I'm rather surprised because my solution to forms was the first to come back in response to the issue at hand and I've received no feedback on it. As a collector I KNOW anything like plastic, wood, etc is lethal for displaying old garments which is why the technique I use is good for short term because the form is covered with appropriate materials and sized/shaped to fit the garment prevent damage. Was only curious as to whether or not there was any interest in attempting my technique as it had not made the NEVER USE list. -Justine.
-----Original Message----- From: Schaeffer, Astrida <[email protected]> To: Historical Costume <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, May 29, 2010 10:37 pm Subject: Re: [h-cost] Preparing an exhibition of historical garments Just a note-- most of the dummy suggestions given so far would be harmful to your 200 year old garments. Perfectly fine for short term display of modern stuff, but really not a good idea for clothing of historical merit. Please, please don't use them! I don't know how much you know about display, so please forgive me if I'm saying obvious things. And I'm not trying to stomp on anyone's suggestions or anything, but Ive been making museum-grade mannequins for over ten years and I've had to learn about this stuff! There's a lot to keep in mind and protecting your garment is as important as displaying it with the right silhouette, if not more so. Plastic forms from stores are likely questionable-- no idea what kind of plastic is involved, and are likely the wrong shape in any case and could have hard, sharp edges. Inflatable forms have sharp seams (bad) and would need padding out for protection. Duct tape is scary both because of the plastic that carries the adhesive and of course the adhesive itself. What you want are materials that won't outgas, like ethafoam (a kind of closed cell, carveable, chemically inert foam made by the company 3M). Styrofoam is actually safe but crumbly, you'd need to cover it in any case and it might not be structural enough. Urethane foams are a bad idea-- they outgas. You can use acid free mat board or museum grade plastic corrugated board to build up a form as well, again the key is acid-free and inert. No matter what rigid core you use for structural integrity and strength, your form will need to be padded so nothing rigid or sharp comes in contact with your textile, and you want padding materials that do not have starches in them (attract insects). Poly batting is good, so is needle-punched cotton. Polarfleece is great (use white though). You want to avoid nylon (polyester is safe), and anything that is dyed should be tested first to make sure dyes won't rub off on your historic garment. No matter what kind of dummy you wind up with, you a! lways want a barrier between the dummy and the garment, something like stockinette. And you want the dummy to be fully supportive of the specific shape of your garment yet just a teensy bit too small so that no seams get strained. You want to be absolutely sure that the shoulders are not too broad for the garment-- modern forms tend to have this flaw, modern store mannequins are made to our modern aesthetic, which is much more built up and sporty than historic clothes can handle. And exposed wood should be sealed to prevent outgassing of acids (don't use polyurethane, paint is safer). Hope that helps, Astrida _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
