One size does not fit all

(So much for posting daily… though to be fair, I was coming back to school yesterday and my ride was ~1 hour late.)

Mannequins have been receiving a good amount of press lately. Last month, Pro Infirmis premiered a line of mannequins modeled after famous people with physical disabilities as part of their "Because Who Is Perfect? Get Closer" campaign. The organization worked with individuals with different disabilities, such as brittle bone disease or spinal malformations, to create figures that looked like them, and the finished models were put on display in storefronts in Zurich's main shopping area for International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Now, an Estonian company has created a shape-shifting mannequin that can adjust bodily dimensions to give consumers a better idea of how an article of clothing may fit on their body types. Robotics workers at the University of Tartu and an ergonomics firm from Germany teamed up to develop a figure with panels that move to simulate different chest, hip, arm, and waist measurements. When coated in the same material used in prosthetic limbs, the mannequin provided a more realistic simulation of how clothing would lay on a given person than a computer rendering.

Currently, only high-end retailers are adopting the technology: the staff at Fits.me take samples from these companies, put them on mannequins with different dimensions, and take a picture to add to the database and show what each article of clothing would look on a given person. However, if all it takes is a few clothing samples, I imagine it wouldn't be that hard to pick up, and it would help reduce the amount of clothing articles that are returned. It may also be the kick in the pants that some companies need to realize that not everyone comes in the same shape and size (something that manufacturers of juniors' clothing don't understand).