESMOD and FIT with St and Wo as the highest, even though the dress forms used for pattern making and those for wearing were not coincident. On the contrary, many garments made using Bunka and Secoli with St and Wo, and those made using ESMOD and FIT with Kii and KL were rated lowest in terms of appearance, even though the target dress form and wearing dress form were coincident. Therefore, there are appropriate body measurements for each pattern making method that can render the relevant garment more attractive, likely because these measurements are derived from assumed body proportions in the pattern making method of each country.

Although the evaluation of the appearance of garments is an important factor in garment manufacture, scant research has addressed this issue. Moreover, the comparison between Japanese and British women provided here will help manufacturers make garments that are more attractive to people in both countries.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current challenges to making individualized men’s dress shirt adjustments, and devised a novel measurement method to assess shoulder shape.

To understand the common complaints about ready-to-wear dress shirts, a wear evaluation with 15 Japanese males was performed. The shoulder components of these shirts could not be adjusted using any currently available measurement methods. The three-dimensional body shape of two subjects who had a problem with the shoulder of ready-to-wear shirts was compared with a dummy designed to represent the average Japanese male.

The authors determined that one of the subjects with an incompatible shoulder fit had a shoulder point (SP) line that was anterior to the one measured on the average dummy. The other subject had a smaller shoulder angle than the average dummy. To effectively measure the wearer’s shoulder characteristics, the authors devised a new measuring device that can measure the shoulder angle and its degree of forward thrust. With this device, it was possible to understand the wearers’ shoulder types and make appropriate dress shirt adjustments.

The authors devised a new measuring device to assess shoulder angle and forward thrust, qualities that previously could not be measured without three-dimensional analysis. Using this device, it was possible to understand the wearers’ shoulder types and make appropriate dress shirt adjustments.

This study investigated changes in appearance due to variations in the amount of ease allowance at the bust, waist and hips with ready-made women's shirts in two different styles. The authors also examined the suitable range for ease allowance with those two styles using a sensory test for evaluating appearance.

The authors employed two women's shirts (samples I and II) in different styles (fit and straight). The authors modified the size of the bust, waist and hips with a changeable-size dress form using 1-cm intervals. The authors observed the shape changes. With the pictures at 2-cm intervals, the authors conducted a sensory test to evaluate appearance. 20 Japanese university students in their 20s made their assessments using seven items (wrinkles, fit, silhouette, beauty, fashionable impression, comfort and purchase intention) with a five-point scale. The proportion of subjects who scored 1 or more was 40% or greater when using ease allowance in the suitable range.

The appropriate ranges of ease allowance differed according to the style and evaluation items. Regarding appearance and purchase intention with sample I from the front, the suitable range of ease allowance was 1–7 cm for the bust, 2–6 cm for the hips and 13 cm for the waist. From the side, the range was 0–6 cm for the hips and 7 cm for the bust. With sample II from the front, the suitable range of ease allowance was about 4 cm for all parts. From the side, the range was 11 cm for the bust and 4 cm for the hips.

Using a dress form, the authors determined suitable ranges of ease allowance for two women's shirts in fit and straight styles with seven bust, six waist and six hip sizes. The authors found that the suitable range of ease allowance varied according to the style, direction and parts of the shirt. Our results can act as a guideline for designing and selecting ease allowance for women's shirts, taking into account comfort from appearance, purchase intention and beauty.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify changes in the appearance of a ready-made tailored jacket due to changes in the ease allowance and determine suitable ranges of the ease allowance for the jacket.

Images were taken of the front, side and back of a jacket placed on a dress form with varying sizes of bust, waist and hips. The authors observed the appearance of the jacket for the different sizes of the dress form. A sensory evaluation of the suitable range of ease allowance for the jacket involving 20 female Japanese university students was carried out. The evaluation items were the fit, beauty, comfort and purchase intention.

The jacket appearance was lowly evaluated if there were many wrinkles and highly evaluated if there was a curved silhouette. Changes in bust, sleeve and waist parts affected the evaluation of the suitable ranges of ease allowance. The suitable range of ease allowance varied depending on the jacket part and viewing direction. In terms of fit, the suitable ease allowance ranged between 5.6 and 9.9 percent for the bust, between 7.6 and 17.8 percent for the waist and between 2.6 and 8.6 percent for the hips. The suitable ranges were determined considering the wrinkling and silhouette in these parts.

Suitable ranges of ease allowance of a tailored jacket were determined by evaluating a jacket for 11 dress form sizes of the bust, nine sizes of the waist and seven sizes of the hips, at 2 cm intervals. The obtained suitable ease allowance ranges are useful to manufacturers in terms of garment design and to customers in terms of selecting suitable garments.

The purpose of this paper is to create a fabric retrieval system for designers that is based on a database that includes designers’ criteria and Kansei (sense and feeling) information, designed for the selection of a fabric from a wide range in e-commerce.

The database included sensory expressions for each type of fabric taken from fashion journals and values of smoothness, softness, luster and thinness (referred to as Kansei values) for each fabric. The Kansei values were determined by a Japanese expert designer using standard fabric samples of a fabric type. The system uses two search methods to find the desired type of fabric: a category search method and a free word search method. After finding appropriate types of fabric, the user further narrows down the fabrics of the selected type to more suitable fabrics using the Kansei values. The validity of the Kansei values and the effectiveness of the system were verified by 11 professional designers from Japan and Sweden.

The Japanese and Swedish designers were satisfied with the fabrics retrieved for specific items and found that the system was effective. The Kansei values were similar among fashion designers and shown to be effective for fabric retrieval.

The system will allow designers to find appropriate types of fabric and to narrow their search for fabrics among selected types to find candidate fabrics easily and quickly with their Kansei values and experience without technical knowledge of fabrics.

A suitable dress form is necessary for patternmaking when manufacturing a garment for the global market. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the similarities and differences in visual impressions and preferences of dress forms between Japanese and British female university students.

The authors carried out sensory evaluations of the visual impressions of dress forms using images of four forms made in Japan, France, the UK and the USA. The participants (18 Japanese and 11 British female university students in their 20s) assessed them using the semantic differential method. In total, 22 adjective pairs concerning style, image and preference factors were used. The authors performed a principal component analysis on the results for style and image. For preference factors, one-way analysis of variance was used to analyze whether there was a difference in preference between the dress forms.

The Japanese students evaluated dress forms by considering balance and cool (fashionable) as the first principal component, and frailty and delicacy as the second. A large bust-to-waist ratio strengthens the impression of the latter component. The Japanese preferred dress forms of the kind worn by fashion models. Their preference was heavily influenced by the first principal component, but this preference decreased when the dress form evinced a weak impression. The British students assessed dress forms using healthy and cool (fashionable) as the first principal component, and frail and thin body as the second. A ratio of the width of the shoulder to that of the waist (at the front) of 1.6:1 and a rounded back shape from the side view were considered healthy.

These results can help understand the Japanese and British customers’ impressions and preferences on the dress form. Moreover, apparel manufacturers choose a suitable dress form to manufacture garments for the global market, by considering similarities and differences in people’s preferences.

This study aimed to clarify the criteria for subjective evaluation of the similarities and differences between virtual and actual pants and propose a quantitative evaluation method for those similarities and differences based on geometric features related to the evaluation.

Using patterns, we made five pairs of actual pants for a dummy in five fabrics. We simulated virtual pants with a 3-D simulator. Sensory evaluation was conducted with images of the virtual and actual pants: 20 participants compared the images based on a questionnaire. For the structure of evaluation, the authors undertook analysis of variance and principal component analysis. The actual and virtual pants were geometrically compared using the 3-D scanned data. To investigate the relationship between quantitative and sensory evaluation, the authors calculated the correlation coefficients.

The authors found that subjects perceived the differences between actual and simulated pants. When comparing the virtual and actual pants, the criteria for the differences were the silhouette from the front view, hem width, waist and wrinkles. Using differences in the hem width, it would be possible to evaluate the differences between actual and simulated pants. Roughness and smoothness of the silhouette also affected evaluation.

The authors clarified the evaluation criteria for the similarities and differences between virtual and actual pants. The authors proposed a quantitative evaluation method for the similarities and differences between virtual and actual garment based on our criteria. This study will be of benefit to 3-D simulator users and developers.

The authors investigate the effects of four basic bodice pattern shapes and developing methods on the appearances of ladies' fitted bodice design. The authors also clarify the preferred appearance among the four ladies' fitted bodice design as reported by Japanese university students and propose a pattern developing method of the preferred bodice design using the four basic bodices.

Targeting a ladies' fitted bodice design with designated dimensions, four ladies' fitted bodices were manufactured using four types of basic bodice pattern and their development methods: BUNKA from Japan, ESMOD from France, ARMSTRONG from the United States, and ALDRICH from the United Kingdom. The appearances of the four fitted bodices were observed and explained in terms of ease and darts. The authors also conducted a sensory test regarding the preferred shirt appearance adopting a semantical difference method, for 15 female Japanese university students in their twenties. The authors propose a pattern developing method to design the preferred fitted bodice shape using different basic bodices considering the amount and allocation of ease and size and allocation of darts to front and back of the bodice.

The appearances of the bodices were different even for the same fitted bodice design depending on the type of basic bodice pattern and its developing method. BUNKA had a slightly constricted silhouette at the waist and ESMOD had a straight silhouette and less constriction. ARMSTRONG had the most constricted silhouette and rounded hips and ALDRICH had a slightly constricted curve from the bust to the hips. The shape differences were strongly related to the amount of ease and the difference in waist darts between front and back of the bodice. The Japanese participants preferred fitted bodices that have a constricted silhouette from front and back views. From the side view, a straight line at the front and a constricted shape and emphasized hip at the back silhouette were preferred. By adjusting the allocations of ease and waist darts to front and back of the bodice, it was possible to design the preferred fitted bodice shape even with different basic pattern.

It was found that the basic bodice pattern and developing method affect the final clothing. It is necessary to adjust the allocation of ease and darts to front and back of the bodice to construct clothing using different patternmaking methods. It was shown that it is more important to consider the patternmaking method than to select a suitable basic bodice pattern. It is necessary to understand the characteristics of allocation and amount of ease and the allocation and size of waist darts in both the basic patternmaking method and developing method. This approach is also useful in making an article of clothing with a shape required in other countries.