Apparel – Body garments – Hooded
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-10
2001-02-13
Vanatta, Amy B. (Department: 3741)
Apparel
Body garments
Hooded
C002S069000, C002S088000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06185743
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to apparel. More specifically, the apparel is convertible from loose fitting clothing within which a person may undress and dress, while still maintaining modesty in a public place, into fashionable attire which is well fitted for general activities. Most preferably, the apparel also provides the additional functions of a bathing robe.
2. Description of the Related Art
Beaches and lake shores provide nearly ideal recreation for mankind. Diverse activities are available for a wide variety of people. Many will participate in water sports such as swimming, water skiing, and scuba diving. Others will use the shoreline as an access to the waters for fishing and boating. With the many different activities available, beaches, lake shores, river fronts and other large bodies of water are frequented by millions of people around the world each day. Often, multiple activities will be planned, so an individual will spend time upon the water, in the water, and along the shoreline, and may alternate between each more than once throughout the course of a day.
Unfortunately, the different activities generally require different clothing, and few of these locations have adequate facilities for persons wishing to change their attire. Frequently, a person may find themselves changing in an automobile, an outhouse, or even the woods. Such situations are frustrating at best, and may result in a person unintentionally or accidentally exposing themselves to others. Worse, irritating plants such as poison ivy that are kept out of public areas may thrive adjacent thereto, and a person attempting to change clothes may stumble right into a patch.
Where public facilities are provided, they are often, out of necessity, formed from concrete floors and walls. Concrete withstands heavy daily traffic of water, sand and other compounds for many years, and it is also quite easy to clean and maintain. Nevertheless, between cleaning the concrete provides a harbor for many germs and dirt, and can be quite unpleasant, particularly in congested areas. As a result, many people will forego changing in these public shelters and instead dress in other areas.
To provide a better alternative, Boryszewski in U.S. Pat. No. 3,079,611 illustrates a simple beach toga formed from two terry cloth towels, the teachings incorporated herein by reference. The towels are adapted to be suspended from a person's shoulders, and allow enough space for the person to change clothing. Furthermore, the terry cloth material is quite absorbent, and provides the dual function of drying. In spite of the improvements to the art made by Boryszewski, there still remain several drawbacks. For example, where a person would only pack a single towel, the Boryszewski beach toga requires two. Furthermore, the towels have to be fitted with fasteners, which tend to decrease the desirability of the resulting towel for it's primary applications of comfortably drying and also comfortably supporting a person upon sand or grass waterfronts.
More recently, Arnold, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,083 also incorporated herein by reference, discloses a changing robe designed for use at public beaches, for changing into and out of swimming gear. Like the Boryszewski toga, the Arnold robe is preferably made from terry cloth for absorbency and comfort, and serves the additional functions of drying and shielding a person from wind. Also like Boryszewski, the Arnold robe is quite large, to best address the changing function. Unfortunately, the Arnold robe is not well suited for activities other than the changing and shelter aforementioned, due to the robe interfering with the activity. For example, the robe will hang out enough to accidentally drop into or against a plate or food placed upon a table, making the robe undesirable during meal times, and an obstacle during clean-up thereafter. If the person participates in fishing, the robe hangs loosely enough to easily become snagged in fishing hooks and will tend to brush up against wet objects and fish. Therefore, during a single outing at the beach, a person might be required to put on and remove the Arnold robe many times if the person participates in more than swimming. Furthermore, the robe offers no form or fit, and so is aesthetically unpleasant and would not be desired to be worn except during changing of clothes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a first manifestation, the invention is a beach toga fabricated from a comfortable and absorbent fabric. The toga is draped over a person to allow the person to modestly and discretely perform certain activities such as changing attire within public places, and further converts to fashionable dress attire suitable for use during various social activities. A front and back form the primary covering. A drawstring only partially encircles the toga, and may be fully extended, or, alternatively, tensioned. In the fully extended position, both the back and front are fully extended, ensuring a large enclosed space visually isolated from exterior view. Within the large enclosure, a person can move around and change attire. In the tensioned position, the back gathers together in a vicinity of the drawstring to form a fashionable garment with gathers in the sides and back. The front is drawn to the person's waist without gathers, and the drawstring start and end are pulled around to the sides of the person. As a result of the newly formed gathers, a person could no longer move around within the enclosed space and change attire, and the garment will be held closely to the person.
In a second manifestation, the invention is a method for converting a beach changing robe into a fashionable garment. The steps include: anchoring a cincture horizontally offset from the center of the front, but still on the front; engaging the cincture with the garment back to maintain cincture and back adjacent; passing the cincture through the opposite side of the front; pulling the cincture taut and thereby gathering the back together, while consequently drawing the front closer to the back and further consequently tensioning the front against gathering; whereby the cincture is pulled from passing through the front in a front facing orientation on a person to opposite side facing orientations, and whereby the side edges are drawn behind the person.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
A first object of the invention is to provide a garment that will allow a person to change clothing therein, without exposure or loss of modesty. A second object of the invention is to enable a person to convert the garment from a changing robe into fashionable clothing attire for continued application and use beyond dressing, which will not interfere with normal activities. A further object of the invention is to provide a single, consistent shape that may be worn by both sexes. Another object of the invention is to keep the robe short enough to be worn during activities at the beach without the robe becoming tangled up or tripping the wearer, while simultaneously having enough fabric to adequately cover the same person when the person bends over during changes of attire or other activity. These and other objects are accomplished in the preferred embodiment, which will be better understood when considered in conjunction with the appended drawing figures.
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patent: 5367709 (
Vanatta Amy B.
Watkins Albert W.
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