Fiber Properties Responsible for Garment Comfort

Abstract

Numerous articles have appeared in the literature on such factors involved in garment comfort as moisture porosity and wickability. However, the only way to determine the relative importance of such factors is to conduct a subjective comfort test. This has been done for knitted sport shirts of "Orlon,"¹ nylon, and rayon staple fibers, and of cotton, worn next to the skin under hot and humid conditions (90° F and 80% RH). The fabrics were identically made as far as possible, in order to determine the comfort characteristics inherent in the fiber. It was found that the greatest advantage in com fort was through lower scratchiness, exhibited by fibers of lower bending or flexural rigidity and lower friction. The combination of lower fabric weight and thickness also led to better comfort. Fabric wickability had no detectable influence on comfort under the test conditions. Objective measurements of fiber and fabric properties allowed close prediction of observed comfort.