My Dad surprised me today with my Christmas present, a vintage J.R. Bauman 'Collaps-A-Form' dress form.
We had spotted a similar dress form in a local antique shop last week. It was newish and they were trying to pass it off as being old, plus they wanted too much for it. But today he stopped in at a local antique dealer's house, and ended up buying me this fab old dress form from the guy.
It has the heavy cast iron base on little wooden wheels, a step pedal raises and lowers the gal. You can push in her shoulders - for getting dresses on and off easily - and you pop the shoulder back out by pushing down the wooden knob on the top. I won't be doing that very much though because I'm afraid of damaging the fabric.
Stamped 'Model 1952', I don't know if that's the year that it was made or truly just a model number. The patent number is from 1942.
She's aged but in great condition with only 2 small tears in the fabric. The name 'Shapiro' is written in pencil on the front of the form.
I'm not sure if I'll put her to work at Dandelion Vintage, I don't want her to get messed up. Maybe I'll just use her on special items.
