GB2128079A - Garment hanger - Google Patents

Abstract

A garment hanger for, e.g. trousers, a skirt, comprises an elongate structure having a garment support 7,9 at or near each end. At least one of the supports 7 is hinged to the structure so that it can move relative to the structure to take up the most favourable position relative to the garment. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Garment hanger This invention relates to a garment hanger which is particularly suitable for supporting long garments such as skirts and trousers.

In order that such garments should be displayed to their best effect, they should be supported by a hanger acting in the vicinity of their waist-band and allowed to hang full length from a horizontal rail. Of course, there are various sizes of garments and there is a considerable variation in the width of the garments at the waist-band.

A known garment hanger has two aligned tensioning arms which are telescopically mounted so that, once the hanger is introduced into the garment, the arms move outwardly until their ends engage the garment and exert a tensioning force on it. It is also known for a garment hanger to have a pair of upwardly inclined arms and the garment is fitted into the hanger when the arms are extending upwardly.

The weight of the garment causes the arms to bend downwardly and a fixed garment support at the outer end of each arm bears against the garment and the garment is supported on the hanger. Because the arms take up positions dependent upon the weight of the garment supported on the hanger, the fixed garment support is not always snugly fitting against the waist-band of the garment and the supports can mark the waist-band.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a garment hanger in which this difficulty is overcome.

According to the present invention, a garment hanger comprises an elongate bar structure including a hook for supporting the hanger and a garment support at or near each end of the bar structure and wherein at least one of the garment supports is hingedly secured to the bar structure.

Because one or both of the garment supports is hinged to the bar structure, the supports can take up a position relative to the bar structure in which the support is fully in engagementr with the garment.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood, it will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is an elevation of a hanger in accordance with the invention; Figure2 is a side elevation; Figure 3 is a plan; and Figure 4 is an elevation of an alternative form of hanger.

A hanger for supporting a garment such as a pair of trousers is shown in Figures 1 to 3, although, with minor modifications, it can also be used to support a skirt.

The hanger comprises two elongate limbs 1,3 which are arranged end-to-end with a stup 5 between them. Each limb is hinged to the stub. At the outer end of each limb a garment support is provided. These supports may take various forms but, in the arrangement shown, at the outer end of limb 1, the support comprises a body 7, hinged at one side to the limb, so as to extend transverse to limb 1, and having serrations on the opposite side.

The support 9 at the outer end of limb 3 is rigid with the limb, extends transverse to the limb and has serrations on its outer curved surface. This support is in the form of a clip having two portions 9A, 9B joined together at their upper end. Two supports of the type 7 are conveniently used for supporting a skirt by engaging the inside of the waist-band.

Afurther limb 11 is hinged to the limb 1 at a position on the limb betwen the support 7 and the stub 5. Similarly, on the limb 3, there is another limb 13 hinged to it between the support 9 and the stub 5.

The outer ends of the limbs 11 and 13 are hinged to opposite sides of another stub 15 which extends transverse to the limbs 11 and 13. The adjacent ends of the stubs 5 and 15 are connected together by a resilient device which urges the stubs towards each other. The device is conveniently a coil spring 17.

The opposite end of the stub 15 to the spring 17 carries a hook 19 and, optionally, a plate 21 to which information as to the size of the garment carried on the hanger can be added.

The geometry of the various limbs is preferably such that the limb 11 is hinged mid-way along the length of the limb 1,the limb 13 is hinged mid-way along the length of the limb 3, and the limbs 11 and 13 are each half of the length of the limbs 1 and 3.

In use, the hanger is positioned inside the waistband of the garment allowing the garment to hang in its creases. The garment is held at opposite sides by the supports 7 and 9 and, consequently, only a small part of the hanger, namely the hook 19 and the plate 21 are visible. With such an arrangement, the vertical distance beween the hook 19 and the supports 7 and 9 remains substantially the same, independent of the weight and the width of the article supported by the hanger.

In Figure 1, the position of the various limbs is shown in full dark lines for one size of garment supported by the supports at positions spaced apart by a first distance. If a smaller size of garment is supported at positions spaced apart by a different distance, then the position of the various limbs is shown in feinter lines. In both positions, it can be seen that the level of the supports 7 and 9 relative to the hook 19 remains substantially the same.

In the arrangement shown, the limbs are not exactly of the desired relative lengths so that the hook is not exactly half-way between the supports 7 and 9.

Apart from the hook 19 and the spring 17, the hanger is conveniently moulded as an integral unit from plastics material and the hinges are formed integral wth the limbs and are sometimes referred to as "living hinges".

The strength of the spring 17 is chosen depending upon the weight of the garment to be carried on the hanger. It is an advantage, therefore, that, by changing the spring 17, the hanger can be used for garments of different weights. The springs of different strengths can be colour coded. The line of action of the spring is substantially vertical and the extension of the spring in the vertical plane is transferred to horizontal forces applied by the supports to the waist-band of the garment.

When the hanger is used to support a pair of trousers, the trousers are folded in the usual creases so that the two legs of the trousers lie flat, one on the other, and the fly portion is turned inwardly between the waist-band. The hanger is positioned inside the waist-band and the portions 9A, 9B of the support 9 grip the fly portion, not the waist-band, of the trousers. The serrations on the body 7 are caused to bear against the inside portion of the folded waistband opposite to the fly portion. The action of the spring 17 forces the support 9 away from the body 7, thus tensioning the waist-band to some extent and then the hanger supports the trousers in the socalled profile position.

A simplified form of hanger is shown in Figure 4. A bar structure 31 has a thickened central portion to which a support hook 33 is fitted for suspending the hanger and a garment on it from a rail. The bar structure includes two arms 35 which are normally bent upwards and at the free end of each arm there is a garment support 37. This support is connected to the bar structure by a hinge 39 which permits the support to move relative to the bar structure. Thus, as a garment is supported on the hanger, the arms 35 move downwardly and the supports pivot with respect to the bar structure so that the supports 37 bear firmly against the adjacent surfaces of the hanger.

Claims (5)

1. A garment hanger comprising an elongate bar structure including a hook for supporting the hanger and a garment support at or near each end of the bar structure and wherein at least one of the garment supports is hingedly secured to the bar structure.

2. A garment hanger as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bar structure comprises a first pair of limbs hingedly secured in end-to-end relation, a second pair of limbs hingedly secured in end-to-end relation, the length of each limb of the second pair being less than that of each limb of the first pair; the outer ends of the second pair of limbs being hingedly secured to respective ones of the first pair of limbs at positions intermediate their ends; and resilient means acting between the first pair of limbs and the second pair of limbs to urge the pairs of limbs towards each other.

3. A garment hanger as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the or each hingedly secured garment support comprises an elongate body hingedly secured at one side to the structure so as to extend transverse thereto.

4. A garment hanger as claimed in claim 3, wherein the other side of the body opposite to the hinge side is serrated along its length.

5. A garment hanger as claimed in claim 1,2 and 3 or claim 4 of the accompanying drawings.