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How often have we headed to a fashion store and bemoaned tall, wafer-thin mannequins that look nothing like our regular-sized bodies?
One fashion brand wants to change all that.
Long Tall Sally, a firm specialising in designing clothes for women over 5’8″, has built a mannequin based on regular customer Harriet Winters.
And the company believes using real-life sized mannequins instead of standard versions could give then a unique opportunity to fit their garments to a real woman.
Andrew Shapin, chief executive of Long Tall Sally, said: “In an industry first we’re now able to design and fit our collections on the mannequin of a real 6’0″, size 14 customer – a game changer in tall womenswear.
“At Long Tall Sally we’re dedicated to offering our customers a true tall fit with true tall proportions, so bringing customers like Harriet to the heart of the process is invaluable.”
Using the latest in 3D scanning and printing technology, engineers created an almost exact likeness of Winters – who was selected after winning the “Are you Made Tall?” competition.
The mannequin was build by Thom Bridle, of Studio Forty Three, who 3D-scanned Winters’s body and mapped the scan to create a mannequin blueprint that matched her measurements.
After dividing the blueprint image into sections (like you would do with a normal shop mannequin), the printer crafted the design into a solid figure using foam and resin.
Long Tall Sally says its new mannequin marks a “significant departure for the fashion and retail industry, which typically utilises a mannequin that stands around 5’9″ and wears a UK size 8, measuring 34″ chest, 24″ waist and 34″ hips”.
Standing tall at 6’0″ and measuring 38″-31″-40″, Winters’s size 14 measurements do not conform to any standard sized mannequins.
A plastic version of Winters will sit in Long Tall Sally’s design studio and be used for regular fittings. The mannequin will also feature in the window of Long Tall Sally’s flagship store on Chiltern Street, London.
Winters strongly believes that the fashion industry should reflect all shapes and sizes of women.
She said: “To me, most mannequins on the high street look so similar and don’t always reflect real body shapes.
“I’m proud of my height and my figure and it’s really powerful to see a mannequin with the dimensions of a real woman.”
