On The Impact Of Main Structure Line To The Silhouette Of Women's Upper Garments

As the lines which form and figure out the whole structure and shape of the garments, structure lines not only make a cloth fit, comfortable and suitable for sports and movements, but also contribute to the modeling of the garments and to be helpful for outlining the figures of human body. Starting with the relationship between the structure lines and the silhouette of the garments, the author focused on the impact of the main structure line on the silhouette of women's upper garments.The author firstly briefly reviewed the history of the development of structure lines, and then analyzed and summarized its specific property and thereby divided the structure lines into several categories. Thereafter, the author generally introduced the principles for designing the structure lines and their application. In order to find in detail the impact of different kinds of structure lines on the shape and silhouette of women's garments, the author chose seven kinds of fabrics commonly used for suits for experiments. During these experiments, the author firstly tested and ascertained the mechanical nature of such fabrics by KES-FB system. Secondly, the author designs twelve styles by moving the position of single structure line, or increasing or decreasing the amount the lines, changing the trend of the lines or a combination of different elements. Then, the author compared the effects of these design by applying the clothes therefore made to standard 84A model. Based on the result of these experiments, the author concluded that when applying to identical fabrics, the shape and silhouette of the finished products would be distinctly affected by changes in the position, quantity, the trend and the length of the main structure line. But when using the same design, the nature and silhouette of the finished products would be influenced by the various elements of the property of the fabric, among which elements such as the shear rigidity, shear angle, shear lagging, bending rigidity, bend angle, etc. have more influence on the silhouette of upper garments of women than other elements. Specifically, when such elements become stronger, the structure lines would be straight and the silhouette changes obvious.The conclusion of this paper would be helpful for the designer in the selection of fabrics and main structure designs to achieve both good effects as ornamentation and perfect function. The author believe the fruit of such research would be valuable for not only the development of the theories of the design of main structure lines, but also the practice and product of women's garments.