Part -2

Psychology and Comfort

 Factors influencing the clothing
comfort sensations
 Physical factors
 Deal with the human-clothing-

environment system
 Psycho-physiological factors of the
wearer
 Psychological filters of the brain
 The psycho-physiological factors for
expressing human comfort are:

 Average skin temperature

 Degree of skin wetness
 Rate of sweating
 The amount of sweat
 Amount of sweat absorbed by clothing
 Rate of heart beat
 Psychological filters of the brain

 The clothing comfort is a human

psychological perception related with
clothing ensemble, which is an outcome of
complex linkages between individual
sensory stimuli received by brain,
evaluation and weighing of all these
stimuli to formulate subjective perception
of overall comfort based on wear
experience
Important physical, physiological and psychological
factors controlling the clothing comfort
Heat, liquid/vapour
transmission of clothing Psychological process
Psycho-
physiological Physical
process factors Appearance

Thermoregulatory
response of body

Physiological Skin sensory responses Perception of

process brain
Human interaction /
activity in (with)
Comfort
environment

Fitness
Environmental
/physical factors Environmental condition
(hot / cold, RH %) Psychological process
 Physical perceptions of clothing comfort
The physical comfort is greatly influenced by
 Tactile; and
 Thermal sensations
- arising from contact between skin and the immediate
environment
Factors affecting the clothing comfort perceptions

 Moisture related factor;

 Tactile sensations related factors;

 Thermal ; and

 Fit comfort

Various attempts have been made on the prediction of

clothing comfort using Neural Network Model
3 different process to understand Clothing Comfort
 Structure of Feed forward
Back propagation network model
 Sensory perceptions of clothing
comfort
 Types of sensations generated from
clothing ensemble depend on
 Type of clothing,

 Type and level of activities, and

 The environmental conditions

 The most common clothing comfort related

sensory attributes are thermal, moisture,
tactile, hand, and aesthetic experiences
Established attributes which describe the clothing
comfort sensory perceptions of human
 Loose or tight, heavy or light, stiff or pliable, sticky or
non-sticky, absorbent or non-absorbent, cold or warm,
pleasant or clammy, dry or damp, pricky or non-pricky,
rough or smooth, and so on …………..
 Some of these may not give useful contribution in
predicting comfort. So, most important and established
attributes for predicting comfort are:
 Coarse-fine
 Rough-smooth
 Stiff-pliable
 Hard-soft
 Cool-warm, and
 Rustle-quiet
Laws of Psychophysics
 Psychophysics and Clothing Comfort:
Laws of Psychophysics
 Psychophysics is about the quantification of the
strength of internal sensations, which can be
broadly defined as the quantification of sensory
experience
 The measurement of strength of internal G T Fechner
sensations has two aspects: originates the
mathematical
1. The assessment of human powers of signal relationship of
identification and sensory discrimination (good psychophysics
or bad, soft to hard, ……..), in 1860
and

2. The calibration of subjectively perceived intensities and

other parameters of stimulation (If good, to what
extent? If hot, to what extent?)
 Weber’s Law (1834)

 Weber proposed that the threshold (i.e. the just

noticeable difference) of stimulus (∆I) are
proportional to the magnitude of stimulus I. This can
be expressed as:
∆I/I = K
 Where, K is a constant indicating the power of a
human being to detect signals and discriminate
sensations

 At low temperature even 1°C change is

noticeable, but …….
Weber’s law is silent on internal sensation
 Fechner ’s Law (1860)

 Fechner proposed using “just noticeable physical

stimulus (I) ” as a unit to measure internal sensation
(S). This can be described as:
S= K log I
 where K is the constant determined by the stimulus
threshold which represents the lowest physical value
evoking sensation and the differential threshold
providing a subjective unit of sensory intensity
 Fechner’s assumption: sensation (S) increases in
arithmetic steps as the intensity physical stimulus
(I) is increased in logarithmic steps
 Stevens’s Power Law (1950s)
 S S Stevens developed a method of estimation
of the relationship between subjectively
perceived intensity, i.e. internal sensation (S)
and physical stimulus intensity (I)
S = K Ia

 where, ‘K’ is a scale factor and

 ‘a’ an exponent characteristics of the physical
stumulus
Stevens Power Law (1950s)
 Stevens Power Law (1950s)
S = kI n
S=magnitude estimation
k=constant
I=physical intensity
n= exponent/power

Some known Exponents

for Stevens's Power Law::

Brightness =0.33
Apparent Length =1.0
Electric Shock = 3.5
 All these laws of psychophysics indicate that there are
fundamental differences between the physical stimulus (I) and
the sensation that one experiences (S).
 Weber’s law and Fechner’s law play some fundamental roles
in sensory discrimination in terms of the ability to distinguish
one stimulus from another, but
Fail to provide a basis for measuring sensation correctly.

 Stevens power law proposes a power relation

between physical stimulus magnitude (I) and
internal sensation (S) which provides a ‘direct’
measurement of sensation in sensory judgment
process
1. Psychological Scale
2. Rating Scale
 1. Psychological scaling
 Psychological scaling
 Psychological scaling is a process of assigning numbers
to characteristics of objects or events, according to rules
which reflects some aspects of reality
 Numbers does not always correspond to the real values
 The numbers are used as a symbol to represent certain
characteristics
 The rules specifying how numbers are assigned to the
characteristics to measure
 may be arbitrary, and changes as per the specific
condition
 Psychological scaling is widely used in market research to
obtain consumer’s opinion
 Types of Scale
It is the process of making judgments based on individual
words or language collected from experience.

The number does not always correspond to the 'real' numbers

that are obtained from objective measurement.

In research; there are four types of scales

 Nominal scale
 Ordinal scale
 Interval scale
 Ratio scale
 Psychological scaling
 Four scales correspond to a descending sequence of
subgroups (Nominal → Ordinal → Interval → Ratio),
 For example, the group for the Nominal scale containing the
group for the next scale i.e. the Ordinal scale
 The group for the Ordinal scale contains the group for the Interval
scale, and
 The group for the Interval scale contains the group for the Ratio
scale
 Moving from nominal scale to ratio scale
 The rules become more complex
 The kinds of arithmetic operations for which the numbers can be used
are increased
 Nominal Scale --- determines equality
 Numbers used to categorize objects
 All numbers of a class have the equal value
 Cannot be added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided
 It distinguishes the objects or events on the scale from
things that are not on it
 e.g., Male or female can be represented by 0 or 1

 The number 1 does not imply superior position to

number 0 or number on the jersey of a player does not

indicate the performance of player.
 Nominal Scale --- determines equality
 A scale in which the numbers or letters assigned
to objects serve as labels for identification or
classification and those numbers have no value.
 For instance, we assign 0 to wool and 1 to silk.
 The number 1 does not mean a superior position
to the number 0.
 The rule for nominal scales is that all members of
a class have the same number and no two
classes have the same number.
 Ordinal scales -- determines equality and
relative position
 Comprise numbers or other symbols used to
rank the events or objects according to their
characteristics and their relative position in the
characteristics (1st, 2nd, 3rd ….. ranks of
students)
 It indicates the relative position of objects but not
the magnitude of the differences between the
objects
 Ordinal scales -- determines equality and
relative position

 Suppose, in a softness scaling test, cotton fabric

get 2nd rank and polyester fabric get 10th rank, then
we cannot say cotton is five time softer than
polyester.
 It only ranks the items from highest to lowest.
 Non-parametric statistics can be applied to ordinal
data
 A mode or median may be used, but not a mean
 e.g. hierarchy in an organization or students rank
list
Interval scales -- determines equality, relative
position and magnitude of difference

 Numbers are used to rank the objects or events

 Numerically equal distances on the interval scale
represent equal distances in the characteristics
of the objects or event
 Zero and their unit of measurement are not
fixed
 It indicates relative position of objects and the
magnitudes of differences between the objects
Interval scales -- determines equality, relative position and
magnitude of difference

 The entire range of statistics can be applied

 e.g. In Box and Behnken 3 factor and 3 level
model the factors are coded with -1, 0 and +1
for their three levels
 0°C is not an absolute zero, but 0 cm length is

an absolute length.
 10°C is not 10 times warmer than 0°C, i.e.
Intervals are equal, but absolute values may
not be in the same proportion...... Percrption
wise
Interval scales -- determines equality, relative position and
magnitude of difference
 This scale not only classifies and orders the
measurements but also specifies the distance between
each interval on the scale is equal.
 For example: on the comfort properties of merino wool
by scoring them on 5 point scale from 1 to 5 (1=
Excellent, 2= Very Good, 3= Good, 4= Poor, 5= worst)

Merino Excellent Very good Good Poor Worst

Wool

Thermal

Softness
Ratio scale -- determines equality, relative position, magnitude of
difference with a meaningful zero

 It is the highest level scale that permits the researcher to

classify, rank/order the objects and compare the
intervals.
 It has an absolute 0 point
 Numerically equal distances on the scale represent
equal distances of the characteristics measured and
have a meaningful zero
 Entire range of statistics can be applied to ratio data
 e.g. 10°C is not twice as hot as 5°C, but 10°K is twice as hot as
5°K
 10 cm is exactly 10 times of 1 cm
Psychological Scales
 2. Rating Scale method
 It is one of the most important methods which are
frequently used for subjective evaluations.
 There are two types of rating scales, i.e. comparative
rating scale and non-comparative rating scale.
 a. Comparative rating scales
 In this scale, some standards are provided to the
respondent during rating time for comparision

 It is further divided into three categories: paired

comparison, rank order and constant sum
 a. Comparative rating scales:
Paired comparison
 Respondent is presented with two objects at a time.
 Then asked to select one object in the pair according to
some criterion. It is used only when few items are
compared.
 For example: Compare the softness property of cotton with
polyester and wool with polyester

Wool Cotton Polyester

Cotton
Wool
  Rank Order
 Respondents are presented with several
objects simultaneously.
 Then asked to rank them according to
some criterion.
 For example: Rank the following wool
according to their softness
Fibre Rank

Wool-1 3

Wool-2 1

Wool-3 2
  Constant Sum
 Respondents are asked to allocate a constant sum of
units among a set of stimulus objects with respect to
some criterion.
 For example: The points are given out of 100 to each
attributes

Attributes Number of Points

Wool - 1 Wool - 2
Thermal 76 70

Fineness 88 84
Softness 90 95
 b. Non-comparative rating scales
 In this rating scale, no standard reference is provided to
the respondent during rating time.
 This scale can be categorized into two ways: continuous
and itemized non-comparative rating scales.
Continuous non-comparative rating scale: It is also known
as graphic rating scale.
 Respondents are required to make a mark at any point on
the scale that they find appropriate.
 Itemized non-comparative rating scale: The
respondents are provided with a scale that has a
number or brief description associated with each
category.
 These scales can be in the form of
 Likert scale: It is designed to study how
strongly respondent (subject) agree or
disagree with statements on 5 or 7 point scale

 Staple scale: It is a vertical unipolar rating

scale with 10 categories ranging from -5 to+5,
without neutral (zero) point.
o It mainly used for analyzing the attitude of the
respondent towards the object.
 Semantic Differential Scale: It is a 7
point rating scale (either -3 to +3 or 1
to7 scale) with end points associated
with bipolar labels that have semantic
meaning.
 Scales to Measure Direct Responses
 Hollies used a number of itemized rating scales for the
sensations derived from participants

 Comfort Affective Labeled Magnitude (CALM) Scale:

The scale was developed at the Individual Protection
Directorate, US Army Natick Soldier Center
The value of points in scale ranges from –100 to 100 where
–100 represents greatest imaginable discomfort and 100
represents greatest imaginable comfort.
 McGinnis' Thermal Scale (1979): 13 point interval scale
was developed by McGinnis while working in Army Natick
Laboratories. In this scale the intervals between each
point are not defined properly
 Psychophysical scaling of clothing
comfort
 Clothing comfort is characterized by emotional attributes
 Judgment can be done effectively by untrained
consumers instead of experts
 The ‘category scale’ (Rating Scale), is the most
commonly used subjective scale for rating comfort
 This is characterized by a series of verbal and/or number
labeled points or descriptive categories, like
 Extremely comfortable, Moderately comfortable, Slightly
comfortable, Extreme discomfort
or
 1 means very comfortable and 10 means very uncomfortable
…..etc.
 Psychophysical scaling of clothing
comfort
In category scaling, a person can rate his subjective comfort
sensations by placing him into one of several descriptive
categories.

oSince less than five categories can result in a loss of

discrimination sensitivity, the number of categories is typically
around seven to nine, or sometime it can also be more

oAdvantages: Simplicity, Versatility, and High reliability

o Category scaling is of two types,
oi) numbered category scale; and
oii) descriptive category scale
 Problems with Category scale

 The common problem with category scales is that the

normal tendency of a person is to avoid the end
categories; this is called “category end effect”.

 This “category end effect” results in seven-point

category scales being functionally reduced to five-point
scales after eliminating two end points; and similarly
the five-point scales is reduced to three-point scales,
and so on.
Wear Trial Technique
 Wear Trial Technique

 Perceptions of sensory comfort of clothing

involve various sensory channels i.e. visual,
auditory, smell, taste, and touch.
 Out of theses senses skin plays an
important role to sense comfort level of the
clothing.
 Wear Trial Technique
 Fabric properties such as:
 type of fibre, yarn,
 fabric structure,
 fitness of the garment,

 Environmental conditions
 temperature,

 humidity,

 wind velocity etc.

 As well as the type of activity performed by the

wearer
directly affect the perception of the wearer and most of the
sensations are generated only when the wearer wear the cloth.

 The main purpose of the wear trial is to gather information from

the respondent at garment level.
 Wear Trial Technique
 Therefore, wear trial is an important
technique for clothing comfort research.

 Various sensory descriptors are generated

from the responses of the respondents,
after that testing conditions are selected to
maximize the perceptions of various
sensations.
 Wear Trial Technique
 Psychological scales are designed to
obtain various sensory responses for a
particular item/garment.

 According to predetermined protocols, wear

trials are conducted under controlled
testing conditions and data is collected and
analysed
 Wear Trial Techniques
 Necessity of actual wear situations:
 Much of the tactile sensations come from parts of the
body other than hands
 Sensory clothing comfort perceptions are primarily

associated with skin sensory systems

 In addition, clothing comfort sensations involve
various sensory channels from all the five senses:
 Visual, Auditory, Smell and Touch
 To generate reactions of wearer to any perceived

discomfort sensations produced by different climatic

conditions
Necessity of actual wear situations…..cont…
 Certain type of clothing comfort sensation is generated under
certain wear conditions with a particular type of external stimuli
and physical activity
 External stimuli
 Heat, moisture, wind etc., and

 Mechanical stimulation from fabric to the skin

 Softness, scratchy, pricky etc

 These stimulations are normally generated under specific

combinations of physiological states, e.g.
 Sweating rate and physical activity

 Materials used in the clothing

 Fitness of clothing and

 Environmental conditions (e.g. Temperature, humidity and air

velocity)
 Steps of wear trial
1. Generation of sensory attributes with wearers
2. Selection of particular testing conditions
3. Designing psychological scales in the way
of subjective rating sheets to obtain various
sensory attributes to particular garment
(e.g. Stiff, sticky, nonabsorbent, cold, damp,
clammy, clingy, rough, scratchy etc.) at different
time interval in a particular environmental
condition.
 Steps of wear trial
4. The wear trial can be conducted in controlled
environments chambers

5. Each comfort attribute can be separately rated at

different time interval

6. Collected data can be analyzed and the results can be

given,
 Wear Trial Technique: Example-1

 In this study, warm and humid climatic conditions were

produced using a climatic chamber with precise control of
air temperature and humidity.
 Different varieties of garments (30) were worn with six
coverall types.
 Each test session was made up of five individual evaluation
periods, which yielded approximately 900 individual
evaluations.
 Comfort ratings were assessed for overall comfort,
thermal sensation, and contact comfort sensations on all
test garments
 …Example 1 Contd.
 The overall comfort sensations were expressed in
seven scales,
1 - very uncomfortable, 2 – uncomfortable, 3 - slightly
uncomfortable,
4 - neither comfortable nor uncomfortable, 5 - slightly comfortable,
6 - comfortable and 7 - very comfortable.
 The wearers and the garments were precisely
weighed before and after completion of the wear trial
protocol
 To estimate the moisture loss from the body; and
 To determine the amount of moisture accumulated in the test
garments.
 Statistical techniques have been adopted for data
analysis.
Example 2 for Wear Trial Technique

 22 professional athletes were selected as subjects to

take part in the psychological sensory cycling trial in an
environmentally controlled laboratory.
 Different commercial sportswear were selected
 Pre-trial had been conducted to obtain training and
understanding of the questions and procedures
involved
 During each trial, each athlete was required to shower
upon arriving at the laboratory, then change into a test
garment and a pair of nylon shorts, and rest to
equilibrium for 20 minutes.
 Example 2 ….Cont
 Laboratory conditions were controlled at 15°C, 65% RH, and
an air velocity varying between 0.15 and 1.50 m/s.
 At the end of the equilibrium period the athletes were asked
to ride ergonomic bikes for 90 minutes under work loads
maintaining their heart rates at 70% of their estimated
maxima.
 The athletes were asked to rate the sensory perceptions
 (e.g. clammy, clingy, sticky, damp, heavy, prickly,
scratchy, fit, breathable and thermal) of the sportswear at
different time interval,
 i.e. at the beginning, after 30 minutes, after 60 minutes
and after 90 minutes.
 Example 2 ….Cont
 The ratings by the athletes were subsequently
converted into 0 to 100 scales for all the sensory
perceptions except fit and thermal sensations.

 The fit and thermal sensations were rescaled to

the range between -50 to +50, because in these
two perceptions the wordings used in the scale’s
two ends to describe the perception of fit and
thermal sensation,
 from too loose to too tight and

 from too cold to too hot

Physiological Responses of Clothing by
Wear Trial Technique under
Cold Weather Condition
 Methodology
RH - 50%
Type of Weight of Velocity of air – 0.5 m/s
Code
material jacket (g)
Clothing
Jacket I Needled (1.5 D) 800 used Parameters
Through-air measured
Jacket II 864 Undershirt
Bonded
Underpants Body mass
Needled (6 D
Jacket III 800 Shirt
Hollow Fibre)
Weight of all
Jacket
Needled (15 D clothing
Jacket IV 800
Hollow Fibre) Trousers

Socks Skin
Total wt. clothing temperature &
Temperature
excluding jacket Gloves
(°C) RH%
(kg)
Shoes
10 1.95
Wrap
0 2.30
-10 2.65

63
 Methodology

Total test time: 80 min

10 min 20 min walk at 15 min 20 min walk at 15 min

rest 1.5 km/h rest 3 km/h rest
Pole Grade I feel
+4 Very hot Pole Grade
+3 Hot 0 Comfortable
Hot
+2 Warm Slightly
+1 Slightly warm Comfort 1
comfortable
Not 2 Uncomfortable
0 Neutral
definite Very
-1 Slightly cold 3
Un- uncomfortable
-2 Cold comfort Extremely
Cold 4
-3 Freezing uncomfortable
Temperature measurement : -4 Very freezing
EN ISO 9886: 2004
EN ISO 10551:2001
64
 Clima chamber

Modular signal recorder

Jacket ready for evaluation Temperature sensors on body
 Distribution of Temperature at 10°C
Jacket II gives lesser skin temperature

Jacket II consists of through-air bonded nonwoven gives

36 uncomfortable feel at 10 °C
Scapula region
Temperature (°C)

35
I
II
34 III
IV

33 36
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Chest region
Time (min)
35

Temperature (°C)
Jacket Material
I
I Needled (1.5 D) 34
II
III
Through-air
II
Bonded 33 IV

III Needled (6 D, HF)

32
IV Needled (15 D, HF) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

66
 Distribution of Temperature at 10°C
34
Vertebral region
33
Jacket II gives lesser skin
temperature
Temperature (°C)

32
I
II
31
III

30 IV

29
36
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Arm region
Time (min)

35

Temperature (°C)
Jacket Material
I
I Needled (1.5 D) 34
II
III
Through-air
II
Bonded 33 IV

III Needled (6 D, HF)

32
IV Needled (15 D, HF) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

67
 Distribution of Relative Humidity at
95
10°C
85
Jacket II gives higher skin RH%
Relative Humidity (%)

75

65
Scapula region I
II
55 III
IV
45

35
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
80
Time (min)
75
Chest region

Relative Humdity (%)

70
65
Jacket Material 60 I

I Needled (1.5 D) 55 II
50 III
Through-air
II IV
Bonded 45
40
III Needled (6 D, HF)
35
IV Needled (15 D, HF) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

68
Distribution of Relative Humidity at
10°C
90

Jacket Material 80

Relative Humidity (%)

I Needled (1.5 D) 70
I
Through-air 60
II II
Bonded
50 III
III Needled (6 D, HF) IV
40
IV Needled (15 D, HF)
30
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

Abdomen region

Jacket II gives higher skin RH%

69
 Distribution of Temperature at 0°C
Jackets II & IV feel warmth
36

35 Scapula region Jackets III & IV consist of 6 & 15D

hollow fibres give good feel of warmth
Temperature (°C)

34
I at 0°C
33
II
32 III
IV
31

30
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 35
Time (min)

Chest region
Temperature (°C)
34

Jacket Material I
II
I Needled (1.5 D)
33 III
Through-air
II IV
Bonded
III Needled (6 D, HF) 32
IV Needled (15 D, HF) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

70
 Distribution of Temperature at 0°C
36

34 Vertebral region
Jackets II & IV feel warmth
Temperature (°C)

32

30 I

28 II
III
26
IV
24

22
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
35
Time (min) Arm region
34

Temperature (°C)
33
Jacket Material
I
32
I Needled (1.5 D) II

Through-air 31 III
II
Bonded IV
30
III Needled (6 D, HF)
29
IV Needled (15 D, HF) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

71
 Distribution of Relative Humidity at
90
0°C
80
Relative Humidity (%)

70
Scapula region
I
60 Jackets II & IV show higher skin
II
50 III RH%
IV
40

30
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 120
Time (min)
100

Relative Humidity (%)

Chest region
Jacket Material 80
I
I Needled (1.5 D) 60
II
Through-air
II 40 III
Bonded IV
III Needled (6 D, HF) 20

IV Needled (15 D, HF) 0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

72
Distribution of Relative Humidity at
0°C
100

90

Relative Humidity (%)

Jacket Material
80
I Needled (1.5 D)
70 I
Through-air
II 60 II
Bonded
III
50
III Needled (6 D, HF) IV
IV Needled (15 D, HF) 40

30
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

Abdomen region
Jackets II & IV show higher skin
RH%

73
 Distribution of Temperature at -10°C

36
34
32 Jacket II gives lesser skin
Temperature (°C)

30
temperature
28 Scapula region I
26 II
24 III
Jackets III & IV give higher skin
22 IV temperature
20
18
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 37
Time (min)
36

Chest region
Temperature (°C)
35
Jacket Material
34 I
I Needled (1.5 D)
33 II
Through-air
II III
Bonded 32
IV
III Needled (6 D, HF) 31

IV Needled (15 D, HF) 30

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

74
 Distribution of Temperature at -10°C
38
36 Jacket II gives lesser skin
Vertebral region
34 temperature
Temperature (°C)

32
30 I
28 II Jackets III & IV give higher skin
26 III temperature
24 IV

22
20
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
36
Time (min)
36
Arm region
35

Temperature (°C)
Jacket Material
35
I Needled (1.5 D) I
34
II
Through air
II 34
III
Bonded
33 IV
III Needled (6 D, HF)
33
IV Needled (15 D, HF)
32
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

75
 Distribution of Relative Humidity at
50 -10°C
45
Relative Humidity (%)

Jacket Material
40
I
I Needled (1.5 D)
II
35
Through-air
III II
Bonded
IV
30
III Needled (6 D, HF)
25 IV Needled (15 D, HF)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time (min)

Scapula region

76
 Conclusions
 The jackets consist of finer fibres (I) and hollow fibres
(III & IV) were performed well at higher ambient
temperature.

 But, as the ambient temperature decreases, the jacket

consists of finer fibre (I) failed to perform, because of
less porosity or air volume, which significantly
contributes to the thermal insulation.

 On the other hand, the jackets consist of hollow fibres

were found to perform better even at -10 °C because of
their ability to entrap still air in the fibre structure.
77
Aesthetic Comfort
Psychological Aspects of Aesthetic
Comfort
 There is a complex interplay between
clothing aesthetics and body attributes
 Human body imaging technique can be adopted
in the study of clothing aesthetics
 The wearers generally try to achieve the
aesthetic pleasure through their clothing by
emphasizing certain positive features of their
bodies and hiding other negative features
Components of clothing aesthetics
(3) Physiological (4) Objective evaluation
sensations (visual, tactile, (physical or tensile
kinesthetic) testing data)

Clothing
aesthetic
concepts

(2) Subjective (1) Simplified polar

evaluations scale (beautiful-ugly,
expressed by good-bad)
words (soft, harsh)
 Evaluation of clothing aesthetics
 Clothing comfort related to aesthetics is a
complex interrelationship between the
following concepts:
 Style of the clothing
 Surface texture of a clothing
 Drapeability of fabric used
 Cover ????
 Creasing and resilience characteristics of
fabrics
 Evaluation of Aesthetics
The physical or transmission characteristics of fabrics,
namely mass per unit area, thickness, thread density, air
permeability, thermal transmission, wicking, etc., can be
easily measured by objective test methods.

But,

Due to significant subjectivity, the aesthetic

characteristics cannot be measured accurately and
there is no standard method of measuring aesthetic
characteristics of clothing. The fabric aesthetics is
entirely subjective and different people can rate same
fabric in different scales based on their own perceptions.
 Evaluation of Aesthetics
 There is no standard method of measuring
aesthetic characteristics of clothing
 In measuring aesthetic characteristics there is a
significant subjectivity
 Main problem with the subjective measurement
of aesthetic attributes is to gather useful and
consistent information by questioning people
about the clothing
 If this is done properly, then the numerical data
can be obtained using different mathematical
techniques and subjective test methods
 Evaluation of Aesthetics
Steps to measure the fabric aesthetics

1. Definition of fabric aesthetics in terms of basic

elements having the form of common words, e.g.
texture, fall, style, ……
2. Identification of a system for selecting rating
scales. This system involves questions for
subjective measurement of these basic elements.
3. Transformation of data from rating scales to
numerical definition of a specific aesthetic
property.
 Evaluation of Aesthetics
Steps to measure the fabric aesthetics
 Aesthetic perceptions are the combinations and
interrelations of,
 Measurable physical data (rigid-flexible, soft-hard) and
 Values which are psychological factors (good-bad, beautiful-ugly,
fashionable- not fashionable)
 Some terminologies associated with the aesthetics of
clothing are really conceptual
 e.g.: drape, hand, cover or body, do not have value polarity, i.e.
they need not be good or bad, desirable or undesirable
 Sometime these parameters are defined to represent
sense data only
 The surface texture of a specific type of fabric can be evaluated
by the simple polar word scale, like soft-harsh or rough-smooth
 Evaluation of Aesthetics
Steps to measure the fabric aesthetics

 A fabric may be aesthetically very beautiful, but painful

from the skin sensory comfort point of view.
 For example, a tweed fabric may be unpleasant to the skin but
pleasant to the eye or an aesthetically beautiful winter garment
may be thermo-physiologically extremely uncomfortable in warm
and humid conditions
 The wearers are asked to evaluate qualities identified by
simple word pairs whose meanings can be easily
recognized as polar opposite words
 like smooth-rough, soft-hard, flexible-rigid
 Confusing clothing terms should be avoided ………….
 Evaluation of Aesthetics
Steps to measure the fabric aesthetics

 Confusing clothing terms should be avoided………….

 For example, for evaluating the drape behaviour of fabric, if
one wants to decide the fact that whether the fabric is good or bad
the answer will create confusion.
 He should know the exact application of fabric, e.g. whether the
fabric will be used for skirts or for window coverings.
 A fabric drape may be good for window covering, but the similar
drape may not be acceptable for skirts.
 So, simpler attributes signified by polar words, like
flexible–stiff, which are related to fabric drape
characteristics, need to be evaluated
 Aesthetic concepts of clothing
Guidelines for setting aesthetic concepts related to psychological
clothing comfort
 The concept must be related to at least one of three main
physiological sensations
 Visual sensation
 Tactile sensation
 Kinesthetic sensation.
 The concept can be a combination of sub-concepts, expressed by
words which are more explicit
 For example, ‘resilience’ is less explicit than its component sub-
concepts ‘compressional resilience’ and ‘liveliness’ or the term
cloth cover cannot communicate the aesthetic concept
completely, so its sub-concepts ‘top cover’ and ‘bottom cover’
are used
Aesthetic Comfort
Objective evaluation of Clothing Aesthetics

The most commonly used

concepts related to clothing
aesthetic attributes are
clothing cover, drape,
body, style, surface
texture and resilience
 Cover
 It can be sub divided into
 Top cover, and
 Bottom cover
 Top cover is the degree of obscurity
of the fabric weave pattern due to
surface fuzziness
 Bottom cover is the degree of
obscurity of the fabric weave pattern
due to fabric sub-layer (e.g. weave
structure is not very clear for fabrics
with high epi and ppi)
 The cover can be expressed by
dense-open, fuzzy-clean, smooth-
rough, full-lean etc. and
 Objectively measured by light
transmission, surface contact area,
air permeability, etc
 Drape
 The form a fabric will assume
due to its own weight when
hung freely
 The fabric drape is expressed
clinging-flowing, dead-lively,
limp-crisp, sleazy-full etc.
 It can be objectively evaluated
by measuring bending rigidity
(cantilever or loop method),
drape coefficient by drape
meter.
 Body
 The body is the overall substance between the
edges of fabric
 The perception of the total substance of fabric
during use.
 The body of fabric is expressed by light-heavy,
lofty-thin, bulky-sleazy, full-lean etc.
 The fabric body is objectively evaluated by
measuring mass per unit area, thickness,
porosity, density etc.
Style
 Style is visual aesthetic
perception
 It can be perceived through
colour, pattern and type of
clothing
 Clothing style is evolved from
the combined perceptions of
the textile arts and technology
 The style of fabric is objectively
evaluated by measuring the
 Colour-value, depth of shade,
weave structure, yarn structure,
clothing pattern, fit of garment etc.
 Surface Texture
 The surface texture of fabric means the
 Tactility, surface roughness and
pattern of fabric
 This is tactile and visual perceptions of
fabrics
 It is generally expressed by the terms
smooth-rough, dry-clammy, grainy-plain,
slippery-sticky, slick-greasy, fuzzy or
hairy-clean, soft-hard, pricky-soft, warm-
cool, dull-lustrous etc.
 Objectively it can be evaluated by
measuring surface roughness, fabric-
fabric or fabric-other surface friction,
optical reflectance of fabric surface,
contact point or contact area at the
fabric surface, surface fuzziness etc.
 Resilience
 It is the ability of a fabric to return to its previous position after
deformation force is released.
 It can be of different type, i.e. resilience from wrinkle or
crease, compressional resilience, extensional resilience,
liveliness etc.
 The perception of wrinkle or crease resilience is the ability of
fabric to recover from wrinkle or crease
 Similarly, compressional resilience and extensional resilience
are the perceptions of the resistance to and recovery from
transverse compression and planer extension of the fabric
respectively