Influence of Colours on Sensory Assessment in Garment Fabrics

Abstract

It is a common experience that the visual degree of wrinkles are much affected by the colour of fabrics. This paper aims to investigate experimentally and statistically the relationship between colours of fabrics and the visual assessment of wrinkles. Fifteen women students have assessed the degree of wrinkles, produced by home laundering, by a paired comparison of the specimen with original unlaundered fabrics of no wrinkles. The score among following four has been given to each specimen: 0 (no difference), 1 (slight difference), 2 (considerable difference) and 3 (extreme difference). Fabrics are cotton broad, cotton denim, woll cashmere, rayon surah, polyester surah and polyester/cotton blended broad. Each fabric is, in colour, white, black, gray, red, green, yellow, blue, purple, brown and navy blue. (1) Fabrics of different colours but same fibers and construction, except a wrinkle-resistant poly-ester surah, showed a significant difference in visual degree of wrinkles among colours, suggesting that the assessment of degree of wrinkles are affected by the colour of fabrics. (2) A significant correlation has been found between the sensory scores of wrinkles and lightness of fabric colours. The higher the lightness, the greater the sensory scores of wrinkles, and trice versa. However a wrinkle-resistant polyester surah has shown no correlation. By contrast, no correlation has been found between the sensory scores of wrinkle and saturation (or chromaticity) of fabric colours. © 1980, The Japan Research Association for Textile End-Uses. All rights reserved.