US-12616253-B2 - Shaping garment with fit-adjustable brassiere portion

Abstract

Designing garments that include brassiere cups can be challenging due to the natural fluctuation of a woman's breast size, as well as a possible disconnect between the size of her breasts and the size of the rest of her body. The high range of size variability places pressure on stores to stock inventories that include great ranges of sizes. This places an inventory risk to the store, since rarer sizes may never sell. The disclosed garment addresses these issues by including a fit-adjustable brassiere portion. The cups of the fit-adjustable brassiere portion include fit-modifying panels that increase their flexibility and elasticity. The rear side of the fit-adjustable brassiere portion includes a back adjuster with highly elastic regions that enables the brassiere portion to fit a broader range of chest sizes. Each of these features give the garment a more universal fit and enable stores to carry fewer sizes.

Inventors

• Angelica Melendez
• Jennifer Johnson
• Elena Novosiolova

Assignees

• SPANX, LLC

Dates

Publication Date

20260505

Application Date

20241015

Claims (17)

1. 1 . A garment comprising: a torso-encircling portion comprising: a left brassiere cup and a right brassiere cup, a left brassiere wing permanently attached to the left brassiere cup, and a right brassiere wing permanently attached to the right brassiere cup, and a back adjuster comprising left and right elastic regions; wherein the left brassiere wing is permanently attached to the left elastic region of the back adjuster and the right brassiere wing is permanently attached to the right elastic region of the back adjuster; and wherein a material of the left and right elastic regions has a lower elastic modulus than a material of the left brassiere wing and the right brassiere wing.
2. 2 . The garment of claim 1 , wherein the left and right brassiere wings each comprise: a superior area extending from the left brassiere cup to the left elastic region of the back adjuster and from the right brassiere cup to the right elastic region of the back adjuster, respectively; and an inferior area extending from the left brassiere cup to the left elastic region of the back adjuster and from the right brassiere cup to the right elastic region of the back adjuster, respectively.
3. 3 . The garment of claim 2 , wherein the left and right brassiere wings each further comprise a middle area extending between and permanently attached to the superior and inferior areas of each respective brassiere wing, the middle area formed of a different material than the superior and inferior areas.
4. 4 . The garment of claim 3 , wherein the superior area of each brassiere wing is a first elastic band and the inferior area of each brassiere wing is a second elastic band that is wider than the first elastic band.
5. 5 . The garment of claim 2 , wherein the left and right brassiere wings are each coupled to one or more reinforcing rods.
6. 6 . The garment of claim 2 , wherein the torso-encircling portion further comprises an outer component and an inner component, the inner component comprising the left and right brassiere wings.
7. 7 . The garment of claim 6 , wherein the inner component is attached to the outer component forming a superior edge of the garment.
8. 8 . The garment of claim 7 , wherein the inferior area of each of the left and right brassiere wings extends downward from the superior area of each respective brassiere wing free of couplings to the outer component.
9. 9 . The garment of claim 6 , wherein the inner component is shorter than the outer component in a longitudinal direction.
10. 10 . The garment of claim 6 , wherein the superior areas of the left and right brassiere wings each comprise a material having a higher elastic modulus than a material of the outer component.
11. 11 . The garment of claim 2 , wherein the inferior areas of the left and right brassiere wings each are formed from the same material as the left and right elastic regions of the back adjuster, respectively.
12. 12 . The garment of claim 11 , wherein the inferior area of the left brassiere wing and the left elastic region are formed from a continuous piece of material, and the inferior area of the right brassiere wing and the right elastic region are formed from a continuous piece of material.
13. 13 . A method of making a garment comprising: permanently attaching a left brassiere cup to a left brassiere wing, permanently attaching a right brassiere cup to a right brassiere wing, permanently attaching a left elastic region of a back adjuster to the left brassiere wing, permanently attaching a right elastic region of the back adjuster to the right brassiere wing, wherein a material of the left and right elastic regions has a lower elastic modulus than a material of the left brassiere wing and the right brassiere wing.
14. 14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein permanently attaching a left brassiere cup to a left brassiere wing and permanently attaching a right brassiere cup to a right brassiere wing further comprise: permanently attaching a superior area of the left and right brassiere wings to the left and right brassiere cups, respectively, and permanently attaching an inferior area of the left and right brassiere wings to the left and right brassiere cups, respectively.
15. 15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein permanently attaching a left elastic region of a back adjuster to the left brassiere wing, and permanently attaching a right elastic region of a back adjuster to the right brassiere wing further comprise: permanently attaching a superior area of the left and right brassiere wings to the left and right elastic regions of the back adjuster, respectively, and permanently attaching an inferior area of the left and right brassiere wings to the left and right elastic regions of the back adjuster, respectively.
16. 16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein permanently attaching a left brassiere cup to a left brassiere wing and permanently attaching a right brassiere cup to a right brassiere wing further comprises: permanently attaching a middle area of the left and right brassiere wings to the superior and inferior areas of the left and right brassiere wings, and permanently attaching the middle area of the left and right brassiere wings to the left and right brassiere cups, respectively.
17. 17 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising forming the back adjuster prior to attaching the left and right elastic regions of the back adjuster to the left and right brassiere wings, wherein forming the back adjuster comprises: attaching a left elastic region to a left end of a closure mechanism, and attaching a right elastic region to the right end of the closure mechanism.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/588,923, filed Jan. 31, 2022, which is a continuation of U.S. Pat. No. 11,234,468, issued Jan. 12, 2022, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application 62/492,464, filed May 1, 2017. Each of the aforementioned applications is incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. BACKGROUND Special occasions often lead to the purchase of unique apparel that may only be used once or a few times. These garments can have interesting necklines, back lines, breast padding, and long, embellished skirts and underskirts that add weight. Shaping garments can be worn under the special occasion garment to smoothen and shape the wearer's overall silhouette. Designing shaping garments for special occasions can be especially challenging because they must be versatile enough to adapt to the many types of unique features that special occasion apparel can include. SUMMARY Brassieres and other breast supporting garments are typically constructed to fit a somewhat narrow range of breast sizes. However, one woman's breast size can fluctuate, for example, with pregnancy, nursing, weight gain or loss, or hormonal changes. Women often purchase breast supporting garments in multiple sizes to accommodate these fluctuations. Furthermore, designing breast supporting garments is a challenge due to the possible disconnect between breast size and the size of other body parts. The high range of size variability places pressure on stores to stock inventories that include great ranges of sizes. This places an inventory risk to the store, since rarer sizes may never sell. These issues pose challenges when designing brassieres or shapewear to suit the unique features of special occasion apparel. The disclosed breast supporting garment addresses these issues by including a fit-adjustable brassiere portion. The cups of the fit-adjustable brassiere portion include fit-modifying portions that increase their flexibility and elasticity. The rear side of the fit-adjustable brassiere portion includes a back adjuster with highly elastic regions that enables the brassiere portion to fit a broader range of chest sizes. Each of these features give the garment a more universal fit and enable stores to carry fewer sizes. Some embodiments of the garments disclosed herein include a front side and a rear side, a left cup on the front side configured to support a left breast, and a right cup on the front side configured to support a right breast. The left and right cups each include a main region and a fit-modifying region that is fixedly or seamlessly attached to the main region. The fit-modifying regions are positioned laterally with respect to the main regions. The left and right fit-modifying regions each have a lower elastic modulus than the left and right main regions. The garments also include a torso-encircling portion that extends away from the left and right cups toward the rear side of the garment, at least partially defining a torso space. The left and right fit-modifying portions can, in some embodiments, have tapered shapes. In some embodiments, the left and right fit-modifying regions narrow as they extend downward toward a bottom edge of their respective cup. The fit-modifying regions can be elongated in an inferior to superior direction. In some embodiments, the fit-modifying regions can extend inferiorly from a superior edge of the cup. They can be fixedly or seamlessly attached to the main region of the cup. Fixedly attached can be, for example, attached by bonding or by a sewn seam. In some embodiments, the fit-modifying regions can have a smaller surface area than the main regions. In some embodiments, the left and right fit-modifying regions can each include inner layer, an outer layer, and at least one layer of adhesive between the inner and outer layers. The inner layer can, in some embodiments, be the same material as the outer layer. In some embodiments, each of the left and right fit-modifying regions includes a central layer positioned between the inner and outer layers. The central layer can have a lower elastic modulus than the inner or outer layers. The central layer can be formed of at least 80% elastane. A first layer of adhesive can be positioned between the inner layer and the central layer, and a second layer of adhesive can be positioned between the central layer and the outer layer. The garment can be constructed as shapewear, a brassiere, or a bustier. For example, the torso encircling portion can, in some embodiments, have a height that is less than the height of the left cup or the right cup. In other embodiments, the torso-encircling portion can extend downward and away from the left and right cups to form an abdominal shaping region on the front side of the garment and a back shaping region on the rear side of the garment. In some embodiments, a lower region of the front side of the garment includ