The Effect of the Characteristics of Fabrics and Subjective Sensory Images on the Off-line and On-line Preferences of Women's Suit Fabrics

Abstract

This research investigated the influences of structural characteristics such as fabrics, mechanical properties, and subjective sensory images on the off-line and on-line preferences to women's spring/summer suits fabrics to extract the most effective factor towards preference as well as analyze the preferential off-line and on-line differences to predict the exact texture image on-line. Objective evaluations were done for the measurement of the mechanical properties of fabrics using Kawabata's Evaluation System and subjective evaluations were done with 109 female subjects who value the off-line and on-line sensory image of suit fabrics. For statistical analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis, t-test, ANOVA, and regression were used. The results were as follows. The preference scores on-line were generally higher than those off-line. For the structural characteristics of fabrics, differences of thickness were observed according to preference clusters, and the preference increased as thickness was lowered off-line and on-line. For mechanical properties, WC influenced off-line and on-line preferences. Fabrics with low compression energy were preferred; however, the effect of SMD was observed off-line only. In subjective sensory images, the 'smoothness' image influenced off-line and on-line preferences the most. All sensory images influenced the off-line preferences; however, the effects of 'flexibility' and 'weight' were not shown on-line.