Abstract
The present invention discloses a novel garment for covering at least a portion of a torso and a portion of the arms of a wearer. The invention includes an outer garment body having a torso portion and a pair of sleeves, and an inner garment body having a torso portion and an integrated pair of underarm cuffs. Neither the cuffs nor the locations on the sleeves at which they are attached are visible from the outside of the garment.
Claims
1. A unitary garment for covering at least a portion of the torso and arms of a wearer, the garment comprising: a. an outer garment body having an outer torso portion and a pair of sleeves attached to and extending from the torso portion, each sleeve having an inside surface, an outside surface, a first side proximal to the torso portion and a second side facing the outside, the first side having an underarm region; and b. a unitary inner garment body having i. an inner torso portion positioned inside of and attached to the outer torso portion, and ii. a pair of underarm cuffs attached to the inner torso portion, wherein each cuff is located on the inside surface of a respective sleeve at its underarm region and sized so as not to extend to the second side of the sleeve, and each cuff is attached to the inside surface of its respective sleeve at locations of attachment, wherein the locations of attachment are not visible from the outside of the garment.
2. The garment of claim 1, wherein the inner torso portion is attached to the outer torso portion at corresponding torso portion edges.
3. The garment of claim 2, wherein the inner torso portion substantially follows the contours of the outer torso portion when the garment is moved or is in motion.
4. The garment of claim 1, wherein the underarm cuffs are attached to the inner torso portion and to the outer torso portion.
5. The garment of claim 1, wherein each cuff has a proximal end, a distal end, and a pair of lateral opposing ends, and at least a portion of each opposing end defines a location of attachment.
6. The garment of claim 5, wherein the at least portion of one of the opposing ends of each cuff is attached to a first lateral seam in the sleeve.
7. The garment of claim 6, wherein the at least portion of one of the pair of opposing ends of each cuff is sewn to the lateral seam.
8. The garment of claim 7, wherein the at least portion of the second of the pair of lateral opposing ends is sewn to a second lateral seam in the sleeve.
9. The garment of claim 1, wherein each cuff is attached to the inside surface of its respective sleeve with heat treatment.
10. The garment of claim 1, wherein each cuff is attached to the inside surface of its respective sleeve with adhesive.
11. The garment of claim 1, wherein each cuff is attached to the inside surface of its respective sleeve with hook and loop material.
12. The garment of claim 1, wherein the inner garment body is permanently attached to the outer body garment.
13. The garment of claim 1, wherein the inner garment body is removably attached to the outer body garment.
14. A dual-layered unitary garment for covering at least a portion of the upper body and arms of a wearer, the garment comprising: a. a torso section having an outer layer and an inner layer inside of and attached to the outer layer; b. a pair of sleeves, each having a first end connected to the outer layer of the torso section; and c. a pair of inner sleeve segments integral with the inner layer and located inside of a respective sleeve in an underarm region of the garment, wherein each sleeve inner segment has a proximal end attached to the first end of its respective sleeve, and opposing ends at least partially attached to the inside of its respective sleeve at locations of attachment, and wherein each sleeve inner segment and its locations of attachment to its respective sleeve is substantially non-observable when the garment is worn by the wearer.
15. The garment of claim 14, wherein the inner and outer layers of the torso section are attached to each other at corresponding torso portion edges.
16. The garment of claim 14, wherein the inner layer substantially follows the contours of the outer layer of the torso section when the garment is moved or is in motion.
17. The garment of claim 14, wherein the sleeve inner segments are attached to the inner and outer torso section layers.
18. The garment of claim 14, wherein at least a portion of the lateral opposing ends of each cuff is sewn to a second lateral seam in the sleeve.
19. The garment of claim 1, wherein each cuff is attached to the inside surface of its respective sleeve with heat treatment.
20. The garment of claim 1, wherein the inner layer of the torso section comprises material that is different from the outer layer.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0029] Further advantages of the present invention may become apparent to those skilled in the art with the benefit of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and upon reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
[0030] FIG. 1 is an illustrative perspective view of the lined upper body garment according to one embodiment of the present invention;
[0031] FIG. 2A is an illustrative perspective view of the inner lining layer of the garment shown in FIG. 1, as separated from the garment;
[0032] FIG. 2B is an illustrative perspective view of the outer body of the garment shown in FIG. 1, without the inner lining layer installed therein;
[0033] FIG. 3 is an illustrative cutaway perspective view of a portion of the garment according to one embodiment of the present invention, shown inside out;
[0034] FIG. 4 is an illustrative, partial, zoomed view of an underarm portion of the garment in accordance with the present invention, showing the structure of the garment at the juncture of a sleeve and the body section to which the sleeve is connected;
[0035] FIG. 5 is an illustrative partial cutaway view of an embodiment of the present invention detailing the underarm area of the garment; and
[0036] FIG. 6 is an illustrative perspective view of the lined upper body garment of one embodiment of the present invention, as worn by a user with an arm in a lifted position.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0037] Referring now to the drawings, like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding features throughout the several views.
[0038] In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, a no-show, two-layered upper body garment 100 in accordance with the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1, 2A and 2B. FIG. 1 shows an illustrative, front perspective view of a fully assembled, unitary garment 100, here embodied as a long-sleeve button down shirt shown in an unbuttoned state, having two main components, namely, outer garment body 10 and inner garment lining 20 assembled inside body 10. As seen in the illustrative perspective views of FIG. 2B, in preferred embodiments, outer garment body 10 may be a standard shirt, comprising torso portion 11, left and right sleeves 14, 16 connected (typically sewn) to torso portion 11, and inner side 12, as is well understood. Lining 20 shown in FIG. 2A takes substantially the same shape as the inner side 12 of shirt body 10 shown in FIG. 2B, except that lining 20 is sleeveless, with one critical difference: extending outwardly from the lower portion each of the left and right arm openings 22, 24 are inner sleeve segments 26, 28 respectively. These segments may be alternatively referred to as underarm cuffs or cuffs.
[0039] FIG. 1 shows one such cuff 28 inside right sleeve 16 with the right sleeve slightly extended away from the rest of the garment 100, with the dotted lines indicating that it is inside the right sleeve 16. These cuff segments solve the aesthetic problem inherent when wearing a standard short sleeve undershirt under an outer shirt/garment, especially a dress shirt made of a more sheer material; namely the abrupt visible contrast between the upper part of the sleeve under which the undershirt is positioned, and the rest of the sleeve that has no material under it. This contrast is problematic primarily only for the outer side of the sleeves and not the inner side of the sleeves for at least two reasons: 1) when a garment like a long sleeve shirt is worn (without of course another garment covering it), the outer sides of the sleeves are virtually always visible to the public because the arm are normally in non-raised or only slight raised positions. By contrast, the inner side of the sleevesat least the upper most portions closest to the shoulders/armpit are mostly hidden from view; and 2) Unless an arm is completely raised over the head of the garment wearer (see, for example, the right arm of wearer 400 in FIG. 6), a typically rare occurrence, the inner side of the sleeve is more or less shaded by the body of the wearer regardless of the position of the arm. This makes any contrast between the underarm region of the sleeve under which the inventive cuff resides and the remainder of the underside of the sleeve much less visible to others and consequential to the wearer.
[0040] FIG. 2A discloses details of right inner sleeve segment or cuff 28 according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention. It should be understood, however, that in this and other embodiments of inner sleeve segments (some of which are discussed below), left cuff 26 preferably mirrors right cuff 28 with respect to its construction and connections to inner layer 20 and shirt 10. In this present embodiment, cuff 28 is a substantially rectangular piece of sweat-absorbing material that is of sufficient surface area to cover a substantial area of an armpit when worn. Cuff 28 has a proximal end 40 connected to a lower, roughly semi-circular, portion of opening 24 of inner garment lining 20, a distal end 46, and opposing lateral ends 42, 44. This results in cuff 28 loosely taking on a halfpipe-like shape that generally tracks the shape of the portion of the lower half of sleeve 16 extending out from garment torso portion 11 that it covers when assembled. The objectives of these cuff segments, their placement and means for attaching them to garment 100 are to provide an effective sweat barrier between the wearer's underarms and the sleeves, while neither the cuffs nor their end attachment means are readily or obviously visible from the outside of the garmentthe no-show objective.
[0041] Accordingly, in one preferred embodiment (and as discussed further in connection with FIG. 3), proximal end 40 of inner sleeve segment 28 is attached to torso portion 11 at the conventional seam that joins torso portion 11 with sleeve 16. This seam connection may be accomplished by any conventional means, whether sewn, glued, tacked, heat-sealed, hook and loop (Velcro) or otherwise joining means. Moreover, opposing ends 42, 44 of cuff 28 are attached to the inner side of sleeve 16 so that the cuff stays in its intended position, tracking the movement of the portion of the sleeve it covers. Various means for attaching these opposing ends 42, 44 to the inside of sleeve 16 while accomplishing the no-show objective are now discussed. As seen in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, one opposing lateral end of cuff 28 is sewn to sleeve 16 at a portion of sleeve seam 36 that disposed in sleeve 16. Not shown in FIG. 1, the second opposing end of cuff 28 is also sewn to sleeve 16 at a second seam of sleeve 16. The two seams along the length of each sleeve in this embodiment enable the two opposing ends of the cuff to be attached to its sleeve at a portion of these seams so that the cuff attachments are not visible from the outside.
[0042] It should be understood that a specialized dual-seamed sleeve is not required to meet the inventors' objectives of securely attaching an inner sweat barrier sleeve cuff segment to a sleeve while still achieving the no-show objective. Rather, the underarm cuff segment 28 in FIG. 2A may be attached to a more conventional garment sleeve that is created from one piece of material. For example, the present invention may be implemented with a standard long or short-sleeve shirt with a pair of sleeves that are each created from a single piece of material with lateral ends that are attached to each other at a single lateral seam to create the standard tubelike sleeve structure. In such embodiment, the opposing lateral ends (corresponding to 42, 44 in FIG. 2A) of the cuff may be attached to the inner side of the sleeve in different ways. In one option, cuff lateral ends may be glued or heat-fused directly onto the inner side the sleeve requiring no sleeve seam for attachment. Or, one opposing end (the equivalent of end 42) may be connected to the single lateral sleeve seam with stitching, and the opposite end 44 may be fused directly to the inside of the shirt. It should be understood that other options are available to achieve the dual goals of sweat underarm protection while meeting the substantial no-show option.
[0043] Cuffs 26, 28 are preferably made of the same cloth material as the rest of torso lining 20. But optionally it may be made of a different or thicker material because it is designed to absorb sweat from the armpits which often produce more sweat than the torso of the body. Moreover, the armpit cuffs of the present invention can take any number of shapes while still being within the scope of the invention, as long as the cuffs serve as some perspiration barrier between the outer garment and the armpits. Thus, as alternatives to the rectangular shape shown in the figures, the cuffs may be cut into oval, circular or any other shape that has end portions that can be connected to the garment: one enda proximal endconnected towards the garment torso, and preferably a pair of lateral opposing ends to secure the cuffs to the shirt sleeves. Also, optionally, the distal end 46 of each cuff 28 may be secured to the sleeve.
[0044] Turning back to FIG. 1, garment 100 is preferably made unitary in the sense that lining 20 is sized and shaped to closely match the inner dimensions of the torso portion 11 of body 10, and, in this embodiment, is permanently connected to the inner side 12 of body 10 at various mating seams and edges. Thus, lining 20 is seen joined to body 10 along bottom seem 30, along the inner vertical seam 32 of the right (button side) front panel 17, along the inner vertical seam of front placket 18 (not shown), and along the inner neckline 34 of body 10. In this way, inner lining 20 serves the function of a conventional undershirt for the torso but advantageously always tracks the movement of body 10 without bunching up or becoming viewably exposed to the outside as so often happens with a separate undershirt worn under an outer shirt.
[0045] Details of the novel construction of one particular embodiment of the no-show sleeve lining of the present invention are now disclosed in connection with one embodiment shown FIGS. 3-5. FIG. 3 is a partial inside-out view of one side (the right side) of garment 200 showing its construction. As is conventional, in this example, long sleeve 220 is joined (in this example, sewn) to torso portion 210 at seam 230. FIG. 4 is a blow-up view of a part of the garment shown in FIG. 3, but as seen from the underside of sleeve 220. In the present embodiment, long sleeve 220 is constructed from two pieces of material, upper sleeve portion 222 and lower sleeve portion 224 that extend from juncture 230 down to wrist cuff 260. The two sleeve portions 220 and 224 are joined together at seam 240 and seam 242. This construction contrasts with the conventional sleeve (long or short) which is typically made from a single piece of cut material from which a tubelike sleeve is created by sewing one elongated edge of the material to the other. In this embodiment, the purpose of the dual seam sleeve is to provide seams at which the novel underarm or armpit cuff 250 of the present invention may be connected (sewn).
[0046] Underarm cuff 250 is sized so as to cover a substantial part of, most of, or all the wearer's armpit when wearing the garment, thus providing at least the same absorbency under the arm as a conventional undershirt might. The two edges of underarm cuff 250 are joined (e.g., sewn) to the inner side of the sleeve 220 along seams 240, 242. Hence, the reason for the two seams: to provide connection points to the elongated edges of liner 250. Moreover, cuff 250 is joined at its first end to junction 230. However, in this embodiment, the opposite end of cuff 250 is not sewn or joined to anything. This is in accord with the partial view of garment 300 in FIG. 5, wherein underarm cuff 310 is delineated in dotted lines.
[0047] Turning now to FIG. 6, shown is a man 400 wearing the novel garment 420 of the present invention according to one embodiment. The right arm 402 of man 400 is raised to show the underside of right sleeve 410, and the left arm 404 is in non-raised position to show the look of sleeve 412 in the normal position. Thus, depending on the material thickness, color and composition, when wearing the garment 420 in a bright environment, such as in the sunlight, a conventional undershirt worn under the garment may visibly come through the garment. In the present invention, the torso is fully lined according to the principals discussed above, and in the sleeve, there is lining only for a small portion of the underside 422 of the sleeve, but none on the upper half of the garment sleeve. Thus, as discussed above, no undergarment is readily visible to the casual observer when worn, except perhaps when an arm is lifted high and in a bright light, exposing the underarm cuff 422, a usually rare occurrence.
[0048] The present invention solves the problem for the wearer that does not wish to wear a separate undershirt under a main upper torso garment. Now, this two-layer garment provides the aesthetics of not readily showing an undershirt, and not showing from the outside any attachment points or regions of armpit cuffs, while still providing sweat absorbency at all places on the body that need it most, all in a single integral garment.
[0049] It is understood that the present invention can employ any suitable materials for the outer garment body 10 and inner garment lining 20. The invention can be implemented in any type of garment that covers at least part of the torso and part of the arms of the wearer. Thus, any type of shirt (e.g., a full button down, a polo shirt, or T-shirt) or blouse, capped vest, dress or other garment may be advantageously employed by the present invention.
[0050] Moreover, the inner lining portions of the present invention may be attached to the outer garment body in any number of unlimited ways. For example, instead of the edges of the inner liner being permanently sewn or glued to respective edges of the outer body, the edges may be impermanently connected together with say hook and loop (i.e., Velcro) or other mechanism for removable attachment. In these latter embodiments, the entire inner lining, or inner cuffs which may have absorbed a lot of body sweat, may be removed from the assembly, and washed and dried separately from the outer body of the garment, and then reattached to its original hidden, no show position.
[0051] While embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it is not intended that these embodiments illustrate and describe all possible forms of the invention. Various changes, modifications, and alterations in the teachings of the present invention may be contemplated by those skilled in the art without departing from the intended spirit and scope thereof. It is intended that the present invention encompass such changes and modifications.
