US1807486A - Bathing suit - Google Patents

Description

C. L. MARTiN BATHING SUIT May 26, 1931.

Filed'OCt. 11, 1930 C L. Marlin I I 1 X, fl-

' form of the invention.

Patented May 26, 1931 UNITED STATES T orrl cr. i

CHARLES L'MARTIN, or WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH sanctum, AssIcNoR TO INDERA MILLS COMPANY, or wINsr'omsAL-uivr, Noam ceaonnvn, A conro'na 'rioiv or NORTH CAROLINA BATHING surr Application filed October 11, 1930. Serial 1%. 488,099.

This invention relates to bathing suits and particularly to those designed for feminine wear, in which the effect or function of a brassiere is desirable.

In bathing suits as heretofore known, it is customary to wear a separate brassiere. This expedient has at best been a make-shift and is unsatisfactory, since it ainounts tothe wearing of two articles of apparel, anddetracts from the feeling of trim snugness which is the attribute of a one-piece, well fitting suit, the brassie're itself not being adapted to use as a bathing garment and being liable to slip out of placein the water.

The object of the present invention is to provide a-bathing suit having an integral brassiere area extending across the front, said brassiere area being undifferentiated in any way, from the texture of the remaining portions of the bathing suit, but being continuously stretched by virtue of other structural features of the bathing suit, regardless-of the position or movements of the wearer so as'to preserve a supporting pressure upon the'bo'dy.

Another object of the invention is to provide a modified forin'of bathing suit in which the inherent principles, by whch 't'h'e'brassiere area is determined, are retained, but in addition, the brassiere area is formed of adifierent or heavier texture through which additional support is obtained. i

Other object's of the invention will appear as the following description ofa preferred and practical embodiment thereof proceeds. In the drawings in which the same characters of reference have been used throughout the several figures to denote identical parts: Figures 1 and 2 are respectively, a back and front elevation of abathing suit constructed. according to the-principlesof the present invention; Figure 3 is a plan view of the tubular blank from which the suit is cut, the trunks portion being omitted, the blank being folded so as to bring the side edges thereof together; and V f Figure 4 is a front elevation of a modified 7 Referring now in detail to the several figures and first advert'ing' to Figures 1 and 2,

in}; suit. Thus, the shoulder straps S a bathing suit 1- is shown forlnedas is customary of tubular knit fabric and having a brassiere 2 which is not physically delineated in the actual bathing suit, but which is indicated by the bounding broken lines inFig- 'ure 1.

ed that when on the body i't'exerts continuous pull upon the bounding regioiis of the brassiere area so as to impart the necessary tautness to said area.

1 A glance atFigures 1 the neck, armholes and underarm openings are formed with stitched binding seams 3, 4 and 5. These sealns have Inuch'less elasticity than the remainder of the fabric d'u'e tothe folding and st-itcliing,and this comparative lack of elasticity plays an important part together with other novel features now to be described in tensioning the brassiere area.

It will be' noted from Figures 1 and 2 that the neck're c'ess 6 in the front of the bathing suit terminates at a considerably higher level than the-neck recess? at the back ofithe bathare held from spreading by the bi'idgeforined by the transverseportion ofthe binding seam 3 at the back of the neck recess as is clearly indicated-in Figure 1, so that when the bathing suit is worn the shoulder straps '8 assume a definite position on the shoulders and when the bathing suit is stretched by thebody, the

- shoulder straps being fixed in position, compel a vertical elongation' of thebathing suit between the/neck and crotch; If the shoulsuit so that vertical elongationof the same would not take place. This vertical stretching which is compelled by the fixity of the shoulder straps imparts a tension tothe upper and lowerboundaries of the brassiere' and Qwill Show that area, stretching the fabric vertically in this area.

Figure 2 shows that the neck binding seam at the front of the bathing suit is at a considerable distance above the line indicating the top boundary of the brassiere area so that when the bathing suit is longitudinally stressed, a pull is exerted upon the fabric of the brassiere area along the lines a, just the same as stress is transmitted from the floor to the suspension cable of a suspension bridge, maintaining the floor in a straight line.

While the underarm openings of the bathing suit according to the present invention may be cut out very deeply at the back, in the interest of comfort and sun exposure, it will be observed from Figure 1 that said underarm openings do not substantially eucroach uponthe front of the bathing suit, the slight concavity shown at 9 being caused merely by the turning over of a. narrow portion of-the fabric to form the binding seam. As a matter of fact, in the cut blank, the underarm openings form a straight line at the fold between the front and back portions of the bathing suit. I

The fact that the binding seam 5 of the underarm openings conform substantially to a vertical line at the sides of the brassiere area ensure that the said area will be stretched transversely when the bathing suit is worn, since if the underarm area extended a substantial distance into the front of the'bathing suit as shown in broken lines at 10 in Figure 2, the binding seam would be longer than if it extended substantially vertical and in consequence, through its mere preponderance in length it would have more elsticity. Consequently. the end portions of said binding seam might shift about some imaginary pivot point, such as I) along lines such as are indicated at 0, under fiexions of the body or limbs, without materially stretching'the intermediate part of the binding seam. Under such conditions the middle portion ofthe brassiere would not be stretched transversely. With the present invention, on the contrary, the binding seam being a. straight line, any

transverse expansion of the bathing suit at the hips or below the arms due to the presence of the body or to movements of thebody results in a transverse stretching of the brassiere area, since the straight portion of the binding seam 5 cannot stretch and must therefore, move bodily laterally against the resistance of the fabric in the brassiere area.

Figure 1 shows that the underearin openings at the back have been cut with downwardly extending corners 11. When the bathing suit is worn it will be understood that the chest of the wearer expands circumferentially that portion of the bathing suit immediately beneath the arms. This causes the depressed corners 11 to rise, positioning the adjacent portions of the binding seam 5 in a straight transverse line. It has been stated that these binding seams are inelastic, consequently, when the bathing suit is worn there extends substantially twothirds the distance across the back an inelastic band, the middle portion of the back alone being elastic, the major portion of the circumferential expansion thus devolving upon the brassiere area in front.

Referring once again to Figure 1 it will be noted that a straight line drawn so as substantially to coincide with one side of the neck recess at the back of the bathing suit, also substantially coincides with an extensive portion of the binding seam of the underarm opening on the opposite side and it can read :ily be visualized that if the bathing suit be stressed diagonally in the direction of this line by movements of the wearer in swimming or in other fiexions of the body, the binding seams of the right side of the neck recess and the left underarm opening, or the left side of the neck recess and the right underarm opening more nearly coincide with said line, so that from the top of the shoulder to the waist of the bathing suit, said line is constituted by the relative inelastic binding seams of the neck recess and underarm opening, and the relatively short intermediate elastic portion indicated by the reference character 12. The two lines from opposite sides of the neck recess intersect in the elastic portion so as to have the function and effect of a pair of suspenders. It is well known that the function of suspenders is to compensate for variations in the lengths of the two diagonals represented by the said intersecting imaginary lines so as to maintain an even tension on both sides of the garment. The relatively short extent of elastic fabric in each of these lines of pull assures that the major proportion of the stretching shall be imposed upon the front of the bathing suit thereby maintaining the brassierc area stressed vertically regardless of bending or other movements of the body.

By the scientific construction above described, it is evident that I have produced a bathing suit having the inherent qualities of a brassiere in the front portion, which brassiere function or effect is maintained throughout the normal movements of the body or limbs and that the single garment fulfills the function which nowrequires the wearing of a brassiere as a separate article of apparel in addition to the bathing suit.

In the modified form of my invention as illustrated in Figure 4, the brassiere area is knit with a heavier or distinct stitch or with an extra thread so as to produce a visible reinforcement which assists in imparting the necessary support to the brassiere area. The presence of the relatively thickened area is also an advantageous selling point to those whom it is hard to convince that the brassiere effect actually exists in a bathing suit of uniform weave constructed according to the principles of the present invention.

Figure 3 illustrates the mehod of cutting out a bathing suit according to the present invention, the tubular blank 13 being shown folded double, and the armholes cut out at 14, the front of the neck at 15, the back of the neck at 16 and the underarm openings at 17. It will be noted at 18 that the underarm openings terminate, before the seams are turned, exactly in the side line of the folded blank.

While I have in the above disclosure described a preferred form of my invention, it is to be understood that the specific embodiment as shown is intended to illustrate the principles of the invention rather than to restrict it to a single specific construction.

That I claim is 1. Knit bathing suit having shoulder openings shared by the front and rear portions, a neck opening shallower in front than in the back, defining in conjunction with the shoulder openings, shoulder straps, and under-arm openings located substantially entirely on the back portion, extending toward the median line of the back portion at least a sufiicient distance to intersect longitudinal lines through the shoulder straps, the front portion from a transverse line in a plane intersecting the shoulder openings below the front part of the neck opening, to a transverse line in a plane intersecting the under arm openings, defining a brassiere area, the

' transverse edge of the front part of the neck opening preventing spreading of the shoulder straps, thus fixing their points of suspension upon the shoulders of the wearer, the area of the front portion of the bathing suit between the neck opening and the upper boundary of the brassiere'area and the substantially unindented part below the lower boundary of the brassiere area distributing over the entire width of the brassiere area, the longi tudinal stresses engendered by circumferential distension of the bathing suit, the edges of the under-arm openings being less elastic than the general fabric of the bathing suit and having the upper parts arcing downwardly from an'intermediate point of maximum altitude toward the side seams of the bathing suit, whereby when said bathing suit is distended, said downwardly arcing edges rise to coincide with an imaginary line in a transverse plane intersecting approximately the middle portion of said brassiere area, said relatively inelastic edges constituting the major portion of said line, whereby the preponderance of circumferential stretching is borne by said brassiere area.

2. Knit bathing suit as claimed in claim 1, the edges of the relatively deep part of the neck opening being also relatively inelastic, and the under-arm openings being cut so close to the median line at the back of the bathing suit that when the latter is diagonally stressed, a portion of the relatively inelastic edge of theunder-arm opening on one side and a portion of the relatively inelastic edge of the neck opening, on the other side coincide with an imaginary diagonal line, such lines from opposite sides of the bathing suit intersecting, so that when the bathing suit is stretched diagonally in one direction or the other, the maj or portions of the intersecting lines being constituted by relatively inelastic portions, the preponderance of stretching is borne by said brassiere area.

3. Knit bathing suit as claimed in claim 1,

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