Absorbent article with enhanced elastic design for improved aesthetics and containment

An absorbent article having a longitudinal length dimension, a lateral cross dimension, a front waistband portion, a back waistband portion, and an intermediate portion which interconnects said front and back waistband portions, said article comprising:

• a backsheet layer having a pair of laterally opposed and longitudinally extending side margins, each side margin having an outwardly concave, terminal side edge contour located at appointed leg opening regions in an intermediate portion of said each side margin, each concave side edge contour having a selected longitudinal extent along said length dimension of said article;
• a liquid permeable topsheet layer connected in a superposed facing relation to said backsheet layer;
• an absorbent body sandwiched between said topsheet layer and said backsheet layer;
• and
• a separately provided gusset-flap composite member connected to at least one of said backsheet and topsheet layers along each of said leg opening regions, said gusset-flap member providing a leg gusset section and a containment flap section;
• wherein
• each leg gusset section is configured to extend beyond and bridge across its corresponding, outwardly concave terminal side edge contour of said backsheet layer, and to provide an elasticized and gathered side margin of said article;
• each containment flap section is integrally formed with a corresponding one of said leg gusset sections and positioned relatively inboard therefrom to provide said gusset-flap member;
• each containment flap section has a substantially fixed edge located proximally adjacent to a one of said elasticized side margins, and has an elasticized and gathered, distal, movable edge portion;
• and wherein
• said gusset-flap member includes
• a barrier layer having a pair of laterally opposed, longitudinally extending, barrier layer side edges, and first and second major facing surfaces,
• a fabric layer which is joined in facing relation with said first facing surface of said barrier layer, said fabric layer having a leg gusset region, an outboard side portion, a containment flap region, and an inboard side portion, said outboard side portion arranged to wrap around at least one side edge of said barrier layer and extend inboard therefrom along said second facing surface of said barrier layer,
• a first arrangement of a first plurality of separate, longitudinally extending elastomeric members attached and sandwiched by said barrier layer and said fabric layer within said leg gusset section of said gusset-flap member, and
• a second arrangement of at least one longitudinally extending elastomeric member attached to at least said fabric layer within each containment flap section of said gusset-flap member, said first and second arrangements of elastomeric members thereby providing an elastomeric, substantially longitudinally gathered, gusset-flap composite.