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Functional and Aesthetic Aspects in Apparel

Written by Super User

Functional and Aesthetic Aspects in Apparel

Dr Ela Manoj Dedhia
Associate Professor, College of Home Science Nirmala Niketan, Affiliated to
University of Mumbai, 49 New Marine Lines Mumbai 400020
elamanojdedhia@yahoo.com

Apparel quality has two dimensions: Physical aspects or what the garment is; and
Per formance aspects or what the garment does. The physical aspects of a garment
determine its per formance. Therefore, consumers purchase garments with specific
physical aspects that they believe will fulfill their per formance expectations.

Physical aspects
Garment physical aspects provide a tangible form and composition. Physical aspects
include the garments design, materials, construction and finish. Design provides the
plan for the garment style. For example, is the shir t loose or fitted. Materials include
the fabric and other components that are used to produce the garment. For instance,
is the shir t made of cotton or blended fabric. Construction refers to the methods used
to assemble the garment. For example, which type of stitches is mostly used.
Finishes involve any garment wet processing, for instance, does the shir t have a
wrinkle free or a durable press finish. Garment physical aspects are intrinsic
attributes; they cannot be altered without changing the product itself.

Per formance aspects

A garment per formance aspects determine the standards it meets and how the
consumer benefits through it. Per formance aspects include the garment aesthetic and
functional per formance. Aesthetic per formance refers to attractiveness. Do the
design, material, and construction of the garment fulfill the appearance expectations?
Do the elements of the garment reflect good design principles? Does the garment
posses classic or current fashion trends desired by consumers? And does its
appearance fulfill the wearers emotional needs, such as wanting to impress or be
accepted by others? These questions are impor tant to ask while evaluating ready to
wear garments because design impacts the visual appeal of clothing and therefore
consumers acceptance of it.
Functional per formance includes per formance aspects other than appearance, namely

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the garments utility and durability. Utility refers to the usefulness. For example, does
the shir t fit? Does it function properly for intended use? Durability or ser viceability
refers to how well the garment retains its structure and appearance af ter wear and
care. Does it resist shrinkage? Does the seam remain intact? Aesthetic and
functional per formance occasionally overlaps. For example, fit may be an aesthetic
feature (i.e attractive fit versus unattractive fit) or it might also be a functional
feature (i.e comfor table fit versus uncomfor table fit) (Brown, 1998).

Fabric: a quality indicator

According to Das, 2008, the demand on the proper ties, appearance and durability of
the materials and component in the apparel sector has increased significantly to
meet the changing requirements of the consumers. A common concern in apparel
per formance characterization is dimensional stability, color fastness, durability, pilling
and fabric composition.
Fabric is the textile material from which apparel manufacturers produces ready-
to-wear garments. The per formance of the fabric does not necessarily predict the
per formance of the finished garment, but the two are strongly related. The right
fabric is required for the garment to meet aesthetic and functional per formance
expectations. Manufacturers establish the required aesthetic and functional
per formance standards for fabric based on many factors. These factors include the
design of the garment, fashion trends, consumer preferences, cost limitations, and
the target market profile chosen by the company.

Aesthetic per formance of fabric

The aesthetic per formance or attractiveness of fabric refers to the appearance of the
fabric as it complements the appearance of the garment. However, fabric must be
considered in concer t with the design. Material and construction interact to produce
the total aesthetic effect of the garment. Fabric aesthetics include color, pattern,
color consistency, luster, opacity, and hand. All these elements of the aesthetic
per formance of the raw material are difficult to describe because of their subjective
nature; they do not lend themselves to objective measurement.

Color and Pattern

Color is perhaps the single most impor tant feature in initially attracting consumer to
garments. However, the beauty or goodness of the color or pattern is subjective as
there are no laborator y tests for evaluating the quality of colors or choosing the
best design for the patterned fabric. The aesthetic evaluation of color and pattern
depends on fashion trends, personal preferences, and an awareness of design
elements and principles.

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Hand
Hand is a broad term for the kinesthetic or movement aspects of a fabric. Hand
refers not to the comfor t but to the emotional sensations resulting from touching,
moving, or squeezing the fabric with the human hand. Hand encompasses the
following aspects of the fabric; (1) Drape ability/flexibility, (2) Compressibility, (3)
Extensibility, (4) Resilience, (5) Density, (6) Texture, (7) Thermal character.

Functional per formance of fabric

The functional per formance of a fabric refers to its utility and durability as its
component of the garment. Utility includes the influence of the fabric on these
garment characteristics (1) shape retention, (2) appearance retention, (3) comfor t, (4)
ease of care, and (5) safety. Durability refers to the ser viceability of the fabric
regarding these characteristics of the garment; (1) strength, (2) abrasion resistance,
and (3) resistance to degradation by chemicals and other elements of the
environment. As for aesthetic per formance, the functional per formance of the garment
is not determined fully by the fabric. The design, materials, construction, and the
finish of a garment interact to determine utility and durability.

Dimensional Stability
Oneof the most impor tant per formance characteristics of the garment is dimensional
stability, the ability of the garments to maintain their original shape and size.
Dimensional stability affects the function of the garment in terms of appearance
retention and fit. It also affects comfor t, elongation and shrinkage.

Color fastness
Color fastness is the ability of the fabric to retain its color. Color fastness refers to
color retention in reaction to laundering (bleach, water, detergent, heat), light,
dr y-cleaning solvents, sea and pool water, perspiration and other chemicals.
Color fastness is the relative term; no garment is completely color fast. Lack of color
may be expressed in a variety of ways such as (1) fading, (2) frosting, (3) crocking,
(4) bleeding and (5) yellowing.

Pill Resistance
Snagging and pilling detract from a garments appearance and its usefulness. Snags
are pulls in fabrics made when the yarns catch on the sharp object. Pills are fuzz
balls, or balls of tangled fibers that form on the sur face and are held there by one or

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more fibers. Pills may form all over a garment, but are likely to be most noticeable
where garment receives abrasion for example, in the underarm area, inside collars,
and on sleeves and cuffs.

Ease of Care
For many consumers, ease of care of a fabric is an impor tant utility feature because
of its effect on the care of the garment. All the fabrics used in the garment should
have same launder ability or dr y-cleanibility so the finished garment retains its
appearance and ability to function af ter refurbishing. Ease of care also refers to the
garments tendency to resists soiling and wrinkling.

Abrasion Resistance/ durability

Abrasion resistance refers to the amount of rubbing action a fabric can withstand
without being destroyed. One type of abrasion is caused by laundering or
refurbishing process. This produces an overall loss of fibers, as seen when emptying
the lint filters on washing machines, thus slightly weakening the garment during
ever y refurbishing cycle. More severe abrasion in refurbishing occurs on many folded
edge of the garment, including hems, cuffs, collars, and many squared or pointed
edge. This is why holes of ten form first at these locations. The second type of
abrasion happens in the normal wearing process. Each time the cloth is rubbed
against a hard sur face, a small loss of fiber occurs in this limited area of garment.
Fabric must withstand degradation from the environment. To be considered durable, a
garment is made of fabric with the following characteristic: (1) chemical resistance,
(2) launder ability, (3) dr y-cleanibility, (4) insect resistance, (5) mild dew resistance,
(6) sunlight resistance (Brown, 1998).
Fabric assessment is the method by which the fabric is tested for its proper ties and
qualities. Knowledge of fabric proper ties and their behavior in the processes of
transforming into ar ticle of clothing is valuable information for garment
manufacturers, which was unavailable till now. Recently techniques have been
developed to measure the mechanical proper ties of fabric and use these measures
quantitatively to predict per formance in both garment manufacture and appearance of
garments. Ten shir ting fabrics were tested using an objective measurement of fabric
mechanical proper ties. It was found out that all fabric samples except one were
expected to pose problems in garment manufacturing as the formability value of all
nine fabrics were less than the limit (Sudhakar, Gowda and Kannam,2007).

In the readymade market, many companies are producing their products and for a
common man it becomes ver y difficult to choose any par ticular brand out of available
lots under identical conditions. It is quite natural that different garments may have

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different behavior in terms of proper ties under name of different companies. Apar t
from functional criterias , fabric type plays an impor tant role in a readymade
garments formation as discussed in research done by Tarafder et al in 2007 on
Comparative study on physical testing of readymade shir ts for quality standards. For
their study, 15 readymade shir ts had been considered for investigation. All the shir ts
were type of polyester /cotton (80x20). Ten were of branded quality, 4 were
non-branded and one tailor-made. The results of the study indicated that there was a
wide variations obser ved in fabric specifications for a common variety of shir ting
fabric, like thread density, linear density, area density and crimp %. Average fabric
crease recover y was obser ved to be fairly good but between items variation was too
high. High pill resistance was shown by all the fabrics. Hydral shrinkage (%) for most
of the items was quite satisfactor y (Tarafder, Banerjee, et al, 2007).
It is extremely impor tant to study consumer preferences as there is severe
competition among shir t industr y to capture the market share because of number of
players ranging from brands to huge unbranded segment. The manufacturers and
retailers of shir ts need to meet the rising expectations of the consumers. It was
imperative to understand consumer preferences related to each characteristic under
intrinsic (quality) and extrinsic (appearance) cues for selection of a shir t due to
dynamic changes in mens clothing in terms of color, design, style and so on. The
study indicates that quality and appearance cues are critical elements in consumers
preferences for shir ts. It is clearly evident that irrespective of the segment of shir ts
i.e casual, formal or occasional, consumers based their preferences both on quality
and appearance cues. Other noticeable fact emerged was that similar preference
pattern was noticed in both branded and unbranded categories of shir ts. Also
noticeable was that durability under quality cue and size and fit under appearance
cues were considered as most significant dimensions by consumers as preference in
all segments of shir ts. Therefore, consumers preferences repor ts would be of
immense value to the clothing industr y (Dedhia E & Gupta M, 2009).

Refrences:
Brown Rice, J. (1998). Ready to Wear Apparel Analysis. 2nd ed, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall, 162-170,193-195.
Das, S. (2008). Apparels for expor ts: Impor tance of quality
characterization. Indian Textile Journal, 45.
Dedhia E & Gupta M, (Sep - Oct 2009), Consumer preferences based on
quality and appearance cues, Journal of Textile Association,Volume 70, No. 3
Sudhakar, J.P., Gowda, N and Kannan, S. (2007). Assessing proper ties of
shir ting fabrics by using FAST, The Indian Textile Journal, Iss. Oct, 146.
Tarafdar, N., Karmakar, R., Mondal, M. (2007). The effect of stitch density

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on seam per formance of garments stitched from plain and twill fabrics. Man Made
Textiles in India, Vol. L, No.8, 298, 301.

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