Guide to Buying & Collecting Vintage or New Dress Forms
Part I Guide - Arming Yourself with a baseline of Facts about Dress Forms
I love vintage Dress Forms & have been collecting them for almost five years now. I have learned alot about them, the different styles, materials, worth, future value, sizes & anything else you could ever need to know about them and finding one to meet your needs.Because there is a variety of vintage dress forms to choose from, the most important point to think about when shopping for one is: Why am I buying this?
Typically those shopping for a dress form have one of 3 reasons to buy one:
- Want to use as decor only in their home, office or crafting room
- Want to use for sewing or fashion design (we won't get into this reason in this guide)
- Want to use for business purposes. Either to photograph products to sell online or have a storefront (antique mall, etc) and want to display products to promote sales
On our website, we offer a cute metal wire dress form (it is new, but looks vintage) for only $45.00, so if you are mainly budget driven and want one for home decor, buying new may be a better option vs. buying vintage. Remember when buying any dress forms, they come in different sizes (some are adjustable but vintage ones may not adjust as good as they used too). When buying a wire dress form, it is a standard size. So metal wire dress forms are great for home decor and displaying some business products. I own 3 metal wire dress forms and have successfully photographed products for online selling. The type of products that metal wire forms work well with are: scarves, neckties, necklaces, clip photographs to them or other smaller products (jewelry, artwork or ephemera craft). You can also display belts and sometimes womens fashion can display well on them depending on the size of the form and the size of the clothing you are displaying. This photo is a new wire dress form that we sell alot of that looks vintage. This form is great that it can be used for home decor or business and display products I've discussed above. But it also features a center display shelf where you can display products you are wanting to highlight or photograph; like shoes.
One of my fav dress forms I own in my personal collection is an ivory metal wire dress form similar to this. I have a variety of my fav vintage items on it: a couple belts, vintage ribbon tied around a single wire, clipped photos and ephemera. I get more compliments on this form as it sits in my crafting room. It's simple, didn't bust my budget, it wasn't vintage but I originally paid around $60.00 for it.
Therefore, we've highlighted how important it is before you buy, to decide what you want to do with it... If you know you want to buy a true vintage dress form for home decor, photographing or displaying products on. We will help you understand what options you have and how not to get ripped off.. I have seen tons of ads listed on Craigslist for vintage Wolf dress forms. After I clicked the photos and reviewed the description, the form being sold was not an actual Wolf Dress Form. Therefore, I urge you to shop wisely when buying a vintage dress form from Craigslist. People have found shortcuts to make a fake look like a true Wolf Dress Form.
For those of you wondering what is a Wolf Dress Form? Vintage Wolf Dress Forms are highly valueable and hold future value. Thus they will cost you alot more when buying, but will hold their worth in the future. Vintage Wolf Dress Forms cost more due to Wolf Company custom handcrafts each form and they are mainly used by fashion designers. There are many different styles of Wolf Forms and I recommend you google Wolf Forms and visit www.WolfForm.com to understand what they look like. I have owned and purchased tons of Wolf Forms in the past. I am going to post a pic of my fav one. Sorry we recently sold this one, but if you decide you want to buy an authentic Wolf Dress Form, expect to pay from $350 up to $1000.00 depending on the year and condition. The Wolf Dress Form pictured here shows some important details that Wolf forms feature and will help you red flag fake ones. This form photographed, shows on the neck that it is a size 6. It also displays Wolf Dress Form across the chest. Watch the font, I've seen fakes where they mark a fake one with Wolf Form lettering. So please do you research and get to know how authentic Wolf forms lettering and fonts look like. On our form photographed, it also showed Model 1965, which helps you date the form. Wolf forms feature a solid brass neck finial and heavy wrought iron stand and base with wheels. The stand adjusts in height. Wolf forms are pinnable which is important if you want to photograph jewelry or other items.
Continue to follow our Blog to see our Part II Guide which will help you understand other types of Vintage Dress Forms on the market. This guide will explain metal caging and other rare findings seen when shopping for vintage dress forms.
