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Professional Body Forms

The ultimate dress form mannequin for sewing, pattern making, fashion design or high end display use. Superb construction and attention to detail. Huge range of sizes and functions. Our dress form is trusted by now over 12,000 clothing brands, fashion schools, designers, galleries and crafters.

Which Professional Dress Form is right for you?

We have six different types of professional forms available and, while the differences between them can seem confusing, it is important to note that they are more similar than they are different. All of these forms are professional grade and perfect for either designing or displaying clothing. They all come with our heavy-duty cast iron base system and are very durable. However, there are some differences between them. This guide should be able to help you decide which particular model is perfect for your needs.

Are you planning on designing (or displaying)...

  • tightly fitted tops?
  • You would need a form with Collapsible Shoulders. Collapsing the shoulders shrinks the width of the torso which makes it very easy to put on, or take off, tops, without any risk of damaging the garment. If your tops are fitted but do not need to be draped over the form (i.e. they can be dressed on the form by a zipper or buttons - like a jacket) then you would not need the collapsible shoulders.
  • tightly fitted sleeves?
  • You would need a form with arms. We have three models which come with Removable Arms. These models have specialized shoulder caps which the arms can click into and are held securely in place. The arms can also be rotated 360 degrees. For the other forms (which do not come with Removable Arms and the specialized shoulders caps), you can still attach our "tie on arms" where the arm hangs in place on the form via straps.
  • tightly fitted skirts?
  • You would then need a model with cage (or the full body model with legs). The cage or legs will make it easy to style a tightly fitted skirt as they give the body structure underneath the skirt.
  • tightly fitted pants?
  • You would need our Full Body Dress Form which comes with two full legs. You would also need the full body form for displaying pants (fitted or loose) as the half body forms cannot be dressed in pants.

Compare our Professional Dress Forms

ModelShoulders1Arms2Cage3LegsHeight AdjustableCover Material4Gender Sizes
Professional Dress Form w/ Removable Magnetic Shouldersremovablenononovia t-screws on its polelinenmale and female
Professional Dress Formnon-collapsiblenoyesnovia base pedalcanvasmale, female and child
Professional Dress Form w/ Collapsible Shoulderscollapsiblenoyesnovia base pedalcanvasmale and female
Professional Dress Form w/ Removable Armsnon-collapsibleremovableyesnovia base pedalcanvasmale and female
Professional Dress Form w/ Collapsible Shoulders and Removable Arms new!collapsibleremovableyesnovia base pedalcanvasmale and female
Professional Full Bodycollapsible5removable5noyesvia base pedalcanvasmale, female and child

1 The purpose of collapsible shoulders or removable shoulders is for use with tight fitting clothing. If the shoulders are static, there is the potential of damaging the garment when putting it on, or removing it from, the form. Both the "collapsible shoulders" and "removable shoulders" functions are designed to prevent this potential damage, though collapsing the shoulders shrinks the torso more than removing the shoulders. These functions are only needed for use with tight fitting clothing.

2 The removable arms are connected through a hinge in the shoulder plates of the form. This allows for a very stable connection. These arms cannot be paired with any other form as the other forms do not have the shoulder plates to allow the arms to connect.

3 The purpose of the cage is for designing longer dresses and gowns. The male forms only have these cages to emulate the 'look' of the female forms (the cages are a classic dress form accessory). All of these cages can be unscrewed from the form should you wish to do so.

4 Both the linen and the canvas covers are very durable. The difference between them is purely aesthetic.

5 except for the child sizes

Shipping - Currently, we are running a free shipping promotion. Without the promotion, our professional forms ship with a flat rate of $29.99 to anywhere in continental US. The larger and heavier full body models have a flat rate of $39.99.


Dress Form Assembly Guides

Check out our full list of detailed assembly instructions for our dress forms here or watch the video below.


General FAQ

Below we have compiled a list of some of the commonly asked questions we get for our professional dressforms. We hope they can be of some help. Also, please feel free to write us any questions you may have.

our professional dress form collection

What are professional dress forms and how are they different from the display forms?

Professional dress forms (also known as tailor dress forms, seamstress form, and sewing dress forms), like the display forms can be used for both creating and displaying clothing. However, the professional dress forms were built from the ground up for sewing, draping and fitting. Constructed with much higher quality materials, they are excellent for sewing and they can keep in tip top shape for a very long time. Once only the tool for tailors/ seamstresses, these professional forms have now also become very popular for stores looking to display clothing with a unique 'high quality tailored' look.

materials used in the professional dress forms

What type of materials are used in these professional dress forms?

As mentioned previously, our professional forms were built to perform and to last performing. Accordingly, we have used very high quality materials in every part of its construction. The inner core of the form is constructed from a tough fiberglass which is then covered with a durable layer of foam for pinning. This layer of foam is then covered with either linen (in our Removable Magnetic Shoulders models) or thick canvas (in all of our other professional models). Both of these fabrics are very tough and can withstand lots of pinning. The bases are heavy cast iron and offer the form superior stability.

multiple sizing options in professional dress forms

Sizing - find your exact size

As the professionals were built with sewing in mind, we try to stock as many sizes as possible. For instance, our professional female forms currently have up to 11 sizes (0-20) and our male professional forms have six (36-46). The measurements for the different sizes are all found on the specific form's product page. All of our models share the same measurements (i.e. the female professional form w/ collapsible shoulders model in size 6 shares the same measurements as the female professional w/ removable magnetic shoulders model in the size 6).

professional dress form stock and waiting lists

Sizing - inventory and waiting lists

Although we do try very hard to keep all of our form sizes in stock, there are times when we run out of several of the sizes. The sizes which show in the 'size' dropdown on the form's product page are those which are in stock and ready to ship. If your size is out of stock and you would like to be placed on our waiting list for that size, please write us a note and we will email you as soon as your size becomes available.

how to measure your size for our professional dress forms

Sizing - how to measure yourself

Although the measurements of our forms are pretty much based off common sizes, we would advise on trying to match your measurements up to those of our charts for our sizes (rather than simply getting the size you usually wear). We have published a thorough guide on how to take your own measurements (here).

padding for our professional dress forms

Sizing - what to do when your measurements fall in between sizes

Measurements falling in between dress form sizes is actually pretty common. In these instances, it is always advisable choosing the smaller of the sizes rather than the larger. The reason for this is that all of our dress forms can be adjusted by using padding and you can always pad a smaller form up to size (in those areas where your measurements are higher than those of the form) but you can never pad a larger form down to size. Anything can be used as padding however, we highly suggest using the excellent padding system from Fabulous Fit (here). This kit comes with specially contoured pads for all the important areas of the dress form and filler pads which can be placed underneath these pads to bump the measurements even higher. All of these pads are then covered by a durable stretch cover (included in the kit) to hold them in place (as well as hides the padding).

Besides for the common moderate sizing adjustments, these pads are also often used for petite (shorter torso height - from neck to waist) or longer torso measurements. This is accomplished by applying the kit's hip pads a bit higher up on the form (thus making a new higher hip area and a shorter front length measurement). For longer torso measurements, the hip pads would be placed lower down on the form (creating a new lower hip area). There are actually dozens of other practical sizing adjustment uses with the many pads from this amazing kit.

At the current time, we do not manufacture custom forms

more dress form information in our full dressform guide

Need to know more?

We have written up a full guide to our dressforms (here) that address many of these points in addition to many others. We have also published fully detailed assembly guides for these dressforms (accessible through their product pages).

If you have any questions please call or email us - we are here to help!