This fully articulated mannequin will have telescoping limbs, plus a couple of special features. Because of those features, we will want the mannequin to have a kind of "skin" that can stretch. It is possible that the material used in making ordinary play-time balloons will qualify as suitable skin-material.

Imagine a section of arm constructed something like a classic wooden barrel, out of parallel slats. These would be attached to a hidden inner mechanism, not bound on the outside with iron rings. There will be a hole into which one can insert a crank-handle; turning the crank will cause part of a turnbuckle inside the arm- segment to rotate.

Now think about an automobile jack (linked) and note how part of it can get wider or narrower as its crank is turned. We don't need a lot of physical change here; fat or muscular arms are maybe 3 or 4 times as thick as normal arms. We could imagine two cones inside the arm-segment that move away from each other as the crank is turned. The space that the cones occupy gets smaller toward the ends of the arm-segment, so when the cones move into that space, all the slats making up the arm have to expand away from each other somewhat. The skin on the arm-segment stretches so that the slats remain generally unnoticed (and this should not be too-much stretching for that material to accommodate).

Now imagine all the arm, leg, neck, chest and torso-segments of the mannequin had this sort of individually-adjustable expandability. You could go to a tailor that has this mannequin and get a thorough set of measurements taken. The mannequin could have its shape adjusted to match those measurements. You can then leave knowing the tailor can create perfect-fit clothing for you, using that mannequin.
-- Vernon, Sep 03 2015

Auto jack data:image/jpeg;bas...KAUAoBQCgFAKAUB/9k=
As mentioned in the main text. [Vernon, Sep 03 2015]

Dressmaking dummies are usually adjustable in this way, though perhaps not for arm and legth.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 03 2015


[MB] Also, many dressmaking dummies don't even have legth.
-- cudgel, Sep 03 2015


//legth// def. Unit of measurement for leg lengths.
-- xenzag, Sep 03 2015


One could do this on a computer. And if the clothing on the models also changed in proportion.

Well you could see what that style looks like on yourself. Why buy something that makes you look bad ?

Most models on the runway are freaks. Most clothing drapes and flows better on the awfully tall and thin, but... they ain't normal.
-- popbottle, Sep 03 2015


This is more than a bit off topic, but... with all of the word changes lately doing away with male/female titles I'm surprised that the politically correct term for mannequins has not changed to personnaquins.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 03 2015


As long as it has pictures.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 03 2015


<smacks forehead>
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 06 2015


ha ha
-- popbottle, Sep 08 2015


good +
-- xandram, Sep 08 2015


This would be the perfect model to demonstrate Marty's auto-sizing jacket.
-- RayfordSteele, Sep 09 2015



random, halfbakery