GB2255895A - A decorative fashion accessory - Google Patents

Abstract

A decorative fashion accessory (10) is generally in the form of an eye-catching patch, bow or the like and is intended to be applied, when required, to a garment (14), footwear or similar item. Especially, it is intended to be used on hosiery. The accessory may be of an eye-catching shape and may have an attractive finish on one face (11), such as a velvet or glitter appearance. The opposite face (12) is intended to be attached to the garment etc. and is coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive substance (13) protected by a peel-off layer. <IMAGE>

Description

DECORATIVE FASHION ACCESSORY This invention relates to a decorative fashion accessory for attachment to garments, footwear or the like. In particular, but not exclusively, this invention relates to a decorative fashion accessory to be applied to hosiery.

Previously, patches have been applied to hosiery for the arrestment of runs or ladder formation. These patches have been designed to hlend into the colour and texture of the hosiery and are thus of a non-conspicuous nature.

Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a decorative fashion accessory which is eye appealing and relatively cheap to manufacture or a least provide the public with a useful choice, According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a decorative fashion accessory in the form of a patch means, to be applied when required to an object such as a garment, shoe or the like, the accessory having a first surface or form adapted to be eye appealing, and a second surface adapted to be attached to said object by pressing the second surface to the object without additional heat or additional adhesive or moisture.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of making a decorative accessory including the steps of taking a sheet of suitable material having first and second surfaces, taking a sheet of double-sided adhesive substance protected on both sides by peel-off layers, peeling off one of said layers and applying the thereby exposed surface of the adhesive substance to said second surface with pressure, and cutting out a patch means from the combined sheet of said suitable material, the adhesive substance and the remaining peel-off layer.

Embodiments of the invention are now described by way of example only, with reference to the drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a plan view of a decorative fashion accessory, Figure 2 is a schematic side view of the decorative fashion accessory, Figure 3 is a schematic side view of another embodiment of the decorative fashion accessory, and Figure 4 is a schematic side view of another embodiment of the decorative fashion accessory.

One embodiment of the decorative fashion accessory, is illustrated in Figures 1 and 2.

A decorative fashion accessory 10 is shaped to be both artistic and eye catching. Artistic in the sense that it may be shaped, for example, as a heart, spider, flower.

It is to be understood that the shape of the decorative fashion accessory 10 can vary. Eye catching in the sense that the decorative fashion accessory 10 may be composed of any colours and may have reflective or refractive surface properties. The accessory 10 is in the form of a patch to be applied to a garment, shoe or the like. The patch may be substantially twodimensional or may be three dimensional.

In Figures 1 and 2, the decorative fashion accessory 10 has two planar faces 11 and 12. One of these planar faces 11 has the artistic and eye catching component either attached to it or inherent in its texture.

Planar face 12 has an adhesive substance 13 attached to it.

In use, planar face 12 has a peel-off backing of nonadhesive material attached to it. This non-adhesive material is removed to expose the surface of the adhesive substance 13. Planar face 12 is then pressed firmly against a garment 14. This pressing of the adhesive substance 13 on planar face 12 to the garment 14 causes the decorative fashion accessory 10 to adhere to the garment 14.

It is envisaged that the decorative fashion accessory 10 may be adhered to a wide variety of garments.

The decorative fashion accessory 10 may be formed from a suitable polyvinylchloride (PVC) sheeting of appropriate thickness, flexibility and colour. The surface 11 is conveniently decorated by a known electrostatic flock spraying process of short rayon fibres to give a velvetlike appearance.

The adhesive substance 13 attached to the planar face 12 is preferable a pressure-sensitive double sided adhesive sheet or tape of a kind which has no carrier between the adhesive surfaces thereof. This type of adhesive sheet is provided with peel-off protective sheets on both sides of the adhesive substance. One of the protective sheets is peeled off to expose the adhesive which is then pressed to the planar face 12. The other protective sheet is left on the adhesive substance to the point where the decorative fashion accessory 10 is to be applied to a garment, shoe, or other object, when it is peeled off to expose the adhesive, so that it can be pressed onto the garment to fasten the accessory 10 thereto. A suitable form of such adhesive sheet or tape may be obtained from Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company Inc.

The required shape of the accessory 10 may be cut from the polyvinylchloride sheet, attached adhesive substance 13 and remaining protective sheet, by any suitable means, such as an appropriate form of die cutting.

The separated accessory 10 is conveniently mounted on a card and packaged for sale.

The adhesive substance 13 must be of high strength and of a type which will adhere to the garment when the substance 13 is at ambient temperature. It must withstand the temperatures, water and washing materials and processes recommended for cleaning a garment when the accessory is adhered thereto.

As an alternative to the PVC sheeting, suitable woven, knitted or embroidered materials may be used. For example, silk embroidered on nylon backing may be used.

The flock or other surface treatment may be of several colours to form a pattern or picture. Glitter materials may be used instead of flock sprayed materials.

A further embodiment of the decorative fashion accessory 10 is indicated in Figure 3.

The decorative fashion accessory 10 has two planar faces 15 and 16 which make up a single sheet. Planar faces 15 has an artistic or eye appealing component either attached to it or inherent in it. Planar face 16 has an adhesive portion 17 of its face attached by an adhesive substance 18 to a mechanical press-fastener 19.

The press-fastener 19 has female and male portions respectively 20 and 21. In the view shown in Figure 3 the male portion 21 has a bulbous head 22 which is pressed against the garment fabric. This causes the fabric to ride up over the male portion 21 of the fastener 19.

The female portion 20 is annular . The male portion 21 enters the annulus whereby it is locked in a friction or spring fit on the bulbous head 22 of the male portion 21.

The decorative fashion accessory 10 is thus clasped to the garment. This is effected because the backing of the female portion 20 is adhering to the adhesive substance 18 which in turn is on the planar face 16 of the decorative fashion accessory 10.

A further embodiment of the decorative fashion accessory is indicated in Figure 4.

The decorative fashion accessory 10 has two planar faces 24 and 25 which make up a a single sheet.

Planar face 24 has an artistic or eye appealing competent either attached to it or inherent in it.

Planar face 25 has an adhesive portion 26 of its face attached via an adhesive substance 27 to the backing of a single strip of Velcro (trade mark)) 28. The Velcro strip 28 has a surface that is pushed against the garment. The Velcro strip surface is composed of loops 29 of material. A further strip of Velcro 30 with hooks 35 on the surface thereof, is pushed towards the Velcro strip 28 and the strips 28 and 30 link together through the action of the hooks 35 and the loops 29.

If preferred, the lower strip of Velcro 30 can be affixed to the upper surface of the garment 14 by a suitable adhesive material, so that the upper strip of Velcro 28 co-acts directly with the lower strip 30.

As a further feature, any of the above-mentioned decorative fashion accessories 10 may be perfumed by the application thereto of a suitable perfume, chosen so that it does not adversely affect the materials of the accessory 10, especially the adhesive substance 13.

Instead of the decorative fashion accessory 10 being in flat form, it can be made , for example, in a bow. Such a bow is conveniently made from woven satin sheet material, cut into the correct length of ribbon by a heat-sealing process to seal the raw edges. The bow is then tied and an area of suitable cold-working adhesive substance 13, with its protective sheet, is applied to the underside of the bow.

It is to be understood that the scope of the invention is not limited to the described embodiments and therefore that numerous variations and modifications may be made to these embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims (24)

1. A decorative fashion accessory in the form of a patch means, to be applied when required to an object such as a garment, shoe or the like, the accessory having a first surface or form adapted to be eye appealing, and a second surface adapted to be attached to said object by pressing the second surface to the object without additional heat or additional adhesive or moisture.

2. An accessory, according to claim 1, in which said second side includes a portion coated with an adhesive substance.

3. An accessory, according to claim 2, including a protective peel-off sheet on that surface of the adhesive substance which is to be exposed for application to the object, at the time of use.

4. An accessory, according to claim 2 or 3, in which the adhesive substance is entirely adhesive substance without any internal sheet material.

5. An accessory, according to claim 2, 3 or 4, in which the adhesive substance extends over substantially the whole of said second surface.

6. An accessory, according to claim 1, including a mechanical press fastener having two components, one component being attached to said second surface and the other component being adapted to be fastened to or through said object, whereby to fasten the accessory to the object when the components are pressed together.

7. An accessary according to claim 1, including an area of two-part flexible sheet, tear-apart material, of which one part has a face formed with many fine loops and of which the other part has a face formed with many fine hooks, the parts being separably attached together by pressing the faces together so that the hooks catch on the loops, one of said parts being fastened to said second surface and the other of said parts being fastenable to or through said object.

8. An accessory, according to claim 7, in which the two-part sheet is Velcro (trade mark) material.

9. An accessory, according to any preceding claim, in which the patch means includes a flat sheet of flexible material having said first and second surfaces thereon.

10. An accessory, according to claim 9, in which the flexible material is sheet polyvinylchoride.

11. An accessory, according to claim 9 or 10, in which said first surface has a velvet-like appearance.

12. An accessory, according to claim 11, in which the appearance is obtained by flock-sprayed fibres.

13. An accessory, according to claim 12, in which the fibres are of rayon,

14. An accessory, according to any of claims 9 to 13, in which the patch is cut from a sheet of the material by a die cutting process.

15. An accessory, according to any of claims 1 to 8, in which the patch is a suitable woven, knitted or embroidered material.

16. An accessory, according to any preceding claim in which said first surface includes or has applied to it glitter material.

17. An accessory , according to any preceding claim in which the artistic appearance is derived from the shape of the patch means as determined by the edges thereof.

18, An accessory, according to any of claim 1 to 8 in which the patch means is in the form of a bow.

19. An accessory, according to claims 18, in which the bow is made from a strip of woven satin material.

20. An accessory, according to claim 19, in which the strip is cut from a larger sheet of the satin material by a heat-sealing process to seal the raw edges of the strip.

21. An accessory. according to any preceding claim, including a perfume substance applied thereto.

22. A method of making a decorative fashion accessory including the steps of taking a sheet of suitable material having first and second surfaces, taking a sheet of double-sided adhesive substance protected on both sides by peel-off layers, peeling off one of said layers and applying the thereby exposed surface of the adhesive substance to said second surface with pressure, and cutting out a patch means from the combined sheet of said suitable material, the adhesive substance and the remaining peel-off layer.

23. An object, such as a garment, shoe or the like to which a decorative fashion accessory according a any of claims 1 to 21 has been applied.

24. A decorative fashion accessory substantially as described herein and as shown in the accompanying drawings.