AN ASSESSMENT OF THE KAWABATA TRANSFORMATION EQUATIONS FOR PRIMARY-HAND VALUES

Polyester-fibre-cotton fabric, suitable for ladies' dresses and blouse s, was subjected to an extended series of wash/wear cycles, and the ch ange in mechanical properties was measured. These mechanical propertie s were then converted into a number of primary-hand values for ladies' garments by using Kawabata's transformation equations; the fabrics we re assessed by a panel of ten judges for subjective handle. The subjec tive assessments were compared with the objective measurements of hand le. It was found that, despite trends observed in some mechanical prop erties, there were no trends in the objectively measured hand values. However, the subjective assessments indicated strong trends in all thr ee expressions examined. The results indicate that great care must be taken in utilising the Japanese-based hand-transformation equations fo r fabrics which are not fully representative of the Japanese market.