INVESTIGATION OF FABRIC TACTILE CHARACTERISTICS FOR DIFFERENT CLOTHING BASED ON ELDERLY PERSPECTIVES

Thailand has an aging society which is affected by the social and economic dimensions of the country. Products and services for the well-being of the elderly are becoming very competitive markets. This study investigated Thai elderly preferences toward apparel fabrics. In total, 40 Thai elderly women were interviewed on their purchasing behavior relating to clothing and their attitudes to different types of fabric. The free sorting task method was applied to 28 fabric samples based on their suitability for different applications by elderly people. The results showed that the factors influencing apparel purchasing by the elderly were price, tactile properties, and apparel pattern design. The elderly considered sensorial comfort, breathability, and softness as important components of good quality in a fabric for well-being. The sorting task produced 6 groups. The sleeping wear group was associated with all knitted fabrics and related to soft and stretched textures that provided comfort, while loungewear had a high association with the fabrics made of linen fiber based on the descriptive words ‘soft’, ‘comfort’, ‘airy’, ‘natural’, and ‘stiff’. Business professional wear had a high association with fabrics made of silk, linen, and cotton based on the descriptive words ‘thick’, ‘stiff’, and ‘look expensive’. These findings could provide guidelines for designing and manufacturing fabrics whose characteristics match the demands of the elderly, as well as guiding the fabrics to use to create clothing providing well-being for the elderly.