Need a professional dress form?

[Ysobelle]

If you've been to my shop at PARF, you know the cheap-ass dress forms I have are just falling apart, and, Allie's valiant efforts notwithstanding, mostly beyond saving. Emily's wedding gown took a tumble last weekend from a stiff gust of wind, and wound up face-down in my garden; the dress was perfectly fine, my roses, not so much. But I stomped around in frustration for a moment, and said, "That's it!"

On Sunday morning, I bit the bullet and put in an offer on a dress form on eBay. A real form. Not a Wolf or a Superior, but the same type: professional, a muslin-covered body, heavy cast-iron base. Normally, they'll go for $300 to $500 or more. But I found a seller on eBay who had one for $239 or best offer. I put in $190. No deal. $195. Sorry. $200. We'll let you know. A few hours later, I got an email that my offer had been accepted. I paid immediately. Exchanged a few emails with the seller. Asked when I might expect the box, as they ship UPS Ground. I was hoping to G-d it'd get here by Thursday. Friday by the latest.

It is now assembled in my living room (I was on my way to the bank, saw my UPS guy, turned around and sat in wait in the parking lot juuust in case), and I am absolutely delighted. It's perfect. Perfect. It's got collapsible shoulders, and they even threw in a free arm. Of course, the directions were in rather...fanciful English, so I had to wing it a bit, but on the whole, it was easy enough to assemble and I'm ecstatic. I have a new form to take to Salon Con this weekend. Huzzah!

So if you need any matter of display, try these lovely folks:

http://stores.ebay.com/displayfashion

[Emma]

There's a chain of stores here in Lexington that is selling off all their fixtures, including torso canvas covered forms and all their other mannequins... I remember looking at them and wishing I had a reason to buy them.

~Emma

[Lady Sarah]

A local plus sized dress shop down here converted from the older fabric covered heavy duty paper mache dress forms to a lighterweight plastic forms for display. I was lucky enough that the manager knows me and graciously held one for me - no charge on top of that!

Sadly, when I went back to get another one, she couldn't find any others in the area.

I do like the look of those forms, however. That heavy metal base is appealing.

[Ysobelle]

I do like the look of those forms, however. That heavy metal base is appealing.


When I was in grad school, these types were all we had. I will say, it's not so much fun trying to chase one all over the shop whilst trying to pin a toile, but then, most of the wheels were clogged with decades of lint and thread bits, so the most they'd do was sort of...wobble in a circle. But if you do serious work, these are the best. And they come in all sizes from 2 to 20.