Oh, patents! Lululemon Energy bra

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann 

Supportive enough to use for running, and strappy enough to show, the Lululemon Energy bra is a patented invention. The US design patent, USD709668S, titled Bra, was granted, on July 29, 2014, to Natalie Anne Martz, and assigned to Lululemon Athletica Canada Inc., in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The patent Figure 7 is a rear view of the bra, depicting the claimed double woven set of straps, and Lululemon registered trademark logo, on the lower left side. An image of a peach-colored marketed Lululemon Energy bra is included beneath the Figure 7. The Lululemon registered trademark logo also appears above.

References

Lululemon – Corporate

https://corporate.lululemon.com/our-business

Lululemon

https://shop.lululemon.com 

Oh, patents! Stefanka interactive fitting room

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Elizabeth Stefanka’s 3D fitting booths are hot in Montreal, Canada. These hi-tech fitting rooms, which look a bit like photo booths, target the retail apparel industry. The equipped booths scan your torso in 360 degrees as you swivel around on the stool inside the booth, analyze the captured volumetric 3D data, and return suggestions for purchase, including size, location and information about the items.

For women, the first hi-tech Stefanka fitting partnership was for bras, with Montreal lingerie stores, called La vie en rose. For men, the fitting was for shirts. Presto, pronto! No more searching blindly online without trying on, and no more trekking from one store to another to try everything on. Stefanka technology is currently installed in bricks-and-mortar booths. However, this technology is also envisioned to potentially operate online, using the computer’s camera.

Recognition and analysis of acquired volumetric body data is an invention, patented in the Canadian patent CA2946006, titled Method for dimensioning a region of interest of a person's body.  The invention specifically addresses the issue of standardization in apparel sizing, and the generally confusing size-to-fit inconsistencies. The abstract of the invention is included below, together with a 3D scanned image of a torso above.  

 A method for dimensioning a region of interest on a person's body is provided. The method includes the steps of receiving a model representing at least a portion of a person's body comprising the region of interest, segmenting the model to isolate the region of interest, by detecting a curvature in a surface of the model that satisfies a curvature condition, the surface corresponding to a curved surface of the model, and determining a volume of the region of interest, by calculating a summation of volumes between a focal point of the region of interest and the curved surface. The method can notably be useful for determining the dimensions of a bust area. [Abstract CA2946006]

References

Stefanka

https://stefanka.tech/our-solution/ 

La vie en rose

https://www.lavieenrose.com/  

Oh, patents! Spanx® (1)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

In 1998, Sara Blakely is purported to have cut off the feet on a pair of pantyhose for a smooth and tight look under a pair of white pants and the freedom to wear open-toe sandals to match. An idea that she then patented, and successfully marketed into a billion-dollar business called Spanx®. Thus, with a single control top, body smoothing and footless pantyhose product, the shapewear industry was re-born, providing women with a whole line of new and comfortable undergarments that support and lift, while offering the desirable aesthetics of “smooth” body contours. A shapewear line that also diversified to such products as bodysuits, slips, high-waisted shorts, camis, tanks and shaping thongs, boyshorts and briefs, while also expanding to include specific undergarments for Mamas during pregnancy, and more recently undergarrments  for men,

Add crimson packaging for the fine line of super comfortable body shaping products with cartoon characters featuring Sara Blakely, in a world of nudes, beige and blush, and the spectacular story of Spanx® also documents itself.

In 2012, the founder and inventor of the original product, Sara Blakely, was named the world’s youngest, self-made female billionaire by Forbes Magazine and one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential people.

The following is a list of the Spanx® US utility and design patent applications, and granted patents, including a WIPO patent. These patents cover both the Spanx® garments and Spanx® product display systems. Many more Spanx® patent family members have been filed at the European Patent Office, and at the national patent offices of Australia, Canada, Austria, Germany and elsewhere.   

• US2001035032 (A1) ― 2001-11-01 - Pantyhose under garment
• US2003196252 (A1) ― 2003-10-23 - Two-ply body-smoothing undergarment  
• US2016206012 (A1) ― 2016-07-21 - Abdominal-restraint garment and methods of assembling the same
• USD760471 (S) ― 2016-07-05 - Garment  
• US9320366 (B1) ― 2016-04-26 - Product storage unit and method of arrangement 
• US2015342265 (A1) ― 2015-12-03 - Flocked shapewear garments
• USD741631 (S) ― 2015-10-27 - Display tower 
• USD733994 (S1) ― 2015-07-14 - Garment
• US2015255011 (A1) ― 2015-09-10 - Display Fixture 
• USD724874 (S) ― 2015-03-24 - Multi-faceted display tower 
• US2014317823 (A1) ― 2014-10-30 - Reversible Compression Garments and Methods of Assembling and Using Same
• US2014273742 (A1) ― 2014-09-18 - Posterior-Lifting Garment and Methods of Assembling The Same 
• US2014273741 (A1) ― 2014-09-18 - Abdominal-restraint garment and methods of assembling the same 
• USD707920 (S) ― 2014-07-01 - Garment 
• US2008127683 (A1) ― 2008-06-05 - Tubular knit bra
• US2007199134 (A1) ― 2007-08-30 - Hosiery Garment and Method of Making the Same 
• WO0176398 (A2) ― 2001-10-18 - A pantyhose undergarment and method for manufacturing 

References

Spanx®

www.spanx.com 

Oh, patents! Mary Phelps Jacob’s brassière

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

In the United States, Mary Phelps Jacob’s 1914 patented brassière, US1115674, is usually credited as one of the first bra garments, separate from the corset. Bra lore informs us that it was originally cobbled from handkerchiefs, primarily in response to the dictates of early 20th-century fashion, which included plunging necklines, backless evening gowns, made of sheer and vaporous material.  The new brassière garment was designed “comfortable and cool”, with none of the constricting pressures of corsets or the whale bones that stiffened them, and stuck out under finer and lighter garments.

Indeed, the Phelps Jacob patent states, in regard the purpose of this brassiere invention, that it is:

…to provide a garment which is characterized by exreme simplicity, by freedom from bone so that it may be finished with laces or embroideries, for wear beneath a shear waist, or diapahanous gown, and which when worn is both comfortable and cool, and so efficient that it may be worn even by persons engaged in violent exercises, such as tennis; and which has other advantages that are characteristic for the invention herein set forth, some of which may be summarized by saying that it does not confine the person anywhere, except where it is needed. 

The included figure drawing from the Phelps Jacob patent shows the brassiere with its two trapeze-shaped pieces of cloth (10) sewn together, its straps (16) and ties (15) which are meant to be crossed in the back, and tied in the front.

The Phelps Jacob brassiere patent was assigned to the Warner Bros Corset Company for 1500$ where the commercial success of the brassiere, in the following years, was estimated at 15 million! (Phelps Family History)

Incidentally, Phelps Jacob is also known as Caresse Crosby (wife of Harry Crosby). Together, the husband and wife team were the editors of the Black Sun Press they founded, in Paris, in the 1920s. The Black Sun Press is known for having exquisitely published the early works of such famous post-World War I Lost Generation expatriate American authors as Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, Anais Nin, Kay Boyle, Hart Crane and Robert Duncan, plus more, then-struggling authors, such as  James Joyce, T.S.Eliot, and Ezra Pound.

References

Black Sun Press

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/crosby/blacksun.htm

Phelps Family History

http://www.phelpsfamilyhistory.com/bios/mary_phelps_jacob.asp
Crosby, C. (1968) The Passionate Years (Autobiography) Southern Illinois Press.

Oh, patents! The corset-bra (1898)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

A corset-bra?...  No wonder women burned their bras in the 1960s!

Actually, the corset-bra was originally a French invention, called the corselet-gorge, which eventually led to the commonly used term soutien-gorge.

The corselet-gorge was quite a versatile invention in 1898! First, it could be worn with or without a corset. Without a corset, the two front sections of the corselet-gorge attached to a back laced portion with elastic side pieces. With a corset, the corselet-gorge attached to the corset, functioning in both cases as a breast "improver", since the front sections of the corselet-gorge (termed gussets) included bent whalebone stiffeners mounted on silk or thule, thus providing augmented breast forms!

Herminie Sardon (widow Cadolle), filed several patents in connection with her invention, and exhibited her corselet-gorge at the 1898 Exposition Universelle in Paris, an event that had prompted construction of the Eiffel Tower. 

A list of the Herminie Sardon (widow Cadolle) patents follows with two patent figure drawings, extracted from the British version of the corselet-gorge patent showing the front and the back corselet gorge:

• FR279823 - 1898-07-16 - Corselet-gorge [Listing only - Bulletin des Lois de la RF]
• GB189816955 (A) ― 1899-07-15 - Improvements in or relating to Corsets
• FR326297 – 1902-05-21 -   Corset perfectionné dit “modern style”
• FR443731C 1902 -10-01 - Corselet-guimpe

The original lingerie store in Paris, Cadolle, founded by Herminie Cadolle, the inventor of the corselet-gorge still exists 24 rue Chaussée d’Antin (Paris 9). Several additional Cadolle lingerie boutiques also exist around the world, where six generations of Cadolle daughters and daughters-in-law have managed the business of luxury custom lingerie!

References
Bulletin des lois de la République Française - Brevet 279823 - 16 juillet 1898 - Corselet-gorge - Cadolle (Mme veuve) née Herminie Sardon. 
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k215037p.image.r=sardon.f993.hl

Cadolle

www.cadolle.com

Stanley, A. (1995) Mothers and daughters of invention: Notes for a revised history of technology. Rutgers University Press

Oh, patents! Thirdlove

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Thirdlove Shades of Nude

Viral online bra sales…. What’s with MIT and target objects?!

Plenty, in terms of comfort and vibrant style, re-invented technologies, participatory design, high-tech Moms and savvy young female entrepreneurs, who happened to have transited through the MIT MBA program!

Thirdlove is all about a virtual bra-shopping experience! Getting the all time best-fitted bra, without searching, or even trying one on! As a result, the company is the first to offer half sizes and 30% more cup options, in a bid to accommodate all women, rather than just those larger, or smaller than a single standard.

To achieve the hitherto deemed impossible task of a virtual bra fitting, the company developed a body-imaging and sizing app. This invention is recited in the US patent Application US20140270540A1 titled Determining dimension of target object in an image using reference object.

Virtual fitting requires the user stand in front of a mirror and position certain virtual scanning guides relative to the target objects at a specified distance. The app then calculates several measurements including both the front, and side, overbust and underbust, relative to an apex and the distance between the two. The app also adjusts and estimates contours.

In terms of privacy, Thridlove only uses the calculated measurements for delivering a perfectly fitted bra. The data might be aggregated for various research purposes, in which case client IDs would be deleted. However, the scans used for measurements are performed natively, on each user’s mobile device, and are never forwarded to the company. 

The included abstract of this invention is short and sweet. Figure 17 of 41 figure drawings in the patent application shows one of the interfaces of the app for determining the size of targeted objects. Figure 18 shows the measurements taken. 

Systems and methods for determining one or more dimensions of an object using a digital image are described [Abstract US20140270540A1]

Interestingly, the scope of this invention fully extends to the customization of clothing for both men and women, since the imaging invention may ultimately be used to size varying targets or body parts. 

To date, however, the bottom line is $68 for a customized virtual bra fitting without leaving the comforts of your own home, a patented bra that is so comfortable you will forget you are wearing one, and a 30-day trial period for a 100% perfect fit, guaranteed!

References

Welch, L. (Nov 2016) How an MIT Grad Made a $68 Bra So Perfect, You'll Forget You're Wearing It. Inc.com Magazine https://tinyurl.com/y9q756cu

Thridlove

https://www.thirdlove.com/