ANALYSIS OF DEVELOPED BATH WEAR DESIGNS ON AESTHETICS, FUNCTIONAL, AND CONSTRUCTIONAL PARAMETERS

Present paper is an outcome of the rigorous research work being conducted for development of Modest bath wear clothing designs for women during holy dip at open ghats/rivers at communal places. This is a part of the work highlighting the creative designs developed by the researcher and its evaluation on selected parameters by the expert panel members using five-point continuum scale. Results showsthat the developeddesigns of modest bath wearfor women were found highly satisfactory in terms of aesthetic, functional and constructional parameters.

Present paper is an outcome of the rigorous research work being conducted for development of Modest bath wear clothing designs for women during holy dip at open ghats/rivers at communal places. This is a part of the work highlighting the creative designs developed by the researcher and its evaluation on selected parameters by the expert panel members using five-point continuum scale. Results showsthat the developeddesigns of modest bath wearfor women were found highly satisfactory in terms of aesthetic, functional and constructional parameters.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Introduction:-
The land of Rajasthan is bestowed with a rich cultural heritage which provide a perfect example of dedication and communal harmony among its people.Performing holy bath is one of the significantrituals in Hindu culture, and wearing appropriate clothing for bathing is also a major concern among Indian females.Clothing is more than a means to cover up modesty. It is a part of one's cultural and religious identity, social status, and personal style statement. 1 Standards of modesty differ among various cultures and situations, and they change over time. Standards of decency are molded by cultures and social systems. Each society has its own accepted standards of modesty. 2 Modest clothing as bath wear is the prerequisite for most of the Indian women with religious mindset.
Findings of the previous research conducted to explore the need of developing functional clothing forwomenwhile taking holy bath, revealed thatmost of the female pilgrims reported lack of comfort in their usual clothing when used during taking holy bath.Problems related to material used in garment such as fibre content, texture, drape and compactness of weave, structural design of the dress and also with the constructional features were highlighted by the respondents. 3 Functional apparel design process begins with a thorough investigation of the expected wearer and the recognition of the physicalneeds of the wearer for movement, and situational requirements of the wearer 4 . Location of openings, number and type of fastenings, design of outfits for comfort and ease of movement are essential in functional clothing designs. 5 Modest fashion is typically used to describe fashion that conceals rather than accentuates the shape ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 8(11), 541-547 542 of the body.The selection of styles includes dresses with high necklines and long sleeves, kimonos, head scarves, nocleavage garments and looser fittings. 6 In view of the above, current work on "Analysis of developed bath wear designs on aesthetics, functional, and constructional parameters." was conducted to design modest bath wear for women.

Methodology:-
Present research is an extension of the design development aspect of the modest bath wear clothing. The study was conducted in theCollege of Community and Applied Sciences, MPUAT, Udaipur, Rajasthan. The researcher developed thirty modest bath wear designs. Out of those, three lots of ten designs each were made for its analysis. In present paper second group of ten designs was analyzed and its results have been presented through mean scores. The evaluation was carried out on the Rating proforma developed for this purpose on selected three parameters of aesthetic, functional and constructional usinga five-point Likert scaleby expert panel to judge the suitability of the modest bath wear designs. The resultantdata were coded and presented in table.

Designing of suitable bath weardesigns:
Researcher developed designs of modest bath wearclothing by including aesthetic, functional and constructional features. Prime focus was given on moderate fitting and A-line pattern to provide more comfort to the wearer.
Plate-1 depicts the design specifications of modest bath wear clothing.
Plate I:-Design Specification of developed modest bath wear clothing.

Design code Number
Designs Descriptions DC-3 Design code number 3 is having round neck, short sleeves and front opening with button and buttonholes. In its upper part, an extra three layered V shaped frill fabric is attached with shoulder seam of the garment to provide fullness on bust area.

DC-5
Design code number 5 is having a detachable V shaped poncho with slanted pin tucks and gathers to create more fullness besides aesthetic appeal. Inner portion is having V shaped neck and both side shoulder opening for easy opening, press buttons were used for fastening. It has slight round shape at bottom hem line.

DC-6
Design code number 6 is made with cowl neckline pattern on the garment. The raised cowl offers a modest fit. Inner is having round neck and kimono sleeves. It has both side shoulder opening and fastens with velcro to make it easy to wear and changing clothes.

DC-7
Design code number 7 is having upper one layered fabric which is attached with neckline and having gathers for fullness. It has front opening which is tied with cord for enhancing appeal of the garment and functionality as well.
Inner part of the garment is having kimono sleeves to provide comfort and space for the body movement.

DC-8
Design code number 8 has balloon shaped long top which has gathered neckline for creating fullness. Bottom part also has gathers to make it balloon shape, it has short sleeves. Because of elastic on neck line and bottom, it is very easy to put on and take off, there is no need to attach any fastener to the garment.

DC-11
Design code number 11 is an upper layer poncho pattern which is attached to the garment. Upper part has a bias-cut poncho. Inner part of the garment has kimono sleeves which is very comfortable to the wearer. It has front slant shaped opening with large button and button hole foe ease in wearing.

DC-12
Design code number 12 has V-shaped neckline and kimono sleeves. Upper portion of the garment has an extra structural fabric featuring knife pleats which is attached on both shoulder line. These pleated designs add functionality to the garment. This outfit has both side shoulders opening with press buttons.

DC-14
Design code number 14 has also has V-shaped wrap around which is tied at the back side with the cord so that it can be worn with any garment for the modesty purpose and ruffles at the neck line for aesthetic appeal. Inner part of the garment has raglan sleeves and front opening with velcro for easy changing practices.

DC-15
Design code number 15 is a wraparound with kimono sleeves in asymmetrical pattern. It has two parts-upper part of the garment which is from shoulder to below bust line and second one is below bust line to the bottom line of the garment. Second part is a bias-cut skirt which is attach with upper part, thus it provides graceful drape to the garment and thus avoids clinging the fabric to the body on wetting.

DC-16
Design code number 16 has round neck and a curve shaped yoke which have pin tucked so that it will look interesting and add functionality to the garment. Yoke is attached with lower part of the garment with gathers for creating fullness to prevent snugly fit of the garment to the body. Outfit has short sized kimono sleeves and opening at the left side shoulder with velcro. 545

Evaluation of developed bath wear clothing:
These developed designs of bath wear clothing was given to a panel of expert of theTextiles and Apparel for evaluation on three parameters using 5-point Likert scale. Fig. 1 Mean of the developed designs with respective code numbers of bath wear clothing in descending order to give a clear picture of the rank scored by each design code.

Fig 1:-Mean of the developed designs with respective code numbers
It can be seen that design code number DC-12 (4.1), DC-6 (4.06) and Dc-14 (3.93) were the top three designs based on their mean scores.
Researcher also assessed the designs on all the three parameters individually and data obtained has been presented in fig.-2 to 4.

Evaluation of the developed designs by Aesthetic parameter:
Aesthetics in dress is very important, although all the designs could fetch very good scores but for the purpose of comparative analysis, the means obtained were systematically presented in Fig.-2.   Fig 2:-Mean of designed outfits by Aesthetic parameter.
The mean of these designs based on aesthetic parameter reflects that design code number DC-8 (4.1) was the top scores followed by design code number DC-16 and DC-12scored an equal mean of 4.0.Design codes number DC-6 (3.9) was on third position and DC-14 on fourth with a mean of 3.6.

Evaluation of the developed designs by Functional parameter:
Data in fig. 3 highlights that in terms of functional aspect, the data range of mean varied from 3.1 to 4.3 against the range of 3.0 to 4.1 for aesthetic parameter as shown in fig.1. Here, the top most rank was secured by three designs having code number DC-12, DC-6 and DC-3 with an equal mean of 4.3. On the second rank, again there were two designs DC-11 and DC-5 (4.2). It was interesting to not e that third rank was also fetched by three designs with code numbers DC-15, DC-14 and DC-8 having a mean of 4.1 each, which clearly shows the highly acceptable functional features in the developed clothing designs by the experts.

Evaluation of the developed designs by Constructional parameter:
Constructional features are complimentary to add more value to functional aspects. Each design was given thorough attention in selecting the correct seams and finishing of edges. Data in fig. 4 highlights that in terms of constructional aspect, the data range of mean was varying from 3.0 to 4.2. Data shows that the top most rank was secured by design code number DC-3 with a mean of 4.2. Second rank was obtained by four designs having code number DC-15, DC-14,DC-7 and Dc-5 with an equal mean of 4.1. Third rank was secured bytwo designs with code number DC-12 and DC-6.

Ranking of the developed designs:
Table-1 shows the overall mean and ranking of all the developed designs of modest bath wear clothing.  Design code number DC-12 got I rank with a mean of 4.1, design code number DC-6 got II rank with the 4.06 mean score, design code number DC-14 stand for rank III and its mean score is 3.93, design code number DC-3 and DC-5 got rank IV by equal mean of3.90. Mean range was found between 3.43 to 4.1.

Conclusion:-
Findings showed that all the developed designs of modest bath wear clothing for women were found highly relevant based on mean scores for the purpose for which they were designed.
Most of the clothing designs were rich in aesthetic appeal and functional features in terms of style features like cowl neck, use of ruffles tucks, pleats, bias cut pattern to give roomy flare for comfort, and modesty. Developed designs of bath wear clothing have promising potential tosetup an enterprise.