‘Silent Salespeople’ Bespeak New Retailing Era : Mannequins’ Rigid Forms Bend to More Lifelike Abstraction
Store dummies aren’t the stiffs they used to be. Instead, mannequins have evolved into a refined marketing tool as retailers have moved steadily away from the traditional rigid figures of the past to the lifelike and abstract forms that their manufacturers now sell for $800 to $1,200 apiece.
“The mannequin business is relatively small,” said Norman Glazer, president of City of Commerce-based Greneker/Wolf & Vine, a manufacturer of the figures. “However, the competition is keen, if not keener, than big business.”
Only half a dozen companies compete for the mannequin business of big chains such as May Co., Robinson’s and Macy’s, Glazer said. They tend to be tight-lipped, private companies that guard their statistics closely.
The mannequins used 15 years ago “didn’t add much to the clothing,” said Laurel Harper, managing editor of the trade magazine Visual Merchandising & Store Design. “In fact, in a lot of instances, the clothes looked better without them.”
Today, mannequins are anatomically detailed and come in widely varied designs, from realistic to abstract. But most important, they have gained a new responsibility as the “silent salesperson” by displaying a store’s goods in innovative ways.
When merchandise in all stores is similar, chains need to cultivate their own image and mannequins help do that, experts say. “(Stores) basically carry the same merchandise,” said Patty Dismukes, owner of Workshop West. “They need to show it differently. Stores like Macy’s and I. Magnin will use (mannequins) in a very visual way to show off the individual fashion look of the store.”
What’s more, the appearance of mannequins has changed to reflect broader changes in society.
For instance, the women’s movement changed the face of mannequins. That is, the molded faces on the female figures went from docile to confident, said Leslie Bott, president of the New York-based mannequin company Hindsgual and president of the National Assn. of Display Industries. It’s easier for working women to identify with a mannequin that appears self-assured, she explained.
And, while some stores may prefer realistic-looking mannequins, others are moving to more abstract designs--with molded hair, no makeup and fewer detachable parts. Glazer believes that the growing popularity of abstract mannequins is due in part to the fact that they require less care.
“At one time, all the stores had display staff. . . . The trend is going toward abstract (mannequins) because stores don’t have the staff to maintain realistic mannequins,” he said.
Although some stores may be taking advantage of no-frills, easy-care models, mannequin companies say it’s not affecting overall sales. Glazer said his company has had a 12% to 20% increase in production each year for the past four years. At its 85,000-square-foot factory, the company produces 400 to 500 mannequins a week.
Bott said her business has been increasing every year but acknowledged that a slowdown occurred late last year as a result of consolidations in the retail industry.
“All these mergers and buyouts made changes in the retail industry. This means fewer people in visual directors’ positions. . . . Everything came to a standstill for a couple of months,” Bott said, followed by “a tremendous amount of orders,” beginning in March.
Feeding the fierce competition among mannequin makers is a constant need for fresh, innovative, even alien-like models. Some of the latest designs from Vogue International, a Whittier-based company, include a Southwestern theme with human figures sprouting antlers. Another line features models leaning forward, head in hands--but each head is a glass bowl filled with everything from fish to light bulbs.
Glazer said Greneker comes up with 20 new poses and faces every six months and six new lines of mannequins each year. Each mannequin, he said, is handmade of glass fiber in about an hour and a half and then painted.
“We have to be right there with the (clothes) designers or a little bit ahead of them,” said Bott, whose company produces “several thousand” mannequins a year.
When a store’s mannequins become too old or outdated, usually after five years, it’s not necessarily the end for them. At Workshop West in Sacramento, one of only a handful of companies in California that refurbishes the figures, owner Dismukes is finding that mannequins are the latest thing in home decoration.
How’s the second-hand mannequin business doing? “It’s been growing like wildfire,” Dismukes says. “In my first year, I tripled the volume of my sales.” In 1983, a year before she bought Workshop West, she said the previous owners grossed $40,000. In 1984, Dismukes said she grossed $120,000.
For $95 to $150, a used mannequin is sanded and painted or a limb is replaced, but the more entertaining side of Dismukes’ business comes from renting and selling the figures. Her mannequins are the object of theme parties, church tableaux and, in the case of some customers, a companion.
An older woman, afraid to drive alone, bought a male figure to sit in the passenger seat of her car. Another mannequin was purchased to sit in an empty house, making it appear occupied.
But the real fruits of her labor are mannequin works of art that sell for up to $1,500. Besides attaching bits and pieces of a mannequin to a canvas, Dismukes has installed full-size forms in a patio lounge chair, reclining at the end of a marble table and made a third one to look as though it is walking out of a wall.
Said Dismukes: “It’s an interesting conversation piece.”
