FASHION : Man, Oh Mannequin! : A new generation of male dummies has great pecs, and an attitude, reflecting today’s fitness-consciousness consumer. Manufacturers say shoppers find the new male anatomy is to buy for.
For years he has been the victim of department store pranks: Chewing gum was stuck on his nose, his hands were twisted, his wig was flipped.
What a dummy.
But that image should be put to rest this summer, when a new generation of male mannequins will break the mold and debut with a ‘90s look.
The new fiberglass figures are gym-chiseled with beefy biceps, washboard stomachs and impeccable pecs--they are reminiscent of Olympic swimmers. In general, they are two or three inches taller and an inch smaller around the waist than most of their predecessors. And the new mannequins have gone from an off-the-rack Size 40 suit to a 41 or 42.
This new look mirrors the dream--and for a select few, the reality--of today’s fitness-conscious shopper, according to manufacturers who are racing to produce the new bodies in time for this summer’s fashions.
“He’s got attitude and he’s built,” says Tom Decter of the new Size 41 mannequins that his Los Angeles firm, Decter Mannikin Co., is producing.
Standing in a downtown workroom amid the newer models, Decter, vice president of sales and promotion, and his crew are frantically manufacturing mannequins designed by Los Angeles artist and sculptor Douglass Bowerman.
Decter says his company will unveil its new line--molded in model Brad Allen’s likeness--at the Western Assn. of Visual Merchandisers show in San Diego in June. The organization sponsors the annual event for suppliers of mannequins, shelving, racks and counters.
For the last six months, Decter has been crisscrossing North America making presentations--with photos and drawings--to major department stores, including Eaton’s and The Bay in Toronto, May Co. in St. Louis and The Parisian in Birmingham, Ala. The positive reaction prompted him to proceed with the line, he says. Each mannequin will cost $750.
Decter’s most recent line of male mannequins was produced 18 months ago--a collection he says that was “designed to make a suit look good.” But with the increase in spandex fashions and pumped-up bodies, something had to change.
The firm still produces prim and proper standard-size mannequins for stores that are not ready to join the muscle-man bandwagon. One of Decter’s most popular lines, introduced in the late 1970s, is also one of the lowest priced: The “Nuvo” mannequins sell for $685 each.
Decter introduces new lines of mannequins--male and female--as often as every six months, the average time it takes to move from design to delivery. Most of the alterations involve updated poses. But Decter’s newest male mannequins are a big break from those of the past.
The collection features figures in 10 poses with three interchangeable heads--one has a Billy Idol-ish sneer--and six skin tones, including black, brown and surfer bronze. The mannequins are springing and stretching and bending.
“We have come light years in the boldness of our male designs now,” Decter says. The guys are merely keeping up, he says, with the trendiest of their female counterparts, which, in the last 20 years, have evolved from the traditional Barbie doll into post-punk maidens with voluptuous bodies.
“Mostly we’re keeping up with the changing lifestyle out there. Working out and being healthy has become a lifestyle, and we’re reflecting that with the new mannequin of the ‘90s.”
So is Pucci International, a New York City manufacturer. The company is selling a line of five new male figures that look like they’ve been working out at Michelangelo’s gym.
Sculpted by New York artist Lowell Nesbitt, the Pucci mannequins, which are brawnier than Decter’s, resemble Rodin-like statues, muscular arms reaching for the heavens, thick thighs pressed together.
They’re not exactly cheap, either, ranging in price from $850 to $1,000 depending on the finish. Private collectors can buy one for $3,500 (they are more expensive because, unlike the retail version, they are cast all in one piece).
Dayton’s in Edina, a suburb of Minneapolis, was the first U.S. store to feature the Pucci collection six months ago. Marshall Field’s and Hudson’s stores, part of the department store division owned by the Dayton-Hudson Corp., also will carry the collection soon, says Andrew Markopoulos, Dayton-Hudson’s senior vice president for visual merchandising and design.
It was Dayton-Hudson that commissioned Pucci International to design the new male mannequin for its store windows, says Markopoulos.
“We started thinking about this 2 1/2 years ago when we noticed a large group of our male clientele addressing their health and fitness,” he says.
While on a business trip to Paris, Markopoulos spotted a handsome piece of sculpture “with a great deal of strength in its face” and bought it for one of his stores. This ultimately led to the creation of a better built and buffed mannequin.
Markopoulos says customers have responded to the clotheshorse hunks: “They’re purchasing the merchandise on these figures. My guess is that they are able to relate to this new guy because it looks like the customer of today.”
Brian Preussker agrees. He’s group vice president for visual merchandising and design at Macy’s California in San Francisco. Four weeks ago six new Pucci mannequins were put in a swimsuit display that Preussker says has attracted an overflow of shoppers.
Months ago, when Preussker first heard of the new mannequins, “I took it with a grain of salt. But when I saw them, I was very impressed. They’re progressive. Unlike female mannequins, male mannequins have always been a problem. They lacked emotion and truly were defined as dummies. They’ve never really taken on a direction until now.
“It’s something new in the industry. It’s the first time someone has addressed the male anatomy so directly,” Preussker says. “And whether we’re fit or not, we still see ourselves as these healthy, muscle-bound specimens. I’m almost 6 feet tall and weigh 140 pounds. I’d like to think I have some muscles.”
“It’s all a reflection of the times, of the changing physique,” USC psychologist Barbara Cadow says of the manly mannequin. Cadow, who has studied image and body-consciousness for 12 years, isn’t surprised that mannequins have become beefier.
She says society is so style-conscious, health-conscious and--sometimes--so downright vain, that it’s no wonder “skinny mannequins have been replaced with well-built bodies.
“We’ll pay attention to them because there are real guys out there who look like that and guys who want to emulate that look,” says Cadow. “It’s just too bad we can’t instantly sculpt our own bodies into muscular specimens overnight.”
