Patent Publication Number: US-7896152-B1

Title: Clothing, jewelry and accessories coordinator

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     None 
     FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
     None 
     NAMES OF PARTNERS TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT 
     None 
     REFERENCE TO “SEQUENCE LISTING” 
     None 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to an accessories coordinator that has a transparent support, and, more particularly, to a support that has three separate air-tight compartments, the compartments each holding jewelry and other garment accessories and each provided with respective individual closures with a hole formed in the support for engaging the shank on a clothes hanger hook in order to suspend the support from the hook, and the like. 
     Triangular shoulder and neckline covers for garments that have front and rear layers which enclose the upper portion of a garment have been proposed. Pockets are attached to the front and rear layers of these covers, a pair of these pockets being mounted on the outer surface of the front layer and opened and closed through a commonly shared zipper. There is, however, only one pocket with a zipper closure on the outer surface of the rear layer. 
     These covers nevertheless fail to satisfy a number of important needs. Illustratively, the double layers and the associated pockets are expensive and difficult to manufacture. Access to the pockets on opposite sides of the triangular covers is quite awkward. In a crowded closet, for example, to remove or even to see the accessories stored in the pockets on opposite sides of the cover usually requires not only pushing and shoving the other garments hanging in the closet out of the way but also removing the selected garment from its place of storage in order to see the contents in all of the pockets on both sides of the garment. The protective value of these triangular neckline covers, moreover, also is questionable. 
     Further in this regard, relying on a single zipper for opening two separate pockets is quite clumsy because both pockets are likely to be opened, when access only to one of the pockets is needed. In this circumstance accidental spillage of the extra pocket contents can lead to loss or damage to contents falling from the unnecessarily opened pocket. Also, exposing pocket contents to the atmosphere, or relying on pocket closures that are not suitably air-tight can lead to undesirable discoloration or oxidation of the pocket contents. 
     Consequently, there is a need for an improved clothing coordinator that overcomes the deficiencies in the prior art. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     These and other disadvantages of the prior art are largely resolved through the practice of the invention. 
     Illustratively, a flexible plastic support formed from a single transparent sheet, has a reinforced hole at one end for engaging the shank portion of a clothing hanger hook. Arranged on the support is a supplemental film from which at least three separate, generally transparent pockets are formed. Each of these pockets have separate closure means for individually sealing the respective pockets. Preferably, the pocket closures each form seals that are sufficiently air-tight to prevent jewelry, dress accoutrements and other garment furnishings from discoloration, loss in luster or the like through oxidation or contact with the atmosphere. The single sheet support structure offers the additional benefit of enabling the full contents of all of the pockets to be inspected without removing the garment from storage. Manufacture of the coordinator also is significantly improved because only two sheets of material are required to form the three separate pockets—the support and a supplemental film. 
     For a more detailed appreciation of this invention, attention is invited to the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention when taken with the figures of the drawing. The scope of the invention, however, is limited only through the claims appended hereto. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
         FIG. 1  is a front elevation of a typical embodiment of the invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a side view in full section of this invention, taken along the line  2 - 2  of  FIG. 1 , looking in the direction of the arrows; and 
         FIG. 3  is a front perspective view of a supplemental film for use in connection with the embodiment of the invention shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION 
     The foregoing and other disadvantages of the prior art are overcome, largely, through the practice of the invention. 
     For example,  FIG. 1  shows an accessories coordinator  10  that has, best shown in  FIG. 2 , a transparent support  11  formed from a single sheet of flexible plastic e.g. a polymer. The support  11  has folds  12 ,  13  toward opposite sides of the sheet  11  for forming pockets  15  and, as shown in  FIG. 1 , to form pocket  16 . The support  11 , moreover, has formed at each of its respective folded ends tracks  17 ,  20  ( FIG. 2 ) for associated reclosable fasteners  21 ,  22  and, as illustrated in  FIG. 1 ,  23 . In accordance with a feature of the invention the reclosable fasteners  21 ,  22 ,  23  establish suitably air-tight seals for each of the respective pockets  14 ,  15  and  16  with which the individual fasteners are associated. Reclosable fasteners of the types described in J. S. Blythe U.S. Pat. No. 7,263,748 granted Sep. 4, 2007; H. J. Herrington et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,627 granted Apr. 30, 1991; H. J. Herrington U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,143 granted Apr. 16, 1991; and H. J. Herrington et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,644 granted Nov. 12, 1991 are suitable for the purpose of the invention. 
     Thus, shown in  FIG. 2 , folded portion  24  of the support  11  and corresponding portion  25  of the support  11  that is opposite to and overlays the folded portion  24  form the pocket  14 . 
     Returning now to  FIG. 1 , it can be seen that corresponding edges of the portion  24  and  25  are joined together by means of an adhesive  28  or other appropriate bonding means to establish a single suitably air-tight edge  26 . Similarly, air-tight edge  27 , opposite to the edge  26  also is formed by bonding or joining together adjoining edges on the folded portion  24  and the corresponding portion  25 . 
     The fold  13  toward the side of the support  11  that is opposite to the fold  12  is doubled over to provide an extra thickness of material  30  ( FIG. 2 ). Preferably, the extra thickness of material is trimmed as shown in  FIG. 1  to form a generally triangular shape for the material  30 . A further supporting piece  31  is bonded or otherwise appropriately joined to the exposed outer surface of the folded material  30  to provide a hole  32  ( FIG. 2 ) that penetrates not only supporting piece  31  and the folded over material  30 , but also the underlaying portion of the support  11 . The hole  32 , moreover, is lined with a tubular reinforcing collar  33 . Best shown in  FIG. 1 , the reinforcing collar  33  accommodates a shank  34  (shown in broken lines) for securing the accessories coordinator  10  to a hanger for the associated garment (both not shown). 
     Turning once more to  FIG. 2 , it can be seen that end  35  of the folded material  30  terminates in the track  20  for the reclosable fastener  22 . As illustrated, the end  35  also is appropriately bonded to a corresponding surface on the support  11  along the entire length of the track  20 . The support  11  is a single sheet with the associated folds  12 ,  13  and the tracks  17 ,  20 . Thus, the entire structure of the support  11  can be formed economically and efficiently through an efficient extrusion or molding technique. In accordance with the invention, a supplemental film  36  ( FIG. 3 ) with tracks  37 ,  40  also can be produced through an inexpensive extrusion or molding process. As shown in  FIG. 2 , a portion of the track  37  is bonded  41  or appropriately joined to the underlaying surface of the support  11  along a fold line  39  ( FIGS. 2 and 3 ) that parallels the entire length of the track  17  ( FIG. 1 ). In this way the supplemental film  36  when bonded to the underlaying portion of the support  11  not only forms (as illustrated in broken lines in  FIG. 3 ) the pocket  15 , but also the separate pocket  16 . Free adjoining edges on the pocket  15  are appropriately joined to form essentially air-tight edges  44 ,  45 . In the same way the pocket  16  is formed through edges  46 ,  47 . Note, however, that the commonly shared set of tracks  20 ,  40  that provide closures for the pockets  15 ,  16  are divided by the edges  45 ,  46  to establish these pockets  15 ,  16  as completely separate from each other. 
     The pocket  14 , however, is formed only by the support  11  which, as best shown in  FIG. 2 , if folded over on itself at the fold line  12  to permit the track  17  formed in the end of the support  11  to engage the corresponding and mating track  37  in the end of the supplemental film  36 . 
     In the foregoing manner the accessories coordinator  10  ( FIG. 1 ) appears to have a very complicated structure that nevertheless is manufactured simply, efficiently and inexpensively from only two sheets of transparent (or appropriately colored) polymeric material. 
     In operation and in accordance with another feature of the invention, each of the corresponding pairs of the tracks  20 ,  40  (for pockets  15  and  16 ) and the tracks  17 ,  37  for the pocket  14  have individual sliders ( FIG. 1 )  50 ,  51  and  52 . Each of these sliders  50 ,  51 ,  52 , straddles a respective pair of mating tracks for each of the pockets. As described in more complete detail in J. S. Blythe U.S. Pat. No. 7,263,748 mentioned above, the tracks  20 ,  40  are aligned with each other as are the tracks  17 ,  37  for mutual sealing engagement and to form separate closures for the respective pockets  15 ,  16 , and the pocket  14 . The individual sliders  50 ,  51 ,  52  are moved along their associated sets of the tracks  17 ,  37  and  20 ,  40  ( FIG. 2 ) in either of the directions shown by double-headed arrows  53 ,  54 ,  55  to open or close the pockets  14 ,  15  and  16 . Thus, the slider  51 , of the reclosable fastener  22  is moved in one direction along the tracks  20 ,  40  to selectively open the pocket  15  for recovering a dress accessory therein (not shown) and, when the slider  51  is moved in the opposite direction, to close the pocket  15  for storing the accessory. To gain access to a dress accessory in the pocket  15  it is only necessary to view the pocket  15  contents without removing the entire garment from the closet in order to identify the accessory in question. By moving the slider  51  along the tracks  20 ,  40  in the direction that opens the pockets  15  the desired accessory can be removed. As a result, contents in the pocket  16  are not disturbed, spilled or exposed to the atmosphere. Further in this connection, it should be noted that contents of the pocket  14  can be viewed directly from the same side of the accessories coordinator  10  as the contents of the pockets  15  and  16  are viewed without withdrawing the garment with which the coordinator  10  is associated from the closet. 
     Other embodiments of the invention are possible. For example, the tracks can be opened and closed through an application of digital pressure to aligned pairs of the tracks without the aid of the sliders.