First shown in 2004, the Siemens “Dressman” was billed as the home ironing assistant that would take over the chore of ironing shirts.
An Emnid survey confirms something we already know from personal experience: Ironing is one of the household chores that people hate the most. It also eats into precious free time, for even experienced ironers need about eight minutes to press a shirt.
The ironing assistant promised to deliver perfectly ironed shirts in no time. In Germany Siemens sold about 4.000 units within a few months. Following its successful German introduction the company planned to market the device in other countries. The equipment looked like the upper body of the mannequins you see in store windows. A freshly washed shirt is simply pulled over the device, and any wrinkles are smoothed out. Twelve fully automatic programs for various types of shirts and materials take care of the rest: The shell made of balloon silk literally inflates itself with hot air and gets the shirts into shape. The process is easy on the shirts because it uses low temperatures. Broken buttons and un-sightly stains will also become things of the past, and additional functions can dry wet jackets or air out sports coats.
Up to now, such automatic ironing systems have been available only for professional cleaners and laundries. These use high pressure and are hard on the material as a result. They are also big and expensive. The dressman, which costs about €1,000, is not exactly inexpensive, but it works very economically. The operating costs amount to only five cents per shirt. By comparison, it costs about €2 at the cleaners — not including the cost of getting there.
Today the product does not seem to be available any more, maybe the price put people off purchasing one or maybe the job of fitting the shirt on the dummy was not much more of a time saver than ironing the shirt yourself.