Beschreibung:
<jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>An increasing number of people is reported to have sensitive skin. Consequently, the development of textile materials with comfortable wearing properties has become a major interest. One method to create a pleasant sensation of textile materials on the skin is to coat them with silk proteins. This technologically complex procedure requires both optimization and control.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>The present study was aimed to characterize the subjective perception of different textiles and to objectively assess their influence on skin morphology with non‐invasive optical techniques like optical coherence tomography (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">OCT</jats:styled-content>), laser scanning microscopy (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">LSM</jats:styled-content>) and optical surface profilometry (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">OP</jats:styled-content>). Furthermore, optical methods were used to characterize surface properties of different textile fabrics.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>In the present study it could be shown that optical non‐invasive methods, as applied in cosmetology and dermatology are suited to characterize the structural properties of fabrics and the effects that textile materials have on the skin. Here, both unfinished textile materials and fabrics finished with silk protein coating were investigated by <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">OCT</jats:styled-content>,<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case"> LSM</jats:styled-content> and <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">OP</jats:styled-content>. In addition, volunteers were interviewed about their subjective sensation when these fabrics were in contact with their skin.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>The study showed that optical methods could be applied to compare textile materials <jats:italic>in vitro</jats:italic>, which permit the wearing comfort to be predicted and <jats:italic>in vivo</jats:italic> perception on the skin.</jats:p></jats:sec>