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Sizing and fit for protective 11

clothing

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Inga D abolina, Eva Lapkovska
Riga Technical University, Institute of Design Technologies, Riga, Latvia

11.1 Introduction

“Of all things the measure is man.” This saying from Protagoras is known as the “man-
measure statement”: the notion that knowledge is relative to the knower (http://www.
iep.utm.edu/protagor/), which can be widened to all environments—micro and
macro—can be stated according to the inhabitants of the environment. Clothing
can be considered as a type of microenvironment, as its use and functionality depends
heavily on the wearers themselves—their physical fitness, metabolism, and other
aspects. Clothing features affect the functionality of the wearer; clothing is intended
to protect the human body from the surrounding environment, to promote human
activities, to provide the ability to perform tasks, and to facilitate physiological
processes.
Not unusually, to improve human functionalities and the development of clothing
functions, some parts of clothing can be supplemented by protective elements, such as
helmets, gloves, guards, armor, masks, etc. Such a system is referred to as personal
protective equipment (PPE). PPE is a comprehensive term involving the clothing
and equipment of firefighters and rescuers, soldiers, policemen, chemists, factory
workers, and other specialized workers, which allows tasks to be safely carried out
and protects the wearers from environmental influences. People also tend to use
PPE for everyday purposes, such as the specialized clothing of motorcyclists, helmets,
and items required for household work, such as gloves, aprons, etc.
The standard definition of protective clothing is clothing that includes protectors to
cover or replace personal clothing, and that is designed to provide protection against
one or more hazards. A hazard is a situation that can be the cause of harm or damage to
the health of the human body, i.e., a potential source of harm. In addition, the term can
be qualified in order to define its origin (e.g., mechanical hazard, electrical hazard) or
the nature of the potential harm (e.g., electric shock hazard, cutting hazard, toxic haz-
ard, fire hazard) (ISO 13688:2013, 2013; EN 13921:2017, 2017).
The origin of PPE is associated with the desire of people to protect themselves.
Even some means used in ancient times are considered to be PPE. People used indi-
vidual protective equipment in the Middle Ages, when blacksmiths wore protective
leather linings for hands and large aprons to avoid burns from molten metal. Iron
armor allowed ancient soldiers to conquer fortresses in assaults that would otherwise
have failed because of bodily injuries. Although these PPE were not comfortable for

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