About us - Nice to meet you.
At Beatrice Forms, we build tools to springboard your big ideas in garment design, whether it be growing your business or creating your art.
We’re dreamers too so we’re 100% committed to expanding what’s possible for you professionally and creatively when it comes to design, fit, and service. Our team brings together decades of expert software, custom manufacturing, and commercial apparel experience to make the most innovative and accurate custom fit forms for your unique application.
Designing for curves? Superhero or 18th century Rococo? Client uses a wheelchair? You’re a fabulous 6’ tall drag queen? We’ve got you.
- First Beatrice created
- 2017
- Countries served
- 7
- Happy clients
- 594
Our team
Alison Hughes
Co-founder and CEO
Over the past two decades, Alison has specialized in designing technology that empowers creativity and self-expression. Her software has supported audio in many Apple products including Macs, iPhone, iPad, and the Apple Cinema Display. Her passion for garment design inspired her to create Beatrice Forms to reimage the way we fit clothing.
She’s also got a sweet spot for making jumpsuits, hiking with Nate and their dog Ima, and dropping the occasional mix session behind the turntables, for old time’s sake.
Nathan Barefield
Co-founder and Nerd-in-Chief
Nathan has spent the last decade working in the software industry. He’s designed web tools and automated test frameworks at Apple, and later worked as a full-stack web and iOS developer at Pivotal Labs in Boulder CO.
In addition to software, his lifelong love of custom fabrication and formal training as a mechanical engineer led him to create everything from custom bicycle frames to one-of-a-kind CNC machines. In his free time, he enjoys riding and racing bicycles, fly fishing, and spoiling his goats.
Gabby Brown
Technical Apparel Specialist and Advisor
Gabby is a seasoned technical designer, fashion designer, and crafty maker with almost two decades experience in the commercial apparel industry. She’s been with Beatrice Forms from day one, providing essential technical guidance as well as ensuring product accuracy and performance for professional use.
Our story.
Beatrice Forms was founded in 2017 by a couple of former Apple engineers, Alison and Nate.
They first met on the train commuting between San Francisco and Cupertino, way back when Beatrice was yet a twinkle in their eyes. They enjoyed afternoon rendezvous at the Apple cafeteria, bonding over chocolate chip cookies and a shared love of dreaming up and making all the things… electronics, bicycles, dj mixes, musical instruments, and eventually custom fashion.
This was the start of something good.
After struggling to fit her own designs for years, Alison had had enough. Surely, after almost a decade of developing creative tech at Apple, Nate and Alison could combine their maker superpowers to figure out a new way of solving this age-old problem.
With all that software and custom manufacturing experience under their belts, together they set out to harness the power of technology we all have in our pockets to create the ultimate fitting tool. It was a crazy idea, but they were just the right people to make it happen.
Who knew they’d go on to transform people’s relationship with their bodies and the custom garment creative process itself, all by reinventing the dress form - a tool relatively unchanged for over 100 years.