Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
A one-piece garment is a garment that forms a complete outfit in one piece. One-piece garments may be worn as underwear or as outerwear: some are skin-tight garments, others are loose garments, and many of the older ones are draped garments. Loose examples include the boiler suit, dress, flight suit, jumpsuit, coverall, sari, sarong and toga, while skin-tight examples include the catsuit, leotard, one-piece swimsuit, unitard and wetsuit. This page explains what the single-piece construction means in practice and how the main one-piece families differ.
Examples include:
Loose one-piece garments:
one-piece pyjamas (the vast majority of pyjamas are two-piece)
romper suit (for babies)
Make-shift one-piece garment used when going to and coming from the shower, etc.
towel
Skin-tight one-piece garments:
diveskin
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/one-piece_garment). 2/2/06 |
Building an outfit as a single piece removes the waistline join, and that one fact drives most of the garment types on this page. With no gap between a top and a bottom, there is no waistband to snag, ride up or let in draughts, dirt or water, which is why protective and working dress so often takes one-piece form: the boiler suit and coverall protect street clothes and skin in one continuous layer, the flight suit gives aircrew a single garment with no loose junction, and the ski suit keeps snow out at the waist. The same continuity serves in water, where the wetsuit and diveskin cover the torso and limbs in one insulating skin, and in sport and dance, where the leotard and unitard leave nothing to come untucked during movement.
The loose one-piece garments divide into tailored and draped families. The tailored family, dress, jumpsuit, boiler suit and romper suit among them, is cut and sewn to a body shape and fastened with buttons, zips or ties. The draped family is older and simpler: the toga, sari and sarong are lengths of cloth arranged on the body, held by folding, tucking, belting or pinning rather than by sewn seams, and the loincloth is the simplest draped form of all. One-piece pyjamas belong to the tailored family but are the exception in their own category, since the vast majority of pyjamas are two-piece sets.
Fit is judged differently on a one-piece garment because the torso length is fixed by the pattern. A two-piece outfit forgives a long or short back by adjusting where the top ends and the trousers begin; a one-piece cannot, so torso length, shoulder-to-hip measure, is the critical fitting point for jumpsuits, boiler suits, swimsuits and leotards. Stretch fabrics ease the problem in the skin-tight family, which is why the catsuit, unitard and wetsuit are made in elastic knits, while loose woven one-piece garments allow for body length with a fuller cut, an elasticated or belted waist, or a drawstring. Care follows the fabric rather than the form: a one-piece garment is washed as a single item, which is convenient, but a stain or repair takes the whole outfit out of use at once, one reason two-piece dress remains the everyday default and one-piece dress dominates where its continuity is the point, in protection, water, sport and ceremony.
A one-piece garment forms a complete outfit in one piece, with no separate top and bottom to match or fasten together. One-piece garments may be worn as underwear or as outerwear, and they range from loose draped garments to skin-tight stretch garments.
Loose one-piece garments include the boiler suit, dress, flight suit, jumpsuit, coverall, one-piece pyjamas, romper suit, sari, sarong, ski suit and toga. A bath robe, dressing-gown or towel serves as a makeshift one-piece garment going to and from the shower.
Skin-tight one-piece garments include the catsuit, diveskin, leotard, one-piece swimsuit, unitard and wetsuit. These are cut close to the body, usually in stretch fabrics, so the single piece stays smooth without belts or separate fastenings.