Abstract:
A display former or frame is adapted to receive folded on or about it a garment such as a shirt and has a support for the shirt collar. A locking support frame provides two bars, over one of which a lower or tail portion of the shirt is folded and the other bar has a hook engagement with the upper part of the former frame in order to secure the fully folded shirt on the former. Arms of the hook engagement may have a resilient motion to retain the bar in engagement with the hooks. Gripping means is also shown provided for receiving outer shoulder portions of the shirt to facilitate their folding behind the former and to obtain a taut fit of the shirt about the former.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a garment display former and particularly, but not exclusively, to such a former for displaying shirts. 
     It has been a long standing practice to support a shirt on a former for display purposes. The former is usually a sneer of card or board to which is attached by pins or clips to the body portion of the shirt, often with a cuff pinned onto the shirt front panel. The shirt collar is normally separately supported by a further narrow strip of cardboard or plastic which is placed underneath the collar in the position occupied by a tie when the shirt is worn. The thus assembled shirt is finally placed in a bag at least the front portion of which is transparent for viewing by potential customers. 
     One of the disadvantages of this traditional display arrangement is that it is time consuming and thus expensive to produce and assemble. An object of the invention is to avoid such disadvantage and enable a garment to be quickly displayed on a former whilst a further object is to provide a former on which a shirt or other garment can be readily folded or arranged for display without the use of pins or clips or with minimal use of them. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     According to one aspect of the invention a garment display former is characterised by a former member such as a frame for receiving an upper portion of a garment folded or arranged thereon and a locking support member for carrying a lower portion of a said garment and arranged to have a releasable retentive engagement with an upper part of the former member in order to secure and lock the garment in a folded condition on the latter. 
     The locking support member may have a releasable hook engagement with the former member and may provide a pair of spaced apart bars or the like, one of which receives the lower part of a garment folded over it and the other is adapted to have a releasable retentive or hook engagement with the former member. Retentive or hook engagement means may have a resilient action for retaining the engagement between the locking support member and the former member yet enable such engagement to be released for removal of the locking support member from the former member. 
     According to another aspect of the invention a former member of a garment display former is provided with gripping or retaining means for retentively receiving upper outer side portions of a garment behind the former in facilitating the arranging or folding of the garment on the former member. 
     The gripping or retaining means can be conveniently of slotted form with preferably toothed or serrated gripping edges for receiving the garment upper outer side portions whilst the means may depend from a central upper part of the former member. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Practical examples of the former for shirt display purposes are shown in the accompanying drawings in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a rear elevation of the former frame; 
     FIG. 1A is an elevation of a locking support member; 
     FIG. 2 is a rear elevation showing a shirt secured in a folded condition on the former; 
     FIG. 3 is a detail rear view showing the engagement of the locking support member with the former; 
     FIGS. 4 and 5 are detail rear perspective views each showing an alternative form of shirt collar support; 
     FIG. 5A is a side edge view of FIG. 5; 
     FIG. 6 is a rear elevation of the former frame provided with garment gripping means; 
     FIG. 6A is an elevation of a locking support member for the former shown in FIG. 6; 
     FIGS. 7 to 11 are rear elevational views each showing a step in the arranging or folding of a shirt on the former, and 
     FIG. 12 is a detail front perspective view on an enlarged, scale of a further form of collar support. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring firstly to FIG. 1, the display former 10 comprises a generally rectangular frame preferably produced as a moulding in suitable plastics material such as polystyrene or polypropylene, the upper part of which tapers upwardly and inwardly as shoulder portions 11 towards a cross piece 14 which carries a collar support 16 and also a depending central part 18 carrying a part of locking or retaining means shown generally at 20. The sides of the former 10 preferably also have some inward taper towards the lower end of the frame. The size and/or shape of the frame of the former 10 can be varied according to requirements. 
     That part of the locking or retaining means 20 forming part of the former 10 is generally of a U-shaped arrangement in which a pair of spaced apart upstanding hooks 22 are each carried by respective arms 23 integral with the central part 18, which hooks 22 receive one bar 24 of a rectangular locking support 12, of slotted or frame from (FIG. 1A), the other bar 26 of the latter providing support for the lower part of a shirt displayed on the former 10. The locking support frame 12 may be also produced as a polypropylene or other plastics moulding. 
     In use the shirt S is folded or arranged on and about the former 10 for display of the front upper portion of the shirt on the front of the former in the traditional manner and with the collar support 16 inserted under the rear part of the shirt collar C. Outer side portions of the shirt including outer shoulder portions and sleeves are folded behind the former 10. As shown in FIG. 2 an intermediate front portion I of the shirt S is brought under the lower cross piece 28 of the former frame 10 and up behind the latter after or before which front and rear parts of the lower or tail portion T of the shirt are inserted in the locking support frame 12 and folded forwardly over the bar 26. The locking support frame 12 is then raised behind the former to engage the bar 24 with the hooks 22 of the locking or retaining means 20 on the former 10. 
     During such engagement the pair of arms 23 carrying the hooks 22 are bent slightly upwardly in the direction of the arrows A,A, (FIG. 3) i.e. out of the plane of the paper. In this position the bar 24 is slid in the direction of the arrows B,B into the base of the locking or retaining means 20 and the arms 23 released. Due to the natural resilience of the polypropylene or like plastics material the arms 23 and hooks 22 return to their original position substantially in the plane of the former 10. In this way the bar 24 becomes trapped between the hooks 22 and the central part 18. After final preparations, the fully folded shirt FS secured on the former 10 is placed in a package such as a polythene bag ready for sale. 
     When a purchaser wishes to remove the shirt S from the former 10 it is simply necessary to slightly raise the hooks 22 in order to release the bar 24 of the locking support 12 for removal, withdraw the lower portion T of the shirt from the latter and then unfold the shirt from the former 10. 
     The locking support 12 may take any suitable shape or form other than that shown in the drawings whilst it may, for example, be provided with hooks for engagement with the cross member 14 or the like of the upper part of the former 10. 
     Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5 alternative forms of collar support are shown. Thus in FIG. 4 the collar support 161 is shown curved in order to more accurately correspond to the shape of the back of a wearer&#39;s neck. In FIG. 5 the collar support 162 is bent forwardly so as to assume a front raised position from the plane of the former 10. 
     In accordance with a further feature of this invention the former 10 (FIG. 6) is provided with gripping or retaining means 30 to facilitate the folding or arranging of a shirt thereon and for this purpose a depending extension 32 of the central part 19 is bifurcated to provide a pair of depending parallel limbs 34 defining a slot 36 between them, the opposed edges of the limbs 34 being serrated or toothed at 38 for gripping engagement with material of the shirt inserted and pulled through the slot 36. Upper exterior side portions of the former frame 10 are also shown similarly serrated or toothed at 40, in each case the teeth or serrations 38,40 being of buttress or ratchet form to resist downward movement of the shirt material relative to the former 10. To prevent damage to the shirt material the points of the teeth 38, 40 should not be sharp but preferably of rounded form as shown. 
     In displaying a shirt on the former 10 and referring to FIGS. 7 to 11 as before the back portion of the shirt collar C is engaged over the collar support 16 so that the former 10 lies behind the shirt. One outer side portion PR of the shirt, e.g. the right hand side portion in FIG. 7 is pulled inwardly behind the former 10 and the shoulder part of this shirt portion PR is inserted upwardly into the slot 36 between the depending limbs 34 which latter are outwardly curved at their lower ends 35 to facilitate such engagement. The lower cross piece 28 of the former frame 10 is notched at 29 to assist in centering the shirt S on the former. In a similar manner the other or left hand outer side portion PL of the shirt S (FIG. 8) is pulled inwardly behind the former 10 and its shoulder part inserted in the slot 36. On such engagement of the shirt portions PR, PL, with the slot 36 they are pulled taut to ensure gripping engagement with teeth 38 in the slot 36 and also similar wrap round engagement of upper portions of the shirt with the serrated outer edges 40 of the upper part of the former frame 10. This ensures a suitably taut display of the front of the shirt. Loose portions PR, PL of the shirt extending rearwardly out of the slot 36 together with sleeves are folded behind that part of the shirt wrapped about the former, i.e. in the manner shown in FIG. 9. 
     If desired more than one slot 36 such as a parallel pair thereof may be provided. Other suitable slotting may be employed. 
     Also as shown in FIG. 9 the lower or tail portion T of the folded shirt is inserted through the locking support frame 12 and folded forwardly over the bar 26 as shown in FIG. 10. Also in the manner already described the bar 24, now visible just below the lower most edge of the folded shirt S and with a further transverse folding of the latter is placed over the hooks 22 (FIG. 11) to secure and lock the shirt in the fully folded conditions FS on the former 10. In order to accommodate the folded thickness of the shirt the hooks 22 are shown cranked rearwardly from their arms 23 as will be seen in FIG. 12. 
     In order to raise the collar C forwardly of the front of the shirt, especially the rear part of the collar, the collar support 160 is arranged to be bent to a forward position upstanding from the former 10 and shirt front as shown in FIG. 7. The collar support 160 is retained in this position by snap action engagement of projections 17 of the support 160 engaging under hook shaped lugs 15 on the cross piece 14. When in the position shown in dotted lines the support 160 lies in the same plane as the former 10 for ease of packaging and shipping a quantity of formers along with flat locking supports 12. 
     As will be appreciated from the foregoing, the procedure of arranging and folding the shirt S on the former 10 can be carried out very quickly including the raised positioning of the collar C and that, in particular, there is no need to previously fold the shirt before fitting it on the former 10 nor is the use of pins or clips entailed. This results in considerably more efficient production of displayed shirts, the operating costs of which are further kept to a minimum by the extremely low cost nature of the former 10 and locking support frame 12. 
     Whereas an embodiment of the invention has been herein described as suitable for the display of shirts it is to be understood that, with such modification as may be necessary, it is also applicable to the display of other similar garments such as blouses, pyjamas, jackets, nightdresses and the like. 
     It is also to be understood that various modifications of the former and locking support frame may be made within the scope of the invention herein defined.