The Shop Company Professional Dressform Review

Happy new year, everyone!

My first blog post of 2022 is sharing the most exciting news: after over 1.5 years of looking for a professional dressform that checked all the boxes for me, I finally found the one from The Shop Company! I landed on their page for the professional dressforms, checked my measurements and knew right away I was going to purchase the half body dressform with collapsible shoulders and removable arms. Before I placed my order, I decided to ask them for a collaboration and they were kind to agree (see disclosure & discount code for you at the bottom).

Customer Service and shipping:

First off, I had a wonderful experience with The Shop Company’s customer service and the ordering process. I was pleased when my dressform arrived within a few days from the US to Canada! It was right on time for my draping course at the Fashion Design School and all the homework I already had to do.

Category:

The Shop Company professional dressform that I ordered is the Professional Female Half Body Dress Form w/ Collapsible Shoulders and Removable Arms in size 4. The bust and waist measurements fit me great, though on the bigger side as I was in between size 2 and 4. I opted for sizing up versus going down as I mostly plan to use my dressform for pattern making and draping. If you plan on making a lot of tight fitted clothing and you are in between sizes, it is recommended you size down. I will be adding hip paddings as my hips are 3 sizes larger! See The Shop Company’s FAQ section, which I found very helpful.

Features:

You know I like my bullet points so let’s talk about each feature separately:

• Collapsible Shoulders – The shoulders have a spring-kind mechanism, where you can collapse and expand them by simply pushing them in. This is tremendously helpful to ease dressing a tighter fitting garment on your form as it shrinks the shoulder/chest area so you can dress and undress the dressform without the risk of over-stretching or ripping the garment. A very useful feature!

• Removable Full Arms – You can use the dressform with or without the rotatable arms. They are so easily clicked-on and off and will come in super handy when making sleeve designs (which you know I am quite a fond of!).

• Canvas Cover – I love the elegant look, feel and colour of the canvas fabric on this dressform. The Shop Company indicates on their website that the material is durable and designed to hold up very well to lots of pinning! I am very glad to know this as I will be doing a whole lot of pinning for my draping course this semester.

• Pinnabitlity – These professional forms are made for fashion designers and are therefore built for pinning. According to The Shop Company’s website, the torso is moulded as a tough inner fiberglass core, which is then covered by a layer of foam and then the outer durable canvas layer. Both of these outer layers are very durable and can hold pins. The only thing to note is that, instead of inserting the pins straight/perpendicular into the form, you’d have to push them in an angle (I’d say 45 degrees). It will not affect the final results whatsoever, it’s just the matter of getting a hang of it, and I find using medium length pins (~1″) instead of large pins help with that. The half-scale dressforms at my fashion school also take the pins on an angle so I believe this is quite common and you will quickly get used to it.

• Bottom Cage – I love the elegant look of the bottom cage, and this feature is actually functional by allowing you to properly display gowns and skirts, especially the tight fitting ones. It is removable as well.

• Super Heavy Duty Base – The cast iron base is quite heavy, which provides great stability for the dressform. It is pretty much the only reason your package will be heavy as the rest don’t weigh much. So you do not need to worry at all about the dressform tipping. The pedal also allows the height of the form to be adjusted easily.

• Draping Lines – I love how the professional forms have the side seams and waist line sewn via a protruding thread/band so you can feel them when draping fabrics. The princess seams, centre front and back , shoulder seams, neckline and underbust (even the bust darts!) are all identified on the dressform as your guide, which is super helpful for draping. You would just need to use draping tape to make them stand out for any design project.

Assembly:

Here is my story: I had given my fiancé the heads up that he will have to help me with the assembly. When I received my dressform, he wasn’t available right away and I was impatient so I gave it a try myself. The instructions (2-pages) included in the package were super clear and I assembled the whole thing in less than 15 min with no problems (I will post my unboxing video on Instagram shortly). For the part where you need to put the dressform on the rod, you do need two people (as indicated in the instructions) but the whole process is very straightforward.

You can check out the instructions + video demonstration of the assembly on The Shop Company’s website here as well.

Conclusion:

This is my first ever dressform and aside from the vintage ones at the fashion school, I have not owned and worked with any other dressform. That being said, The Shop Company professional dressform that I purchased checks all the boxes for me, and I would purchase it again and again. It is very well made and quite sturdy. The price is also very reasonable for a collapsible shoulder dressform with such excellent quality. Overall, I am so pleased with my purchase and beyond excited to start making magic with this beauty, which by the way, I have named Vera, after one of my favourite female gown designers: the one & only Vera Wang.

You will see more content with my dressform moving forward, so I will be sure to update you as I work with it. In the meantime, reach out to me anytime via Instagram, my contact form here, or commenting on this post if you have any questions on the dressform!

Much love,

Ava

Disclosure and discount code:

The Shop Company provided me with a discount on my dressform in exchange for my honest review of the dressform. I know a while back I did an Instagram poll on dressforms and many of you were in search of a dressform that checked all the boxes as well. So I asked The Shop Company for a discount code for you and they were so kind to create dressedbyava20 so you can get $20 off your purchase on any of their professional dressforms. Simply enter the code at the checkout and you are good to go. (This is not an ad since I do not get compensated on your purchase. It is solely an act of kindness & appreciation for you, courtesy of The Shop Company).

There is also the 10% student discount program (details here) which might be relevant to some of you.