New white nurse uniforms use non-transparent fabric to hide underwear, receive backlash from men

“The technology is great, but from a man’s point of view….”

Taishin, a small uniform manufacturing company located in Tokyo, has developed a white nurse uniform, which is unique in that it is completely non-transparent. “No matter what color or pattern your underwear, it won’t show through!” the slogan touts.

The secret is the lightweight fabric of the inner-lining, which they were able to develop after researching the three attributes of color – hue, brightness, and saturation. While using a black inner lining would obviously prevent any undergarments from showing through, the lining itself would be noticeable through the white outer fabric.

With this in mind, the company created and patented the technology for a lining which prevents other colors and patterns from showing through, while itself not showing through the white outer fabric.

▼ The uniforms combine the white outer layer of the second picture and inner
lining of the third picture to completely hide the zebra and bumble bee patterns.

There is a dress-type uniform available for 14,904 yen (US$126), jacket for 12,744 yen, and pants for 9,504 yen. Currently the only designs available are for women, though a men’s version is currently in the works.

Part of the inspiration to create the non-transparent uniforms was that, while previously other companies had “hard-to-see-through” uniforms, none offered any that were completely non-transparent. This past June, the uniform was chosen as the target product of the Tokyo Small Business Promotion Corporation (Tokyoto Chuushoukigyo Shinko Kosha) and received lots of praise after its news release.

However, Taishin has also seen some negativity regarding its ground-breaking product, receiving comments like, “The technology is great, but from a man’s point of view…” and “Don’t make something like this.” The company has also reportedly gotten “silent phone calls” – called mugon-denwa in Japanese – which is a form of harassment (along with matahara, pawahara, and now even pikohara).

Taishin hasn’t specified to what degree the negative comments and harassing phone calls have been coming in, but as we haven’t quite given up on humanity yet, we’d like to hope that it was only a few isolated cases. We’re sure that working women in every field can appreciate Taishin’s efforts to make the workplace just a little more comfortable.

Source: livedoor NEWS via Hachima Kiko
Images: Taishin

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