Center for the Built Environment

Women across South-Asia wear the sari. It is versatile as the drape modifies the clothing insulation, for a given ensemble. We tested three Indian ensembles of saris (for four drapes) with a thermal manikin following ISO: 9920 protocols. The insulation on all the sixteen body parts and the whole-body were recorded. This provides information for advanced thermalcomfort modeling needing clothing insulation at segmentation level. The sari offered a wide range of insulation (0.94 to 0.62) for a given set of garments. Winter ensembles provided 1.11 – 1.39 clo while the summer and monsoon ensembles had 0.62 – 0.96 clo. We noted the clothing insulation varying by about 48 - 51 % due to the changes in drape on the upper bodyalone. The findings of this research are more than a correction of clo value of saris.