Design and Product Development

Precision Redefined: A Pilot Study on Customized Half-Scale Maternity Dress Forms for Accurate Draping

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Abstract

During pregnancy, the female body undergoes significant physical changes in a relatively short period (Soma-Pillay et al., 2016). Unfortunately, current dress forms in the market fall short in representing the physical changes of pregnancy, except for the abdominal measurement differences, which conflict with the other body alterations. Some apparel companies have collaborated with Alvanon to create maternity dress forms tailored to their target market’s specific sizing systems. However, these custom dress forms are not readily available for purchase. This gap in the market has inspired research to propose a renewed approach to fabricate half-scale dress forms that more accurately reflect curved body shapes, specifically looking at the body shape of a woman’s pregnancy. Additionally, this study explored using 3D body scanning technology as a tool to visualize reliable anthropometric data measurements (Kiron, 2021) in order to generate a 3D avatar for assessing accurate body shape and measurements in a virtual environment (Apeagyei, 2010).

Keywords: Half-scale dress form, maternity dress form, laser cutting, CLO3D, fit assessment

How to Cite:

Zhang, L. & Jiang, L., (2024) “Precision Redefined: A Pilot Study on Customized Half-Scale Maternity Dress Forms for Accurate Draping”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 80(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.17183