US2534757A - Dress form - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 19, 1950 L. CORDELL arm.

DRESS FORM Filed Aug. 1, 1950 INVENTOR. LULS 5. 6020520 BY LYON Coeozzu.

-A 7TOENEY- Patented Dec. 19, 1950 OFFICE DRESS FORM Lyon Cordell, Venice, and Luis S. Cordero, Inglewood, Calif.

Application August 1, 1950, Serial No. 177,026

7 Claims. (Cl. 223-68) This invention relates to dress forms. It is directed particularly to a form having special utility for the display of both ladies and mens garments including blouses, skirts, slacks, trousers, shirts, blouse or skirt and skirt or slack combinations, jackets, etc., although it is also applicable to forms for displaying dresses, suits, coats, etc. The general object of the invention is to provide a dress form apparatus of multiple articulated section structure, including a bust section and a base section for supporting the same and providing particularly for the arrangement of the bust section at various angles of inclination, either forward, backward or sidewise with respect to the base section.

We are aware that others have hitherto proposed dress forms embodying a bust section pivotally connected to a base section for angular adjustment between the two. However, such prior proposals have taken the form of either a ball and socket connection between the bust section and the base section, or an arrangement in which the upper portion of the base section is received within the lower margin of the bust section and the two are connected by springs or the like, for yieldingly holding the sections together in assembled relation. Such forms are satisfactory for supporting dresses, coats and the like, but are not satisfactory for displaying blouses, shirts, or

blouse and skirt combinations, since they do not provide for convenient disposal of the excess material at the tails of the blouse or shirt.

The draping of conventional forms requires the use of pins or equivalent securing elements, for attaching the garment or garments to the form. The pinning operation is laborious and time-consuming, and often damages the garments that are used for display purposes. Such garments are therefore customarily disposed of at reduced prices, resulting in a profit reduction or loss. It is obviously desirable to avoid the burden of such profit reduction or loss as well as the overhead cost arising from the consumption of labor in the draping operation.

With the foregoing in mind, a primary object of the present invention is to provide an articulated form of the type indicated, which may be draped without pinning, and in which the excess tail material of a shirt or blouse may be readily disposed of without pinning, in a manner to conceal the same below the waistline of the form. To this end, the invention provides a two part form including a bust section, the lower portion of which is receivable within the upper portion of a base section, with the said lower portion of I a skirt alone.

the bust section supported for universal pivotal movement by the upper rim of the base section. The invention is particularly characterized by the fact that the two sections are entirely unconnected, so that the bust section can simply be lifted out of the base section, the shirt or blouse draped thereon and the tail portions thereof tucked into the lower end thereof, which is open for that purpose, and the draped bust section then simply placed in the open upper end of the base section. The bust section may then be tilted within a supporting rim of the base section until the desired angle is obtained. Should such tilting movement tend to loosen the excess material tucked into the lower end of the bust section, such loosened excess will simply drape downwardly within the base section, but will remain concealed.

This two part dress form combination also provides for draping the base section witha skirt, the base section being shaped to correspond to the upper portion of the hip section of a human body, so as to provide a downwardly flaring support for the skirt. The invention also provides for displaying a skirt thus draped upon a base section, either by itself or in conjunction with a blouse draped on the bust section. Accordingly, further objects of the invention are to provide a sectional dress form which may be conveniently used either for displaying a blouse or shirt alone, a blouse or shirt in combination with a skirt, or It will be readily apparent that the invention also provides for displaying a jacket or coat in combination with a blouse or shirt or a blouse or shirt and skirt combination.

A further object of the invention is to provide a dress form apparatus which may incorporate several base sections of varying height and different construction, and in which the selection and use of either of the several alternate base sections in conjunction with a bust section may 'be executed with extreme convenience and dispatch.

A further object is to provide a sectional dress form combination as outlined above, which is readily adaptable to being supported either by direct resting of the base section on a counter or other flat supporting surface, or by threading the base section on the upper end of a conventional pedestal.

Other objects will become apparent in the ensuing specifications and appended drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a front perspective view of a dress form embodying the invention, with the base section supported directly upon a fiat surface;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view thereof, with the base section supported on a pedestal, taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an inverted plan view of the base section of Figs. 1 and 2; and

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view of an alternate base section with the lower portion of the bust section supported therein, and illustrating how the bust section may be tilted with reference to the base section.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, a dress form embodying my invention may consist simply in a bust section A and a base section B. Apparatus involving the invention may further include an alternate base section B, shown in Fig. 4. The sections A and B may be of conventional material, such as for example, the commonly used papier mache. The section A is hollow, and may include conventional portions such as the neck portion 6, closed at its upper end, closed shoulder portions '3, an intermediate portion 6, and a lower portion 9. Neck portion 6 may of course be extended to include a conventional portion simulating a head, if desired, without departing from the invention. Likewise, where desired, extensions representative of arms may be attached to shoulder portions '1, in accordance with well known practice.

Alower portion 9 tapers to minimum transverse dimensions at its lower end. Said lower end open, as at it. The tapering lower portion in longitudinal section, is arcuately curved both front and rear and at the sides as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, to provide a concave outer wall for engagement with the upper rim I l of base section B or B. lhe convex curvature of the outer wall of lower portion 9, as the latter cooperates with rim H, provides, in effect, a ball and socket connection between these two sections A and B or which permits the bust section A to be easily tilted in any direction with reference to base 3 or B. The rounded longitudinal contour of portion fi makes it possible for the bust section A to be tilted to various positions without substantially raising or lowering the bust section. That is to say, the tilting to various positions may be accomplished by a tilting movement about a center which is substantially fixed with reference to the bust section A, said center being approximately as indicated at $2 in Figs. 2 and 4.

Base sections B and B are contoured to correspond to the waist and upper hip portions of a human body, and extend downwardly from rim Si, beginning with an almost vertical waist portion it, thence gradually curving outwardly and downwardly to define the hip portions 34. The base B has a lower rim 95 which lies in a flat plane, whereby the base section may be supported directly upon a flat supporting surface, as indicated at If; in Fig. 1.

Rim ii and waist portion 13 are shaped to fit the transverse cross sectional contour of lower portion 9 of oust section A. Accordingly, the bust section will contact rim l substantially throughout the circumference thereof when the bust section is inserted into the base as indicated in Fig. 1.

Base section B is provided with a bracket I? extending transversely thereof from front to rear and secured to the front and rear walls thereof as indicated at i8. Centrally, the bracket ll carries an internally threaded socket 19 adapted to receive the threaded upper end of a pedestal 29, which may be of conventional construction, in-

4 eluding a base (not shown) for resting upon a floor surface. The pedestal 20 is used when it is desired to dress the form with a skirt or a dress or a full length coat. When only a blouse or a jacket is to be displayed, a base may be detached from pedestal 23 and supported directly upon a counter or table or the like it as indicated in Fig. 1.

For supporting the bust section A when displaying only a blouse or shirt, a simplified base omitting the bracket ll, may be in some cases substituted for the base B of Fig. 1. It will thus clude a means for attaching it to a standard.

Also, the height of the base may be varied may in some cases (e. g. in a base used merely as a support for a bust section displaying only a blouse or shirt) be less than the height shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and may in other cases (as where the base is provided with legs) be greater than that of the base shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 2 illustrates how the form may be dressed with a blouse 2i and a skirt 22. Blouse i9 is draped around bust section A and its tail portions 23 are tucked upwardly through opening it into the lower portion 9 of bust section A, as indicated in Fig. 2. If desired, a wad of tissue paper 24 or the like inserted into the lower end of the bust section after the tail portions 23 have been tucked in, so as to secure the tail portions from coming loose, may be employed.

The skirt 22 is draped about the base section 3, supported by the hip portions M thereof, and secured around waist section :3 thereof as indicated. Thus the dress form gives an appearance quite similar to that of a human body dressed in a blouse with the tails of the blouse tucked inside the waist band of the skirt. The bust section A may be inserted into or removed from the base section B without disturbing the support of the skirt thereon.

In the earlier proposed forms in which a bust section is connected to a base section by coil springs or a ball and socket joint or other securing means, it obviously would be quite difficult to tuck the tail portions of a shirt or blouse between the waist section and the base section. To do so would mean tucking the material through the crevice defined between the bust section and the base section, and such an operation would be somewhat difficult and quite unsatisfactory, even though it were possible to raise the bust section somewhat against the pull of springs tending to hold it tightly against the skirt section. Furthermore, where the waist portion of the base section is received within the waist section of the bust section, as proposed in the prior art, such arrangement would require tucking the material upwardly, and there would always be a tendency for the excess material to drop back downwardly through the crevice between the two form sections, even though after some difficulty it might become possible to initially tuck the material in. Where the two sections are connected by a ball and socket joint, it is of course impossible to tuck the material between them.

Where only a skirt is to be displayed, bust section A may be simply removed and stored, and the base section B used in the conventional manner of a skirt form, with the skirt supported and draped around the base section as indicated in Fig. 2.

Dress forms embodying the invention need not necessarily utilize base section restricted to the hip zone of a body. The invention may also utilize a base section the lower portion of which is of conventional manm'kin construction including legs. Such a modification is indicated in Fig. 4, in which a portion of a leg is indicated at 25.

We claim:

1. In a dress form, in combination, a base section comprising a tubular wall representing the waist and hip section of a human form and having at its upper end a rim disposed in a substantially horizontal plane, said rim defining an opening at the upper extremity of the space within said tubular wall and a bust section having an outer wall the lower area of which defines a generally frusto-conical downwardly tapered lower portion receivable within said opening and space, with said lower outer wall having an annular line of engagement with said rim to provide for the support of said bust section by said rim, said outer wall and rim cooperatively defining, at the waist of the form, an unobstructed annular opening through which a bust garment may be tucked into said space so that the visible portion thereof terminates at the waist in a manner permitting pivotal adjustment of said bust section in said base section to selected positions of angular adjustment relative thereto, said sections being unconnected except by the supporting engagement of said bust section by said base section.

2. A dress form as defined in claim 1, wherein said base section is of open ended annular form with a bottom rim lying in a plane substantially parallel to that of said top rim, for support of said base section on a horizontal fiat surface.

3. A form as defined in claim 2, wherein said base section includes a bracket secured therein,

said bracket having a threaded socket to receive the threaded upper end of a supporting standard.

4. A form as defined in claim 1, wherein said lower portion of the bust section has an external wall that is convexly curved in longitudinal section.

5. A form as defined. in claim 1, wherein said lower portion of the bust section has an external wall that is convexly curved in longitudinal section both at the sides and at the front and rear thereof.

6. A dress form as defined in claim 1, of mannikin type, wherein said base includes lower portions simulating legs.

7. A form as defined in claim 1, wherein said bust section has at its lower end an opening through which excess material of said bust garment may be tucked, for stowing said excess material inside said bust section.

LYON CORDELL. LUIS S. CORDERO.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 720,231 Dargie Feb. 10, 1903 1,073,960 Contenli Sept. 23, 1913 2,108,927 Rice Feb. 22, 1938 2,215,500 Greneker Sept. 24, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 434,488 Germany June 26, 1925

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