Painting the draped/clothed figure from life?

Just wondering if any able portrait/figure painters can give me some technical advice on how I could best paint highly articulate, detailed costumed drapery from life. The problem, of course, is that every time the model moves or takes a break (every 20 minutes or so) all the folds and patterns on the clothing changes also. This can be very frustrating when wanting to work the cloths from life. But haven't painters dealt with this problem for centuries before photography? How did they do it?

I tried buying a mannequin once but it was poor quality and did not look lifelike enough to use. It was not the right shape of the model, didn't 'fit' with her body type, and was real 'mushy', formless, and dead - so I wound up scrapping the idea of painting from mannequins and gave up painting draped figures from life altogether.

But there must be a way, no? Maybe mannequins can work? Maybe there is a way for a painter to deal with the continuous changing folds on the model and still render them in a highly detailed style from life, without resorting to photos? Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.