Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
The present invention relates to a device for
supporting articles of clothing, e.~. jackets, coats,
sweaters, robes and dress shirts, that are commonly
tailored with a front vertical opening extending from a
collarband down to a lower hem. To wear the article, the
two sides are separated while the clothing article is
being pu-t on, then brought together, and fastened with
buttons, snaps or zipper.
When not in immediate use, or when a ~arment is
used intermittently, it is desirable to store the
described garments. They are often cared for by
supporting them from various types of hangers constructed
from wood, plastic, bent wire or the like. It is also
desirable to store a garment in a correct and proper
fashion that takes into consideration features of the
garment such as intended folds, creases, parts and the
like.
The most common, and probably the earliest,
method of securing articles of clothing is to place them
on a hook or nail projecting from a wall or other ~lat
vertical surface. In this way, the inside collar portion
of the garment rests upon the hook. There are, however,
two drawbacks to this method.
Firstly, the garment i5 placed upon a single
suspension point and tends to sag, since no support i5
provided to the basic shape or contour of the ~arment,
e.g. shoulder and collar structureO This results in
unnecessary wrinkling and may eventually distort the
intended aesthetic appearance o~ the garment.
Secondly, due to the ~act that the entire weight
of the garment is suspended from one point, the hook can
often leave an impression in the garment, and, depending
on the fabric, may actually project through the material
and damage the garment by leaving a permanent warp or
hole.
There i5 however one advanta~e to this method.
I~ the clothes are in frequent use, the hook allows for
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quick and easy access to ~uspend and then remove suspended
articles.
Another common method of securing articles of
clothing is to use a conventional triang~lar shaped hanger
provided with a hook shaped element adapted to rest upon a
circular rod or dowel. This shape provides support to the
natural contour of the garment. However, its use involves
removing the hanger from the rod, which is usually located
inside a closet, securing an article on or removin~ it
from the hanger, and then returning the hanger ba~k to the
rod. This procedure is time consuming and involves
unnecessary effort.
A number of prior patents have attempted to
address one or more of the above disadvantages. Canadian
Patent No. 6~9 ,125 ~Warmath) discloses a ~arment hanger
for simultaneously supporting a plurality of garments.
Thi~ hanger is provided with a hook to suspend the whole
garment hanger in conventional manner. Canadian Patent
No. 715,898 (Rubin et al) describes a wire coat hanger
with a hook and provided with loop means for engaging
garment straps. Canadian Patent No. 848, 292 (Wagar et al)
relates to a garment hanger formed from a single length of
wire with a hook portion formed at one end and an eye at
the other. Finally, Canadian Patent No. 1,141,346
(Kohlhapp) describes a multi-functional wall hanger
capable of simultaneously accepting a jacket or the like,
pants, and a hat or the like, and including an upper shelf
portion for receiving small articles, such as keys and
chan~e. The whole structure can be secured to a wall.
However, all of these prior desîgns fail to avoid the
drawbacks discussed above.
It is an object of the present invention to
utilize the advantages of both prior methods, while at the
same time eliminating their inherent disadvantages. It is
a further object of the invention to provide a means of
supporting articles of clothing which affords sufficient
support to the aforementioned garments and allows them to
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be placed upon and removed from a hanger with relative
ease.
A~cordingly, the invention provides a garment
hanger in the form of a one-piece, unitary rod-like
structure, comprising a generally triangular yoke portion
with a pair of similar slanting arms for supporting a
garment and generally horizontal base, a support portion
substantially parallel to and laterally spaced from the
plane of said yoke portion, and adapted to permit the
hanger to be secured to a vertical support surface, and a
laterally extending connector portion connecting the base
of the yoke portion with the support portion.
The hanger is preferably constructed from a
metal or plastic rod of circular cross-section, for
example from about 0.2 to 0.6 inch (0.5 to 1.5 cm) in
diam~ter. The yoke portion advantageously comprises two
symmetrical slanting arms separated at the top by a
central portion dimensioned to accept the collar portion
of a garment. The support portion is advantageously
formed from the ends of the unitary rod-like structure,
one end extending substantially vertically and the other
end extendiny substantially horizontally. The slanting
arms of the yoke portion are turned inwardly at their
lower ends to form parallel inwardly extending portions
which comprise the horizontal base and which connect to
said connector portion. The connector portion comprises
two portions of the rod-like structure which extend
between the ends of the inwardly extending portions of the
yoke portion and the inner ends of the support portion.
Conveniently, the ends forming the support portion are
provided with means to facilitate securing of the support
portion to a vertical surface. The ends forming the
support portion are preferably half rounded with the flat
surface capable of lying flush against a vertical surface,
such as a door or wall, and are screwed or otherwise
secured thereto.
In a preferred embodimant, the hanger consists
of a triangular shaped frame constructed from a circular
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metal rod of approximately 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) diameter.
The product is of unitary metal construction; the rod
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being appropriately bent to shape. Prior to the rod being
bent, its total length i5 suitably approximately 37-43
inches (95 to llO cm~.
The han~er is desi~ned to be secured to a flat
vertical surfa~e, such as a wall or door, and may be
secured by a variety of conventional means, such as
screws, for example by four screws that thread through a
vertic~l and a horizontal arm of the ~upport section.
These two base supports are half rounded (semicircular in
cross section) with the flat portions flush mounted to a
mou~tin~ sur~ace.
The triangular frame is displaced outward from
th0 mounting surface and maintained~ parallel thereto by
the laterally extending connector portion, which may
comprise two projections, each approximately 5 to 8 cm in
length, extending outwardly from the mounting surface at
9O degrees.
When positioned, the front of a garment, i.e.
breast or lapel, faces the mounting surface. The gap
between the triangular frame and wall allows the ga~ment
to be draped around and over the two slanting arms. Thus,
the shoulder portion o~ the garment i5 supported on its
underside by these two arms much like a conventional
clothes hanger.
A garment with a button-down collar, such as a
dress shirt, will be able to have its top two buttons
fastened prior to being suspended. Fastening of the
uppermost buttons assists in maintaining the circular form
of the collarband when not in use. While suspended, the
fastened portion joins together above the connector
portion. The collarband itself res~s upon the upper
section of the yoke portion, circling around a center bend
therein which connects the two slanting arms. While
suspended, the unfastened sides drape down to the outside
of the lateral arms comprising the connector portion.
The hanger of the invention also has a
particular advantage when securing wet garments such as
raincoats, or any washed garment to be allowed to air dry.
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In addition to the benefits noted above, the hanger
spreads the garment for faster drying and allows wet
articles to dry separate~.y from dry clothes in a closet.
Embodiments of the invention will now be
described, by way of example, with reference to the
accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a front view of an embodiment of
garment hanger; and
Fi~ures 2, 3, 4 and 6 are front views of further
embodiments of garment hanger.
Turning now to Figure 1, a garme~t hanger 1
comprises an elongated bent metal rod with two slanting,
symmetrical arms 2, 3 separated by a curved central
portion 4 ditnensioned to accept the collar portion of a
garment supported on the arms 2 and 3. At their lower
ends 5 and 6, the arms 2 and 3 are bent inwardly to define
inwardly extending portions ~ and 8 which terminate
adjacent each other and slightly spaced. The inner ends
of the portions 7 and 8 communicate with lateral portions
9 and 10 which e~tend normal to the overall plane of the
arms 2 and 3 and the portions 7 and 8. The lateral
portions 9 and 10 merge -through 90 angles with support
portions 11 and 12, the portion 11 being vertically
oriented towards the central portion 4 of the hanger and
the support portion 12 being horizontally oriented
parallel to the portion 8. The support portlons 11 and 12
are semicircular in cross-section with the flat surface at
the rear for flush contact wi~h a vertical surface and are
provided with recessed holes 13 for accepting screws (not
shown), whereby the garment hanger can be securely
fastened to a vertical surface, such as a door or wall.
The arms 2 and 3 and central portion 4 effectively
comprise a yoke-like structure capable of accepting and
supporting a variety of garments, such as coats, shirts,
jackets, blouses and sweaters. In use, the front of the
garment (not shown), i.e. breast or lapel, faces the
mounted surface with the shoulder portions of the garment
supported on the underside thereof by the arms 2 and 3.
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Due to the free-standing nature of the structure and the
absence of a hook above central portion 4 to support the
hanger 1 on a rail, a garment can be more ea~ily and
quickly placed on or removed from the hanger. Both hands
o~ a person hanging the garment are free to hold the
garment when placing same on the hanger, which assists in
the case of wet garments and sweaters with restricted neck
openings which are difficult to arrange on conventional
hangers.
Further embodiments of the garment hanger are
shown in Figures 2 to 5. The hanger in Fi~ure 2 is
provided with a U-shaped central portion 14, which aligns
more precisely the location of a collar portion of a
garment. In addition, in the hanger shown in Figure 2,
support portions 15 and 16 are oriented symmetrically in
the form of an upward V-shape, The hangers shown in
Figures 3, 4 and 5 each illustrate further embodiments of
the support portion, namely a circular or elliptical
portion 17 as shown in Figure 3, an inverted U-shaped
port~on 18 as shown in Figure 4, or a triangular support
portion 19 which corresponds substantially to the shape of
the hanger, but on a smaller scale, as shown in Figure 5.
Naturally, a variety of alternative conf~gurations would
also be feasible.
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