apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I love them. I got one from a vintage sale for $30, and while it has a brass base (not my favorite) I am considering painting it aqua blue, or maybe something a tad more neutral. I actually use it for sewing, and when I don't have a project on it, I display rarely worn vintage or vintage looking dresses. I was lucky enough to get one that is only slightly bigger than me, so it works well for that, but most vintage are too petit in the shoulder for me.

I have a dress dorm in my bathroom, as a complement to the 80 or so vintage pulp fiction book covers (you know the kind, with titles like "Office Sinner!" and "Shalemless Woman!" etc.) So, the dress form is currently dressed in a frilly nightie, and topped with a ludicrous over-the-top Dolly Parton style long, curly wig... as if she were one of the people on the book covers.

Now, all I need to find is a vintage motel sign about loose women and sailors, or a neon sign that blinks "Open!" or the like.

Oops, that's dress FORM, not dress DORM. Sorry.

I got a wire dress form at a garage sale in high school for like $1 or $2, and I've displayed it every since. I love it!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lmcwethy/3026969719/in/set-72157609005113433/

Argh. I've been searching for a dress form for over a year now. Do people not SEW in Seattle? Sheesh.

i've always wanted a dress form! in college, i worked in the costume shop and they were everywhere. when the shop was moving to a new building, i tried to buy one of them. but they're sooo expensive! someday.

I've always wanted one of these! I thought it would be great to display my vintage pin collection on. Searched for one a few years ago, but the prices were a bit high for what I wanted to pay.

I love these. I've always wanted one, but waiting for a steal! Love that first picture- gorgeous in that room!

http://www.makemineeclectic.wordpress.com

One of my hobbies is sewing clothing and costumes so I have a dress form in my bedroom that is always dressed in some mishmash of clothing items.

Gee, I've never considered these as creepy at all. I always kind of liked them.

I want one for sewing... I'd probably use it for display, too. But if you want creepy, the giant scissors do it for me. The Shears of Damocles.

Is it me or is does that form in the top pic have a slightly ambitious waist-to-hip ratio?

My dress form is only a few years old, but in my case it's professional equipment, and is in the living room with the rest of my design gear. Right now I'm draping muslin on it to make a bodice pattern, but even with the fabric and pins in place I think it works very well with my "Spring Sale at Bendel's" print :)

I don't know, I'm with the author on "kind of creepy."

I love these things. So much.

I keep my dress form dressed year round when I'm not using it. Otherwise when I wake up in the middle of the night it freaks me out. Somehow its always dressed for the opposite season. Winter coats in the summer and summer dresses in the winter. It makes me motivated to prepare for the next seasons wardrobe.

I have a dress form that I use for sewing purposes but its a modern one and they are pretty grim, design-wise - I'd love one of the antique ones that look pretty instead of functional

Violetsrose- check out the the link to Cathe's dressform in the body of the entry. Her's started out as a nothing-special modern dress form that she found in the trash

I love dressforms but, prefer them in a contextual setting, so I have mine in my sewing/art studio. I often see them in magazines displayed somewhere that seems out of place to me, like a living room (where clearly no sewing is done) or a dining room, and think it's a bit like having a naked headless person watching you eat. If it were artistically decorated, like the beautiful one above, perhaps it would make more sense to me (otherwise it often looks like someone trying to recreate their image of what Victorian times might look like... and a form would never have been sitting in a public space).

I'd wanted a dressform for ages, then one day searched Craigslist and found one that had been posted just 10 minutes earlier, so I wrote the seller immediately and got it for $35. It had never been used and just carted from home to home. Lucky day (so be persistent and you'll find one!). Trying to decide now how to dress the form for everyday, between projects, I'm thinking just for laughs either a custom Wonder Woman costume or something leather-and-whip-inspired. I have a few pieces of inherited art, lots of African, and really enjoy watching someone try to make sense of art that's either shocking or humorous.

I really loved this post, thanks for the wonderful ideas, very timely for me personally.

i was thrilled to find my own dress form (which I keep dressed 100% of the time) on craigslist:



I intend on using it to work on sewing projects since it's just my size =)

Never creepy! I have 2. One of metal links that I've strung lights on and hang affirmations on and the other I collaged with things I love. They are art pieces for sure!

I found an old one at an antique fair in Oklahoma years ago.It sits wrapped in an April Cornell scarf on my Granny's wolden plant stand in my living room. A few years ago at a garage sale I scored another one for a ridiculously low price.That one is in my backyard with honeysuckle growing throughout. Love them!

I really like them too. There are some great ones used in an interesting way at the Charlotte St Hotel in London, where they have different ones, small and large, in all the rooms.

LeahDC - Yes Cathe's project is fabulous as is an option if I get another modern dress form but the one I currently have is used for its proper purpose and needs to be able to change sizes as and when