The clip is thus of the kind that functions to join together separate regions of an edge portion of a conventional rectangular towel in a releasable and adjustable fashion, such as to form a sarong-like article of clothing whose waist measurement can be adjusted.

It is often desired to change from wet swimsuits into dry shorts on beaches after a swim. In the absence of readily accessible changing rooms, however, swimmers often endeavour to wrap a bathing towel around the lower part of their body to provide a shield in conjunction with said change. In this regard, it is known to provide a bathing towel with a fitting that enables two separate regions of an edge part of the towel to be held together.

An object of the present invention is to provide a clip, which enables two separate regions of one edge part of a towel to be joined together in a simple and readily adjustable fashion.

A further object of the invention is to provide a clip that is affixed to a towel. Still another object of the invention is to provide a clip that can be readily affixed to and removed from said towel.

These objects are achieved by means of the invention.

The invention is defined in the accompanying independent Claim.

Further embodiments of the clip are set forth in the dependent Claims.

The inventive clip has a first part which functions to enable the clip to be affixed to a first region, and a second part for releasably connecting the clip to a second region, said second clip part including a slot which is defined by two mutually opposing walls between which an edge portion of the towel is clamped, wherein at least one of said walls includes teeth or serrations which point in one direction of the longitudinal direction of the slot, so that said towel edge portion can be moved along the slot in said one direction, and therewith adjust

the waist measurement of said garment, and to counteract withdrawal of said towel edge portion in the opposite direction along the slot.

In one embodiment of the invention, the first clip part may be affixed to the towel, for instance glued, riveted, or moulded thereto or fixed in some other appropriate manner. In another embodiment of the invention, the first clip part may be detachably connected to the towel. In this case, the first clip part will have essentially the same design as the second clip part, insofar that the slots are generally parallel with each other, although with the teeth or serrations on the first clip part being directed oppositely to the teeth or serrations on the second clip part.

In one embodiment of the invention, the teeth may be elastically resilient in a direction towards and away from the opposite slot wall. In the case of one embodiment, the slot may have a curved extension transversely to its longitudinal direction, so as to enhance the engagement of the towel edge with said teeth when the slot faces downwards.

According to one variant, the slot may narrow in a wedge-like fashion towards its bottom, and the teeth may slant towards the longitudinal direction of the slot so that said edge portion of the towel will rest along the teeth towards the bottom of the slot and therewith be firmly wedged in response to pulling on the edge of the towel.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is an end view of a clip.

Fig. 2 is a sectioned view taken on the line 11-11 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an end view of another clip according to the invention.

Fig. 4 is a sectioned view taken on the line IV-IV in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is an end view of a variant of a clip according to Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is a sectioned view taken on the line VI-VI in Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a view taken on the line VII-VII in Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 shows an inventive clip fitted to a towel such as to form a hip covering.

Fig. 9 illustrates a variant of the subject of Fig. 3.

Shown in Fig. 8 is a generally rectangular bath towel 1 which is formed into a hip covering and which is provided with a clip 5 on an edge portion 2 of a first part 3 of said towel. In the case of the embodiment shown in Fig. 3, the clip 5 is affixed to the edge part 3 of said towel. The clip 5 includes a slot 6 which is generally open downwards and into which a second part 4 of the edge 2 is inserted. The slot is delimited by two generally parallel walls which have at their free ends generally oppositely located flanges 63 which are provided with rows of teeth or serrations 64 on their mutually opposing edges. The teeth on the rows of flanges 63 close to the entrance of a slot 6 point in the longitudinal direction of the slot and the tips of said teeth are spaced apart by a distance that corresponds generally to the thickness of the compressed towel. Thus, the towel can be moved in the slot in one direction while being prevented from moving in the other direction by said teeth. The teeth 64 may be resilient in the plane of respective flanges 63. The teeth counteract withdrawal of the towel from the slot 6.

The flanges 63 bordering on the slot 6 are shown to be located at different distances from the bottom of the slot 6 (for reasons of a manufacturing/technical nature), so that part of the towel will be curved around an underlying row of teeth, as seen in the cross-section of the clip, so that engagement of the towel with said teeth will be enhanced by a force acting downwardly in the towel (the force of gravity). The distance between the rows of teeth in respective slots will preferably correspond generally to the thickness of a compressed towel, and the wall 61 may be able to flex out elastically should the distance between the rows of teeth associated with a slot be smaller than the thickness of the towel.

In one variant of the inventive clip, shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the clip may be generally mirror symmetrical in relation to a plane P that extends through and lies parallel with the wall 61, with the exception that the rows of teeth for the two slots have mutually opposite directions in respect of the teeth 64.

The clip shown in Figs. 1 and 2 is a separate element that can be readily fitted with one slot 6 on a first edge region 3 of the towel and with the other slot 6 on a second edge region 4 of said towel, subsequent to wrapping the towel 1 around the lower body of the wearer as a hip covering. The regions 3,4 can then be displaced relative to one another between respective pairs of teeth 64, so as to reduce the waist measurement of the covering. When wishing to increase the waist measurement, the edge region 3 of the towel can be

withdrawn from the slot 6 and then reinserted in a suitable position, whereafter the circumference of the hip covering can again be reduced to a desired size.

The embodiment shown in Figs. 5-7 is a variant of the embodiment shown in Fig. 3, although, in this case, the spines of the rows 64'are not perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the slot 6 but slope in a direction towards said longitudinal direction so that when withdrawn in the longitudinal direction of the slot 6 oppositely to the direction of the teeth 64', the towel will tend to be lifted up towards the bottom of said slot. The slot walls also converge towards each other in a direction towards the slot bottom, so as to obtain a towel wedging effect when endeavouring to withdraw the towel in a direction opposite to the direction of the teeth 64. Both slots of the clip may, of course, be provided with teeth 64'if so desired.

The embodiment shown in Fig. 5 corresponds to the embodiment shown in Fig. 3 but with the exception that the teeth 63"in a tooth row 62"slope in the longitudinal direction of the slot 6 and may have different inclinations as illustrated in Fig. 7. In the case of the embodiment shown in Figs. 5-7, the slot wall 61 may be smooth or provided with a tooth arrangement corresponding to the tooth arrangement 62", wherewith the teeth on both slot walls are parallel with and aligned against each other, and wherein the slot 6 preferably also narrows in a direction towards the bottom of the slot. Corresponding to the modification of the clip according to Fig. 3 to obtain the embodiment of the clip according to Fig. 1, the clip according to Fig. 5 can be modified to provide a twin variant in which both of said slots have a latching effect in opposite directions and can each be removably fitted to a respective region 3,4 of the towel edge 2.

The clip 5 can be discerned as a longitudinal section having a profile such as that shown in Figs. 1,3 or 5, where one of the profile legs includes a tooth arrangement of the illustrated kind.

As will be seen from Fig. 1, the flange 64 of the wall 62 is spaced further from the bottom of the slot than the flange of the wall 61, although it will be understood that the flange 64 of the wall 62 may conveniently lie closer to the bottom of the slot than the flange on the wall 61, as shown in Fig. 9.