Abstract
The objective of this study was to identify the texture-related components of woven fabrics and to develop a multidimensional perceptual structure map to represent the tactile textures. Eighty subjects in clothing and tektite industries were selected for multivariate data on each fabric of 30 using the questionnaire with 9 pointed semantic differential scales of 20 texture-related adjectives. Data were analyzed by factor analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis, and multidimensional scaling(MDS) using SPSS statistical package. The results showed that the five factors were selected and composed of density/warmth-coolness, stiffness, extensibility, drapeability, and surface/slipperiness. As a result of hierarchical cluster analysis, 30 fabrics were grouped by four clusters; each cluster was named with density/warmth-coolness, surface/slipperiness, stiffness, and extensibility, respectively. By MDS, three dimensions of tactile texture were obtained and a 3-dimensional perceptual structure map was suggested. The three dimensions were named as surface/slipperiness, extensibility, and stiffness. We proposed a positioning perceptual map of fabrics related to texture naming system(TNS). To classify the textural features of the woven fabrics, hierarchical cluster analysis containing all the data variations, even though it includes the errors, may be more desirable than texture-related multidimensional data analysis based on factor loading values in respect of the effective variables reduction without losing the critical variations.
