The comfort evaluation of weft knitted plant structured fabrics and garment. II. Sweating manikin and wearer trial test on polo shirt

Biomimetics of the branching structure in textiles which can improve the water transport was proved by previous research on weft knitted fabrics. The present work focuses on the evaluation of a branching network in light-weight knitted fabrics for polo shirt which were made of 100 % cotton and 100 % polyester yarn. The sweating manikin test and wearer trial were applied to make objective and subjective evaluation on plant structured polo shirt against commercial polo shirt. The plant structured polo-shirt can provide lower insulation resistance, evaporation resistance tested by sweating manikin. As well, lower temperature and humidity values were observed in plant structured polo-shirt assessed by wearer trial test under both simulating outdoor/indoor environment and normal activity workload. All improved fabric and garment properties related to comfort are beneficial to clothing comfort. It is verified that the plant structured fabric for polo shirt can enhance the overall comfort and wearing experience.Institute of Textiles and Clothin