Clothing That Works
by CLARICE L. SCOTTAMERICAN women, like men, want and deserve their own work clothes. They are tired of having to wear the family’s discards, or men’s too big overalls for outdoor jobs. They are tired of fussy little house dresses made for looks alone. Instead, they want clothes planned and made for the different kinds of work they do—functional work clothes that are comfortable, safe, and practical, but handsome, too.
Women’s need for work clothes long ago attracted the interest of the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics. Farm women often wrote to tell us their grievances. Some even took the pains to sketch styles of garments they had worked out themselves in an effort to get something satisfactory.
Our clothing unit investigated, and found that no manufacturers of ready-to-wear clothes had ever produced lines of women’s work clothes. Farm women could not go to local stores and find special departments where they could buy their work clothes. Nor had manufacturers of patterns offered helps for women who could make their own. We found also that the clothing industry was just beginning to offer the time and incentive that designers need for studying and developing clothes for specific purposes. On the other hand, the buying public was reluctant to pay the additional money cost of good design, and did not appreciate the full worth of scientifically designed clothes, yet unwittingly was paying high for clothes—if not in initial costs, then in discomfort, fatigue, accidents, inconvenience, waste of time, and premature wearing out.
From that research we found that comfort and freedom of body activity are essential to working efficiency. If you can work in absolute comfort, forgetting all about the clothes you have on, you can concentrate on the job. But if attention and energy are divided because you are too warm, or too cold, or something about your clothes chafes or gets in the way, you waste both time and energy.
Actual wear can prove best when design, cut, fit, material and workmanship function together, making a garment responsive to body movements and the tempo of the job. We learned that some features of a design give and go back into place when activity is slow or normal, but for another kind of work that requires speed or extreme movement these features are not always adequate. We also found that closed protective garments, such as women wear for winter outdoor work, need more action features within them than do hot-weather outfits, which are comparatively open and cover only the body proper. The effect of climate and the temperature of workrooms must also be considered. For instance, if work causes one to perspire, fabrics cling, and free action is hindered unless design features are devised to prevent this restriction.
Since materials, like designs, affect body movement, their functional qualities need to be considered together. A hard, tightly woven, inelastic cloth contributes little or nothing to free movement, in contrast to one that is soft, elastic, and more loosely woven. Yet those hard fabrics are often desirable for their protection and durability. Then, design alone must provide free action.
A protect-all designed for farm women who prefer skirted work outfits illustrates this. The material, a closely woven shower- and wind-resistant cotton, was chosen for protection against cold and wet weather. It also resists soiling, a practical feature. To assure free action despite the lack of give in the cloth, the garment is loosely styled. It has reaching insets under arms and action pleats in back close to the sleeves. There, pleats and sleeves can function together to provide instantaneously ample shoulder and arm freedom. For further free action, the sleeves have shaped elbow room and surplice cuffs that fit automatically. The worker is not hampered by too full sleeves or buttoned cuffs that will not give.
Modern work clothes must be safe to work in. For women this takesextra planning, for their clothes are not standardized, as men’s are. Styles and materials are varied, and generally have frills or extras that make them dangerous around machines. This we became particularly aware of during the war, when unsafe clothes caused many an accident and hampered production. In factories and homes we considered the hazards, and then devised ways of making clothes safe. But an outfit safe enough for one kind of work is not safe for another. Hazards differ. No rules can be set, but in general simple, streamlined styles that cannot catch and cause injury or hamper a worker’s movements are found to be best.
Openings and fastenings, which so frequently cause trouble, can be planned so they are safe as well as convenient. For instance, front openings, which are easiest to manage, will not interfere with ordinary work if the fastenings are small, flat, and close enough to allow no gaps. Ties, belts, and sashes can be made to fit closely and fasten out of the way, at the back. And sleeves—why bother with any at all, unless they are needed for warmth or other protection? The looks of a dress, for instance, may be helped by wing extensions or similar devices that serve equally well. These are safer and give more freedom. If long or three-quarter sleeves are needed, they can be shaped for elbow room and made close fitting about the lower arm and wrist.
In work dresses, we found that it pays to watch the skirt length and width. If you must stoop, a long or full skirt drops down about your feet. It may easily catch on your shoe heels, or you may step on it and fall. You are safer in a skirt no longer than calf length, and just wide enough for your natural stride.
Every homemaker wants to save time and work. Often she looks to modern equipment or a new plan of work; too often she forgets that what she wears can save time and effort. Scientifically designed clothes can help her by assisting with the actual performance of a job, by being easy and quick to do up, and by being simple to put on and take off.
Pockets become functional and help in work when their size, shape, opening, and position are planned to suit you and the job. When placed below the waist they serve best if they are large enough so you can put your hand in and take out what you want without strain on pocket corners or the material. And they need to be placed where your hands slide into them naturally. Pockets awkwardly placed force you to stop and see how to get into them, a waste of time and a distraction.
Aprons can be designed to make kneeling jobs easier. One apron we made has a roomy buttoned-up pocket in which one can assemble all the little things needed in doing the work—seed packets, string, markers. On getting down to work you turn the pocket inside out and over the knees; knees and clothes are protected against dampness and soil. There’s no discomfort from trying to work in a cramped position and no waste of time trying to hold dress skirts up out of the dirt. The apron saves laundering, too.
Functional work clothes do more than just make work easier. They are planned so that keeping them in order takes a minimum of time and energy. They have to be pleasing to look at. To make this possible, simplicity is the thing. We planned a hot-weather house dress in a straight style, held in at the waist with short sashes that tie in the back, well out of the way. So simple is the dress that it takes only 7 minutes to iron it. No time is wasted in maneuvering fussy little style details over the board to smooth them out. All construction is flat, smooth, and thin, easy to iron neatly and speedily.
A functional work garment is attractive. Otherwise it would not serve its purpose fully. Types and styles of garments are chosen for their suitability and good looks. And color, usually chosen for esthetic value, is found to have practical values as well. For example, a colorful print with a minimum of unbroken white ground will not show wrinkles, soil, and spots as readily as plain materials or a print with much white in it. Color has a psychological value as well. Most women find such colors as blue and green restful, cool, and clean-looking. They give a sense of well-being—and that contributes to self-confidence and the peace of mind so essential to good working conditions.
Durability is still another part of functionalism in clothing. Contrary to the opinion that durability depends on material alone, it depends on style and workmanship, too. Certain style features may function, but they may also be too weak to endure everyday wear and cleaning. Such factors have to be weighed as a design is developed, because only strong features and good workmanship can keep a garment functioning all its days.
Research in functional clothing is still in its infancy. We have more to learn about it—but that will come in further experimentation, and cooperation with housewives. It’s worth the effort, the attempt to make work clothes mean more than mere coverings and dirt catchers. We have seen how men and women alike have been grateful for the functional clothes designed by the Quartermaster Corps to meet the various needs of men in the different services—comfort, freedom of action, health protection, safety, convenience, and saving of time.
Many of these new-type clothes take more cloth than the kinds we are used to. Production costs and retail prices may have to be higher, but functional clothes that are made for the job serve better and wear longer. In the end they cost less. When the public realizes this and demands scientifically designed work clothes, manufacturers will make them. Meanwhile, homemakers who sew need not wait. For them, cooperating commercial companies have made patterns for designs developed in the course of this research.
THE AUTHOR Clarice L. Scott, a clothing specialist in the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics, designed the first functional work garments for women. These garments are credited with having started an entirely new development in the garment and pattern industries. Miss Scott is a graduate of Iowa State College.
FOR FURTHER READING
Scott, Clarice L.: Work Clothes for Women, U. S. D. A. Farmers’ Bulletin 1905, 1942.
Scott, Clarice L., and Bruzgulis, Elizabeth: Dresses and Aprons for Work in the Home, U. S. D. A. Farmers’ Bulletin 1963, 1944.
Smith, Margaret: Making a Dress at Home, U. S. D. A. Farmers’ Bulletin 1954, 1944.
Smith, Margaret: Pattern Alteration, U. S. D. A. Farmers’ Bulletin 1968, 1945.
