Development Of A Prototype Handmade Low-Cost Mannequin For Fashion Designers

Abstract

Dress forms and mannequins are indispensable in the practice of designing the garment and developing its design, as they offer three-dimensional forms of the human body on which the garment will be constructed, draped, fitted, and the visualization of the garment. Nevertheless, commercially manufactured mannequins tend to be very costly, not customized to the dimensions of the region, and not accessible to a significant portion of fashion students, independent designers, and small-scale garment producers, especially in the developing nations. The constraints of the given work pose a considerable obstacle to both realistic fashion education and experimental design application. The goal of the given project is to come up with a prototype of a low-cost mannequin/dummy that will be functional to work with by fashion designers and will be inexpensive and simple to assemble using the materials that can be obtained locally. The research methodology is applied, experimental and design-based based research approach that incorporates the anthropometry principles, selection of material, structural stability and ergonomics. Basic body measurements were provided to determine critical dimensional parameters and low cost materials were chosen which combines stability, stability of the structure, and functionality by the use of a layered hand-made process used to construct a full- scale mannequins used to define key dimensional parameters, and the use of a textile based outer surface to ensure the capabilities of pin-holding and fabric draping. The results suggest that the prototype designed has sufficient structural stability, reasonable anthropometric precision, good ability to insert pin and can be used in educational and small scale fashion designing purposes. It was a very economically viable producer since the total cost of production was much lower compared to the commercial mannequins. Although the prototype has slight shortcomings in terms of adjustability and surface life span, it is possible to conclude that a low-cost handcrafted mannequin can be used as a successful substitute of commercial dress forms in fashion education and small-scale design application. The project also adds to the applied research in the field of fashion technology by illustrating how the accessibility and affordability issues of developing apps of the field can be resolved by engineering-based design and material choice.