Page 208 - Anthropometry, Apparel Sizing and Design

204 Anthropometry, Apparel Sizing and Design

special fabric to enhance a woman’s shape. Designers need to identify suitable fabrics
as well as types of seams and design in designing jeans that can enhance woman’s
shape yet providing them comfort and ease of wearing.

8.2 Methodology

8.2.1 Fabric test

A body-contouring system for jeans was based on the concept of actively shaping the
body’s silhouette (Tulin and Laney, 2015). Several methods were used by previous
research in producing jeans with body-shaping function. According to Tulin and
Laney (2015) a stretch denim was used when producing form-fitting jeans. Besides
that, Carl Chiara, a designer of Levi’s Jeans, stated that the new “Curve ID” line
was developed using super-stretch denim fabric. At the same time, based on the ques-
tionnaire data that were compiled by the researcher, it can be summarized that the
majority of the respondents preferred the mixture of denim and denim Lycra fabric
when buying form-fitting jeans. Texas jeans and denim Lycra were selected for the
experimentation as these fabrics have stretch properties that would serve as an impor-
tant attribute of body contouring jeans.

8.2.1.1 Testometric test/tensile strength test
Upon identifying the type of fabric that was most preferred by Malaysian women, the
researcher conducted the Testometric test. This method was crucial to examine both of
the fabric structure on their elongation break (stretch ability) and also force break (fab-
ric strength). This step was important as the design of the jeans by placing the right
fabric panel with different stretch properties would lead to comfort while giving a
lifting effect to the rear area of the wearer. Hence, in this study, several experimen-
tations had been conducted to test out the fabric tensile strength. Three different fab-
rics were tested, and it was found that Texas jeans gave the most elongation break
(millimeter), while denim Lycra gave the most force break (Newton).
The general design of the body-contouring jeans also played a huge role in the
manufacturing part. According to Tulin and Laney (2015), the usage of different levels
of fabric strength and stretch ability on the design in making jeans panels will give full
support and comfort. By taking advantage of the characteristics of each panel, the
researcher can make full use of the panels by putting them in places where the shapes
and dimension of the panels can be altered to suit the design.

8.2.1.2 Seam strength test
Seam strength test was later conducted to identify the right type of seam to be applied
on the jeans design. A curved riser seam was applied to physically lift the seat and
visually created a shapely seat. Also, slightly forward-placed side seams were used
to draw the eye inwards to create a narrower silhouette (Laney, 2015). Therefore,
two types of seams were tested, which included straight seam and curved seam.