TTOPS By Gianna Esposito
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T-Tops Redesigning the sports bra for women with extra bounce. Through the tensioning of thick crisscrossed and horizontal straps, I have designed sports bras that can hold the chest into place during physical activity.
Advisor Alexandra Schmidt-Ullrich Professional Sewing Advisor Jen Goettner Professional Advisor Dr. Taliba Foster, MD
Gianna Esposito Senior Capstone University Of The Arts
Table of Contents Intro Why Research/ Pain Points First round of prototypes Drawings/ Active Bra Idea Body Studies Second Round Prototypes Drawings/Ideas For Finals Final Models Materials Testing Prototypes Active Shots
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Imagine walking around all day with an extra eight to ten pounds connected to your chest...
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Why This is Needed Who? Women with the cup sizes D and up. Where/When? While at the gym or working out and being active. Why? Because of the sports bras lack of structure and the ability to hold weight, women layer up to 4 bras to hold themselves in. This causes pain and makes it hard to breathe.
Straps and band dig into shoulders and back from weight of the chest
Layering to hold themselves in; Constricted and hard to breathe
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Pain When women do not hold weight properly we rip tissues, get back spasms, bruise our ribcage, and even go as far as moving disks out of place. The bra straps and band break down the muscle tissues in our shoulders and shoulder blades causing worse problems for bones.
Weight-bearing spots that cause pain and discomfort.
Shoulders
Shoulder Blades
Middle Back
Clavical
Rib Cage
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First Round Prototypes
While studying the bra first semester, I investigated complaints from over 50 large breasted women. This input informed my first round of 10 prototypes and ultimately lead me to my final design.
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Bra Strap Prototype 1 Added tight tensioning by pulling straps that stay put and anchor in. Lifts, supports, and holds firm.
Bra Strap Prototype 9 Adding thick crisscrossing straps to hold tight and spread the weight of the load of the chest.
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Drawings: Active bra idea After my first round of prototypes, I drew some ideas of what I thought the final bra could turn into. At this point, I realized that I wanted to do an active bra. Using the concepts of tensioning and securing, I came up with the two drawings you see here. After running these ideas by my users and reevaluating the idea, I concluded that an active bra with tons of hardware would be unappealing. At this point I took a step back.
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Body Studies
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Body Studies After researching the history of bras I felt like I needed to expand my thinking. I chose to look at the ergonomics of the body and how the chest moves during certain physical activities to find new ideas. The movements I focused on were running, jumping, and stretching. After observing these movements, I used different widths of lycra, spandex and nylon tape straps with buckle hardware to see how well the chest can be held with stretching and tension of a material. I found by placing the straps horizontally and crisscrossed, it gave the best support to hold the chest into place. This gave me the insight into what is needed and what is lacking from existing sports bras.
Studying body movement while running, jumping, and stretching.
Running
Jumping
Stretching
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Two Way Stretch Material With Knots
Straps With Buckles And Hardware
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Methods That Worked 3 Horizontal straps with buckle in the middle, slider on top, and flat clip on bottom
Crisscross straps with sliders or flap clip, with additional buckle strap on bottom
Crisscross straps with sliders or flap clip, with additional buckle strap on top
Crisscross two way stretch material with knots thick in middle of breast and thin inside of the chest
Horizontal and crisscrossed straps.
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Sports Bra Prototypes/Sewing When going into the next round of prototyping, I was not sure if I wanted to make a harness system or add to the existing sports bra. I started to study different methods of securing by sewing, which lead me to read these two books: Bare Essentials: Bras and Reader’s Digest Complete Guide To Sewing. From there I went on to make another round of prototypes that were harnesses and sports bra add-on’s. Each prototype influenced my final round of models and helped me make the choice between the two ideas. I finally decided that I wanted to add these new ideas to sports bra instead of making a harness.
When going into the next round of prototyping, I was not sure if I wanted to make a harness system or add to the existing sports bra. I started to study different methods of securing by sewing
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Bare Essentials:
Bras: Construction and Pattern Drafting for Lingerie Design (Volume 2)
This amazing book gives you patterns of bras and the mechanics/ engineering on how the bra is supposed to work. It starts you off basic then levels up to intermediate and advanced. In these levels they start to add objects like underwire, boning, and closure systems. These objects are all the things necessary to make a bra even more supportive. In the back of the book they give you life size panels so you can construct a bra from the examples.
By reading and understanding the patterns in the book, it explains that the bras that are made with more paneling in the cup and band give more support. In order to help lift and hold supportively, I decided to test the multi-patterned bra on larger breasted women and see its’ effect.
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Reader’s Digest Complete Guide To Sewing
This book starts you off basic with how to use a sewing machine. Then it starts to give you the information about patterning, cutting, and the different types of fabrics with how they are made and what to use them for. Next it starts to get in depth about how to construct basic forms and keeping them together. The book will go as far as telling you how to put together a whole outfit. To finish off the outfits they provide the different closure methods that are necessary for different styles. At the very end it gives you projects to test your skills and help you master the basics of sewing. With this book I learned the basic sewing skills from threading a machine, to the different functions of what the machine can do. To have a better understanding of what is sturdy, I read how double woven fibers have less stretch and give verse knits which stretches and forms more easily.
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SB Prototype 1 By adding nylon tape in horizontal rows on the chest and to the shoulders, I made the sports bra more sturdy and supportive.
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SB Prototype 2 I used a hard thick material for the band, which gave a nice sturdy base. Also I added elastic straps in a weaved crisscross pattern which cradled and held the breast into place.
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SB Prototype 3 I added a band made from thick elastic, which held and stretched. Then I added sturdy canvas material in a large crisscross to hold down the chest.
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SB Prototype 4 I cut up an existing sport bra into different panels and used different stitching techniques to hold it together. The idea was that the more panels the more sturdy it will be.
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SB Prototype 5 Stitching and layering of folded panels to hold firmly, but also allow stretch where needed.
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Tension Points Each arrow shows the tension points and stretch of how the straps should hold the chest in place. Most effective tensions are the crisscross and horizontal arrows. Each strap will be kept in place by sewing the elastic stretch into its tension point then sewing to the other side.
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Final Model Ideation By using thick elastic horizontal and crisscross straps in different formations, it will help hold the chest into place while running, jumping, and stretching.
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Jumping T-Top Crisscross and horizontal straps are tensioned into place to hold the chest down while doing jumps and movements that thrust the chest upward.
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Stretching/Yoga T-Top Crisscross thin straps tensioned down to band and hold down the chest so the breasts are not in the face making it hard to breathe. The crisscross back gives extra weight support while horizontal straps hold the chest tight in place.
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Running T-Top Straps reinforced with nylon tape and sturdy material helps hold weight and absorb shock from bounce. Vertical and horizontal straps held down with tension to keep chest in place. Thin nylon ribbon, a sturdy material, to keep chest in place taking away stretch that gives extra bounce.
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Materials Lycra/Spandex Light weight material that doesn’t sag and breathes. A very stretchy and flexible material. Nylon Strap/Belt Made of Nylon, Polyester, PP, Cotton, Acrylic. Sturdy material that holds firm and does not allow stretch. Elastic Inch and quarter inch elastic band made from polypropylene. Allow stretch one way.
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Testing Prototypes
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