Numerical investigation of heat transfer in a garment convective cooling system

A personal microclimate management system is designed to maintain thermal comfort which allows people to overcome a harsh environment. It consists of several micro-fans placed in the garment side seam to provide cooling air. The computational fluid dynamics method was used to simulate the three-dimensional model and analysis the influence of fan’s number and air gap distance. The obtained results depict that the introduced cool airflow will find its way along paths with flow resistance minimized and exhaust through several separated exit. The body heat flux is taken away at the same time. The convection effect is enhanced by the increase in the fans’ numbers, but the fans’ cooling effect varies a lot because of various air gap distances. When the air gap is small enough, the cooling air impact the body surface directly and causes fierce heat loss. While the air gap distance is large enough, the heat transfer along the skin surface could be enhanced by the eddy flow which is existed in the air gap between body and garment. These phenomena can maintain the body’s thermal comfort in a suitable range.

Changes in consumers’ awareness and interest in cosmetic products during the pandemic

This research investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumers’ perspectives of beauty and individual cosmetic products. Since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was announced on December 31st, 2019, the search volumes of Google News have been updated and information on confirmed cases of the disease has been collected. This study used Python 3.7, NodeXL 1.0.1, and Smart PLS 3.0 to analyze consumer awareness of cosmetic products during the pandemic. The results reveal that consumers’ perspectives of beauty are impacted by a pandemic. Global consumers perceive skincare as an important aspect during the pandemic, while the importance of makeup fell after the outbreak. The awareness of skincare and makeup products has changed. The spread of the pandemic (SOP) has a positive impact on skincare products, but a negative impact on makeup products, except for eye makeup products, which was positive. Finally, the SOP was not significant in terms of consumers’ interest in masks. Fifth, interest in masks showed a positive relationship with interest in skincare products, such as cleansing products, while a negative relationship was observed with interest in makeup products. Overall, this study concludes that pandemics certainly have an impact on global consumers’ perspectives. As a pandemic spread, interest in skincare products increases, while interest in makeup products decreases. This study has academic significance in that it investigates the effects of consumption of cosmetic products during the stay-at-home rules. It can be used as standard information for setting marketing strategies in pandemic-like situations in the future.

Charaterizations of 3D printed re-entrant pattern/aramid knit composite prepared by various tilting angles

This study intended to compare and analyze the Poisson's ratio and mechanical properties of aramid knit (ARNT), 3D printed auxetic re-entrant pattern (3DP-RE), and 2 types of composite fabrics manufactured with ARNT and 3DP-RE. Specimens were manufactured by 3D printing the re-entrant pattern with a CFDM (conveyor fused deposition modeling) 3D printer and TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) filament, combining with aramid knit in 2 ways. Then, Poisson's ratio, bending, compression, and tensile properties were tested. As a result of Poisson's ratio, 3DP-RE and its 2 types of composite fabric showed negative Poisson's ratio at all angles and deformed stable at 0° and 90° than the bias direction. The bending strength confirmed that the composite fabric showed a lower value. But, the strain at max bending strength was greater than a substrate fabric. At the compression properties, it has been confirmed that compression strength and toughness are improved when manufacturing composite fabrics. As a result of tensile properties, 3DP-RE and composite fabrics were significantly more initial modulus, elongation and toughness than ARNT and were shown to be the largest in gradient 90°. Therefore, it is confirmed that the performance is excellent when fabricated as a 3DP-RE/ARNT composite fabric, and based on the results of studies, we intend to use it as the basic data for composite fabrics of auxetic structure suitable for shoe uppers.

Sustainable functional finishing for cotton fabrics using screen-printing process and gallotannin

To seek a more environmentally friendly textile finishing technique, the screen-printing method was adopted to apply functional material to cotton fabrics. In addition, gallotannin was used as a functional material because it is naturally abundant in many plant-derived substances and shows various health-promoting features such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, and other attractive properties. Therefore, a gallotannin/thickener paste was applied to the surface of cotton fabrics through the screen-printing technique, and the gallotannin-printed cotton fabrics were thoroughly investigated using scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and other methods. The gallotannin printed area was substantially brown in appearance, and gallotannin moiety appeared to combine with cotton cellulose through heat treatment. Furthermore, functional properties of the gallotannin-printed cotton fabrics were examined in terms of antibacterial activity, deodorizing property, and ultraviolet-blocking property, of which it demonstrated excellent abilities. However, the antibacterial ability toward Gram-negative bacteria (K. pneumoniae) decreased as the laundry cycle increased.

French fashion and textile during COVID-19. Once again, flying to high quality and innovation to survive

This article studies the consequences of the COVID-19 global health crisis on the fashion and textile industry in France. This crisis is only part of an already long, slow decline in the industry. The paper analyzes the composition and organization of textile industry. It offers data related to: sales, consumption, employees, company size, as well as imports and exports - all highlighting the importance of fashion and textiles in France today. The paper shows how lockdown has asphyxiated production and retail sales. COVID-19 caused the appearance of new challenges: mask production, new aspects of CSR in luxury textiles and the development of antiviral fabrics. Mask production can be considered as a case study useful in the analysis of textile challenges. In this context, the French textile industry should continue to improve on innovation and quality. Promoting labelling on the global market can help the sector to develop its high-end. France is credible to expanding its fashion and textile supply in luxury.

Cotton canvas trousers washing: an inception of a new horizon in apparel industry

Nowadays, fashionable trouser (denim) with washing effect is very popular, especially among the youth. The global fashion trend has led to the development of diverse washing processes that are predominantly applied to denim fabric. However, no known research has studied the application of the washing effect on canvas fabric. Therefore, this paper aims to make fashionable canvas fabric trousers by applying various washing effects. To do so, ready-to-dye canvas fabric trouser was constructed, then dyed with dischargeable reactive dye (Lava). Chemical washing processes such as whisker, enzyme, and PP spray were then applied on dyed canvas trousers. Finally, developed samples were being characterized by mechanical tests such as tensile strength, tear strength, stiffness, abrasion, pilling, colorfastness to wash, and colorfastness to rubbing. Besides, to evaluate fabric surface, various tests such as Scanning Electronic Microscope (SEM), Reflectance% values have also been characterized. Tensile strength, tear strength, stiffness, reflectance% value, and wear index% changed significantly for every subsequent process. The tensile strength of finished trousers was 489.87 N at warp and 350.57 N at weft direction and the tear strength was 48.01 N and 35.56 N at warp and weft direction, respectively. The reflectance% value of 18.74 was observed at the PP sprayed area. Overall, the research revealed the possibility of using cotton canvas as a pair of fashionable trousers contributing to the development of the apparel industry.

Thermo physiological comfort of single jersey knitted fabric derivatives

The main aim of this study is to determine the thermo-physiological comfort properties of single knit fabrics and their derivatives. As the Single Jersey knitted fabrics are the most widely used fabrics in the apparel sector, they have been selected for the analysis purpose. Derivatives of single jersey are developed and compared in order to understand the influence of structural variations. Physical properties e.g. thickness and areal density were evaluated for all knitted fabrics with 100% cotton yarn having three different yarn linear densities and after different stages of relaxation. Various thermo-physiological properties have been studied by changing the combed cotton yarn linear density as well as the structure of single knit fabric. Air permeability, thermal insulation and relative water vapor permeability of the fabrics were observed and investigated under wet relaxed states. It is determined that fabric physical properties are affected by changing yarn linear density and by the dry or wet relaxation stages. The percentage/number of tuck stitches (NTS), location of tuck stitches (LTS) and ratio of tuck to knit stitches (RTKS) have strong influence on physical and thermo-physiological properties of single knit fabrics, even though other knitting parameters remained the same.

Designing for circular fashion: integrating upcycling into conventional garment manufacturing processes

This paper summarises the results of a more than 5-year practice-led study on the use of upcycling design and production methods in garment mass production. The efficiency of upcycling design approach is described by analysing the generation and potential use of various types of fabric leftovers from garment manufacturing. The results of this research show that depending on the size of the factory the fabric leftovers and textile waste generated in garment production ranges from 25–40% of the total fabric used. Experiments show that 50% of that material can be upcycled into new garments and for some types of leftover—mainly spreading loss and excess fabric—it can even be up to 80%. Implementing upcycling on the industrial level requires transparency to understand the waste created in garment production and create designs that suite the production system. It is important to consider that the upcycling design process differs from regular design—a garment is designed based on the parameters of the waste materials.

The power of 4th industrial revolution in the fashion industry: what, why, and how has the industry changed?

The 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR henceforth) is fundamentally reshaping the way we live and work. Each industrial revolution has evolved to solve major problems in society. This study views unmatched demand and oversupply as the major problems in the fashion industry and posits that 4IR technologies are being deployed to solve these problems by addressing three prime goals—hyper-personalization, environmental sustainability, and productivity. Based on a literature review and analyses of global industry cases, this study examines what, why, and how the 4IR technologies address these three prime goals. By comparing successful cases that do not utilize the 4IR technologies with those that do, this study highlights that innovative business models that address the unmet needs of the consumers are more important than technology adoption per se. Drawn from ample global cases, the findings can offer strategic directions for fashion firms preparing for unforeseeable changes that are further being accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. This study concludes with insights into how 4IR is shaping the fashion industry and raises thought-provoking questions for the industry and academia.

Consumer reviews analysis on cycling pants in online shopping malls using text mining

This study was investigated trends and consumer awareness on cycling pants by analyzing the reviews on bib shorts, bib tights, shorts, and tights in online shopping malls using text mining. The reviews and product information on cycling pants from Jan. 2017 to the first half of 2020 were crawled, and a total of 7241 cases were analyzed. The keywords of cycling pants were extracted using a Korean morphological analyzer (KoNLP), calculated to the term-document matrix, and then converted into a co-occurrence matrix. The number of reviews of cycling pants increased by 39% per year, and especially in the first half of 2020, the number of reviews has doubled over compared to the first half of last year. Bib shorts accounted for more than 50% of the number of reviews of cycling pants and received the highest rating, making them the most preferred. Positive reviews on cycling pants appeared 15 times over than that of negative reviews, and most of the cycling pants were evaluated positively. Size and cost-effective appeared as the important keywords both in positive and negative reviews. However, it was found that consumers have a difficult time choosing the size not only in the negative but also in the positive reviews. Pad was the keyword that appeared the most in negative reviews, and it was the most dissatisfied factor in the cycling pants. Therefore, in an internet shopping mall, it is necessary to provide intuitive and accurate information that is easy for consumers to understand about information on the size and pad of the cycle pants.