Page 339 - Anthropometry, Apparel Sizing and Design

332 Anthropometry, Apparel Sizing and Design

The design of pressure garments also needs both traditional and new knowledge
about all elements of the system “body-garment” (morphology of human body,
sensitiveness of soft tissue, textile materials, structure and construction of garment,
technology of production) and the environmental conditions over the lifetime.
Traditional databases include the set of body measurements and the properties of
textile materials (mechanical, physical, etc.). Additional databases should be built
containing special knowledge related to the human body (structure and sensitiveness
of soft tissue, morphology and its ability to reshape under applied compression, the
main postures and positions, etc.), the textile materials (some abilities to elongate
and create pressure, human-friendly properties of the surface, etc.), and IT software
for virtual design.

13.2 Brief history of pressure garments

When pressure garments were mentioned from the 16th to the 18th centuries, the cor-
set was similar to a cage and was made of a strip of wood, steel, or whalebone to raise
the women’s breasts by contracting the limits of the waist as much as possible (Beck,
1995; Cunnington and Cunnington, 1992; Steele, 2001); it was favored by the royal
male aristocracy (Ping and Chunhong, 2002; Roberts, 1977). In the 17th century, due
to the development of the garment industry, the structure of corsets changed (Lynn,
2014), and the new types of corsets were cone-shaped (Fig. 13.1A) (Salen, 2008). In
the 18th century, some producers of corsets began to promote the slogan “good for
health” for their corsets, which were easier to wear and more loosely fitting than ear-
lier corsets (Fig. 13.1B). The earliest corsets were very far from human-friendly in
design, and they had a strong negative impact on human organs (Fontanel, 1997).
Since the 19th century, corsets have mainly caused discomfort and health issues for
women (Lim et al., 2006a). Many scientific studies have focused on the negative

Fig. 13.1 Some pressure garments: (A) multilayer “cone-shape” corset, 17th century;
(B) multilayer corset called “jumps,” 18th century; (C) one-layer corset, 20th century.