Thermal clothing is particularly designed to be worn in extreme cold temperatures especially during winter. It is in fact a winter’s favourite for most individuals due to its exceedingly superior heat retaining capability. Unlike normal clothing, it is worn under the exterior garments. This mode of dressing has driven some people to also refer to it as thermal underwear.
To perfectly aid the body in sustaining its heat, thermal apparels are designed to cover maximum body surface. The shirts therefore, are long sleeved to offer optimal thermal fortification. The pants on the other hand, are extended to the ankles to perfectly cover the entire leg and prevent cold air from sipping in.
The 2 Main Functions of Thermal Clothing
Thermal clothing is intended to transcendently keep its wearers warm and dry in tremendously cold temperatures. Unlike what most people may think, such clothing does not generate heat. The mechanism it uses to make you feel warm is sustaining the general body heat. The human body usually feels cold during due to the increasingly high rate of body heat loss to the general environment. The best way of reversing this process is helping the body conserve the heat and prevent additional loss to the environment. Thermal clothing effectually achieves this through its double layer of ply fabric.
Unlike normal attire which is usually designed with single layers of fabric, thermal underwear has a double layer to trap the body heat and keep it adjacent to the epidermal layer of the skin. The body is consequently kept warm and sufficiently aerated. If you want to keep warmer, you should wear additional heavy garments on top on the thermal clothing.
The second crucial function of thermal garb is keeping the body completely dry. Although the under wear is considerably good in preventing heat loss to the environment, it is also important for the body to remain dry and not sweaty. To perfectly achieve this, designers chose polypropylene fabric for the thermal attire. This material is exceptionally good in sustaining body heat and allowing air to freely circulate through the body to keep it dry. The sweat is therefore kept away from the skin.
Polypropylene uses a simple but relatively efficacious mechanism to keep the sweat from the skin. Just like a wick would pull oil from a lamp, the fabric effectively sucks in any moisture on the skin to trap and expel it to the air. Apart from preventing sweat accumulation, this mechanism is also helpful in averting body odour. The under garment is therefore exceptionally ideal for sports enthusiasts or active individuals in cold weather.
Sweat is primarily made of water. Water, unlike the human body, has quite a low resistance to cold temperatures. It is also very poor in sustaining heat. In fact, water can quickly adopt the extreme cold temperatures of the atmosphere. This makes sweat very uncomfortable and quite chilling when it is cold. Therefore, preventing sweat accumulation is also very effectual in keeping the body warm.
Thermal clothing is traditionally designed to cover the whole body. That makes it very suitable for trousers and long dresses. It has always been very unreasonable to wear them with short skirts. However, designers have recently been coming up with impressive thermal underwear designs which meritoriously go well with a wide range of dressing styles. You can therefore wear imperceptible thermal underwear under your skirt and still look very stylish.