Here's something to consider about mannequins. If it ever seems like they are squeezed into clothing, they kind of are. Look closely and you'll usually see the clothes are pinned in to fit snugly around the mannequin. The stores do this to create a more pleasing profile and aesthetic. In most cases, the pinning is in and around the torso. It's similar to an old tucking technique I learned for dress shirts when I was younger, to make them fit better around the body.

Now as for the debate between Poser and Daz, please keep in mind the economic reality of the recession. This community was built on the wallets of hobbyists, and when the economy took a downturn, hobby budgets were the first things to suffer. In the end, the business side of things has driven many of the recent decisions. We may not agree with all of them, and some may or may not have been mistakes, but this segment of the industry stumbles along as best it can, and we all, PS and DS users alike, would rather have too many choices than too few.

As for Dawn, I've said it many times, that to succeed from a business standpoint, a figure has to start out as ideal, and then allow morphing to the real. What sells is the ideal, what works is the real. Ideals attract the most interest, even from the realists, because it's in our nature, our makeup, to be attracted to idealistic symmetry and proportion. There are studies to prove it out there. It's subconscious. Consciously, we know these 3D women are just a little too right, and as artists we strive to break the mold, in order to own the result. Yet we need the mold to start from, to prove we understand the rules before we break them.

If we want Dawn to succeed, she has to appeal to the broadest audience possible. This is why third party figures have been more popular than the native figures in Poser for as long as anyone can remember. Because when it comes to making money, Ideal trumps Real every time.