Yeah, that’s me, the woman doing some laydee-wrapping on Channel 4′s Queen of Frocks this week. I’m one of the core focus-group women they recruited. Some of you may be wondering why on earth that would end up on a tv show about a shop makeover. Here’s vaguely why.
The photo here is a duct-tape dummy I had made for myself a few weeks earlier, to help with my clothes-designing. The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that I’m quite generously proportioned (a fabulous 43-32-43 to be precise), and it’s really the only way I can create designs that work for the curviness.
Do you know why designers like skinny models? Because 3-D design is hard! It’s so much easier to draw pretty pictures on a pad and then find a flat female to hang them on. I’ve drawn some really pretty pictures, but they look crap on a 3-D human. Besides, designing for a real woman is so unfulfilling – you have to think about her and not yourself, and where is the fun in that?
Back to the dummy: I had to stand still for about 2 hours while my closer-than-she’d-ever-realised friend Immy wrapped me in short strips of duct tape. It’s not a process for the claustrophobic! Nor the bladder-challenged. I was desperate to go to the loo by the end – so much so that I had to do surgery on the dummy afterwards to remove a large part of the tummy…
Part of the art is in not squashing the flesh at all, in preserving the genuine shape and measurements. It would be tempting (oh so tempting) to run round and round with a roll of tape, cartoon-style, but unfortunately that doesn’t work. Though I may have to try it one day, just to check.
Boobs, obviously, are a special challenge, especially given that they will be the focus of all the designs afterwards. At one point one of Immy’s friends turned up and we had a brief tape’age-a-trois around them. Which was nice.
[Quick note: no, I am not lesbian. I just suffer from a compulsion to make stupid jokes about myself. That's probably significant, but I can't be arsed to investigate it.]
So, being rather pleased with the outcome of Immy’s efforts, I suggested to the film team that they might get some made and use them as muses – and the next thing I knew I was being filmed doing the laydee-wrapping of poor patient Jane! Frankly, you can tell on the show that Immy was better at it than I was; though in my defence she wasn’t being filmed…
Anyway, having taped both dummies, cut them off, taped them back together, discovered that expanding insulation spray foam is a really, very really bad idea for filling them, chipped it all out again (having to dissect the dummy to do so), bought lots of foam crumb from a shop, had a foam crumb explosion all over my flat, persevered until I was almost crying…..they were both ready to be picked up in the morning by the taxi.
Unfortunately, in the morning I discovered that my one had exploded itself overnight, out of its back, and I had a desperate, slightly panicky struggle to re-tape and re-fill it while the taxi waited outside. I think there may have been actual sobbing on the message I left on Kate-my-filming-contact’s phone.
But…I managed it, and the taxi took the dummies the studio for Mary Portas to……admire. You can see just how much she admired them on the Queen of Frocks show, episode 1.
But what do I care? I’m busy creating works of genius for the curvaceous woman.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I love your work. I’ve never actually tried making a duct tape mannequin for dressmaking – not a bad idea. Really looking forward to seeing how much notice Mary took of it though – I’m guessing not as much as you were hoping?
Thank you, Mel! I thoroughly recommend it if you are serious about sewing or design – or even if you just want to have fun cannibalising old clothes to make new ones. It makes fittings so much clearer, and new ideas so much easier. Mary – did you not see her horrified reaction?
What a brilliant idea. I have started using my sewing skills far more since I hit my fifties. Although I am slim I just am not a ‘standard’ shape and so have to adjust patterns (particularly around the waist area). It is very difficult to buy clothes unless it is a loose or elastic waisted design.
I would love to have a model of my body- so much easier to adjust and fit. I wonder if there isn’t a market for creating them. Perhaps the stuff the medical profession use for setting broken bones may be a better idea as it retains its shape and doesn’t need to be filled.
Hi Maryanne! Yes, it’s great fun to do – I’m hoping to do a session on it as part of my Fashion Trail (like an Arts Trail, but all clothing-related!) in SE23 next April. I did look at other methods, such as plaster-casting, plaster-wrapping etc, but the duct tape dummy has the advantage of being endlessly alterable (and isn’t wet!). I also looked at using chicken wire (still pondering that one!) and a photographic cut-out-and-stuff approach (still thinking about that one too!). You could also buy a lozenge-shape of foam and build it up with wadding – but I haven’t tried that one yet…
Too many ideas………
With the advent of body-scanning, 3-D printing and laser-cutting, I’m also hopeful that these will ultimately produce cheap and accurate bodyforms for the masses – something for an entrepreneur to look into, perhaps!
Finally tracked you down, Penelope!
I didn’t see the show but have been considering making a dummy of myself for ages – thatnks for the note about expanding foam… thought it might not be the best option!
I’m learning pattern cutting, hoping to make clothes for tall women – those ‘Amazons’ that irritate ordinary sized people have one – yep, just the one – shop in the UK, Long Tall Sally, where the clothes are often (in my experience) revoltingly patterned, decorated with butterflies and made of plastic – I’d prefer elegant, simple, interestingly cut and natural fabrics.
I’d love to see your approach to and help other women develop the skills to use your approach to dummy making – can we talk?
Very happy to – email should have reached you now!