8 Ways to Personalize Your Mannequin

We’ve discussed about how to restore a vintage mannequin in the past, but what if we want something special? What if we want to imprint our personality or our store’s unique design into it, creating something new in terms of shopping experiences, something that our customers can share with us?

So what are our options when it comes to a makeover/repair you ask?

#1: Patches

So the first idea we came up with is patches…you know, those pieces of fabric we use to fix holes in our clothes. We thought that it could be really nice to see some mannequins redesigned with them.

The things you need for such an operation depend on the problem your mannequin has. You can consult the step by step guide for restoration we have to fix cracks and broken pieces.

When you’re finished, if the result does not satisfy you visually, you can simply glue over your mannequin several pieces of fabric. They can be diamond shaped, circular as if creating colorful dots, squares or whatever your imagination cooks up. You can use any kind of color, pattern or texture, as long as it’s thick or at least opaque to mask the damages.

You don’t necessarily have to do it with a broken mannequin, you can try it with a good one, as long as the material is smoothed out on the surface you work with.

You can also use preexisting patches, such as the ones you iron over clothes, but can use a double sided tape or even glue to fix them in place. You can see tons of examples of these on websites like Etsy. 

#2: Fabric

If you want to give your mannequin an interesting makeover, you can try to cover it up with fabrics.

Either the limbs, the torso, the head, or cover it all if you’d like. Be sure that you smooth out the material you put on it and that you leave the connections of the mannequin uncovered. You can also try to cut strips of fabric and create some spirals.

#3: String

Options: Twine, Yarn, Rope

For this project you can use one of the thread options mentioned above, it’s simple, effective and fairly eye catching. You can do it only on various parts of the mannequin or cover it completely, if you can’t imagine what the end result will look like here is a photo from Cat in the box creations.

You can use the DIY tutorials for bottle wrapping with thread, you just need some glue and one or more colors to wrap up your mannequin.

#4: Paint

Cracks and chips have their own particular beauty so why not emphasize that?

Find a thick paint, or a resin with a color of your choosing and a really thin brush and simply fill in the cracks. To get an idea of what we are talking about, check out this woodwork photo via: Holly Hickey Moore Blog

#5: CD Shards / Mosaic

This will be a real challenge and a certain attention to detail is required. You can either cut a couple of CD’s up and use the shards to cover the mannequin, or buy various types of mosaic pieces and create a very special design. Just be sure that you fill in the gaps between tiles so as to not ruin your work or your clothes.

Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen made a beautiful art installation by using mannequins covered in mosaic mirror shards, as seen in the photo below Via: Christian Larsen. 

#6: Glitter

Use powder glitter mixed with glue, or directly glitter glue to fill in the cracks and chips of the paint, or to crate intricate designs on your mannequin.

#7: Light

This is probably one of our favorites because you have so many opportunities to create something really beautiful. It works better with mannequins made from thin plastic, preferably white, inside of which you can install a remote control RGB LED, being able to set it to any color you can think of and also create some rainbow fade effects or strobe. This will put thin and see through clothes into value in ways

Go crazy with some LED tape and here is a tutorial on how to install it, so it’s adaptable to what you want to do. Light wire can work as well, maybe even better.

You can even try to drill some small holes into the body of a mannequin, insert a light bulb into the mannequin, place it in a dimly light spot or in the window at night to make for a fabulous effect.

We recommend LED lights because they generate less heat, consume less power and you can choose even the hue of the white color.

#8: Plants

As seen above, mannequins can become pots or the support of a beautiful floral arrangement, with a bit of patience, imagination and the right materials you can transform any mannequin in a green beauty such as those seen below. Photo via DIY Network.

Please feel free to comment on our ideas and even share with us your work. Why not? We'll include it in out post and mention you as the creator. Post a photo of your personal mannequin repair to our  Twitter / Facebook and tell us how much fun you had.