Mannequins: Still life

Mannequins serve a single purpose: to sit benignly and let the clothes they’re modeling take center stage. Some of these human forms tend to take on lives of their own though—socially, politically, and artistically. Even their manufacture is more complicated than you might realize. First, [a full-sized sculpture is made out of clay]( a process that can take from four to six weeks. Once perfected, the clay is transformed into plaster, then cast into a mold. Hundreds of mannequins can be produced from a single mold, but they don’t pop out in a fully finished state. Each must be sanded by hand, and then it goes into a spray booth to be painted with any number of finishes. Stifle your fear of the [uncanny valley]( and let’s strike a pose. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Daily Obsession] Mannequins January 21, 2020 Reflecting humanity --------------------------------------------------------------- Mannequins serve a single purpose: to sit benignly and let the clothes they’re modeling take center stage. Some of these human forms tend to take on lives of their own though—socially, politically, and artistically. Even their manufacture is more complicated than you might realize. First, [a full-sized sculpture is made out of clay]( a process that can take from four to six weeks. Once perfected, the clay is transformed into plaster, then cast into a mold. Hundreds of mannequins can be produced from a single mold, but they don’t pop out in a fully finished state. Each must be sanded by hand, and then it goes into a spray booth to be painted with any number of finishes. Stifle your fear of the [uncanny valley]( and let’s strike a pose. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( By the digits [1:]( Wooden torso found in King Tut’s tomb, thought to be the oldest-known example of a mannequin [30 lb (14 kg):]( Weight of an average mannequin [$3,999.95:]( Price of a vintage, Cher-inspired Adel Rootstein mannequin on eBay [$16,000:]( Cost of an “iDummy,” a robotic mannequin that can expand to different sizes and heights [$1,800:]( Cost of a soft-bodied mannequin [$42.7 million:]( Box office gross of the 1987 movie Mannequin starring Kim Cattrall and Andrew McCarthy [22%:]( Mannequin’s score on Rotten Tomatoes [80:]( Years “La Pascualita” has been creeping out residents of Chihuahua, Mexico, who believe the incredibly lifelike mannequin may be an embalmed corpse. AP Photo/Stuart Ramson Person of Interest Cynthia the Gaba Girl --------------------------------------------------------------- New York City socialites in the late 1930s may have found themselves making conversation with a real dummy. No, a real dummy. One of the biggest “it girls” of the era was Cynthia, a 5’6”, 100-pound plaster mannequin created by window dresser and sculptor Lester Gaba. Before Gaba, mannequins were often made of wax or soap. His creations, [he said]( were nearly indistinguishable from real women; he proved it by bringing Cynthia along to social events. When guests tried to talk to her, Gaba would apologize for her silence, citing a terrible case of laryngitis. Cynthia’s presence oddly delighted the masses, and they played along—she received free furs and jewelry from stores, held a credit card from Saks Fifth Avenue, snagged box seats at the Metropolitan Opera, and was even reportedly invited to the wedding of Edward VIII of England to Wallis Simpson, all with Gaba as her date. When Gaba went off to war in 1942, he sent Cynthia to Hannibal, Missouri, to live with his mother. There she slipped from the seat of a salon chair and shattered on the floor. Gaba reconstructed her when he returned, even [spending $10,000]( to add a voice mechanism, but interest had waned. Fun fact! Around the turn of the century, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union succeeded in getting some cities to pass laws that [required stores to cover the windows]( before dressing and undressing mannequins. giphy Membership A third of the world plays video games --------------------------------------------------------------- About 60% of Americans say they play them daily. And as the global gaming industry grows, it’s [influencing much more than how we spend our free time](. From entertainment to government to health care, industries are trying to distill and deploy gaming’s immersive power. In this week’s field guide, contributor Mary Pilon covers everything you need to know about the state of gaming and its impact on our lives. [Read now]( Origin Story How one company started a mannequin revolution and killed a career --------------------------------------------------------------- Mannequins were once made almost exclusively out of fiberglass, which was heavy, fragile, and required a labor-intensive process of hand application that had to be heated and chilled during production. In the 1980s, Jim Talaric, the former CEO of Fusion Specialities, the largest mannequin brand in the world, [discovered a way to make them from a strong plastic called urethane elastomer]( which could be injected into a mold and spun at room temperature. The new method allowed Fusion to make mannequins cheaper, faster, and more efficiently. Fusion also pioneered a magnetic arm feature, making the forms much easier to dress. But not everyone was so thrilled with easily maneuverable mannequins. In the 1950s and ‘60s, being a mannequin dresser was a full-time job. A person who held the title had to maintain and outfit dozens of mannequins, changing their clothes, wigs, and makeup. Pinning the clothes to make them fit each form perfectly could take up to 30 minutes. “You have 20 mannequins in a specialty fashion store changing them once a week, times five days a week, times, four weeks a month, times 12 months, times 800 stores,” Talaric [told the Colorado Sun.]( “You’re spending millions a year… I’ll make a mannequin that fits into your clothes.” He did, and today, the vast majority of retailers don’t have a specialty position for a mannequin dresser. Giphy This one weird trick! A trend frozen in time --------------------------------------------------------------- The 1980s were a weird decade, even in the mannequin industry. Instead of using traditional fiberglass models, some retailers turned to “human mannequins,” models trained to hold a pose without blinking or even visibly breathing for up to 15 minutes. Known as “freeze modeling,” this trend swept through retailers from jewelry to swimwear. If that sounds problematic, well, it was: “Sometimes women will grab my butt to see if I’m real,” [one male model told the Orlando Sentinel](. “I change my pose real quick to scare them off.” Have a friend who would enjoy our Obsession with Mannequins? [ [Forward link to a friend](mailto:?subject=Thought you'd enjoy.&body=Read this Quartz Daily Obsession email – to the email – A brief history of the ever-changing mannequin Mannequin shapes change over time; here’s the past century in beauty ideals: [1870s:]( Mannequins start to replace headless, limbless dress forms, in urban department stores. [1900s:]( Window shopping becomes more prevalent and handcrafted, realistic mannequins in various shapes and sizes to represent different body types draw customers. [1920s:]( Forms become slimmer, with straighter waists and smaller busts to represent the flapper ideal. [1930s:]( Mannequins become more aspirational, and are designed to look like Hollywood stars such as Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo, with thin bodies, high cheekbones, and sophisticated poses. [1950s:]( Hourglass figures come into vogue, with tiny waists, rounded hips, and high busts, but no nipples—some American retailers sanded them off older mannequins to make them more wholesome. [1960s:]( Adel Rootstein develops high fashion mannequins based on celebrities like Twiggy and Cher. Forms become increasingly thin. [1980s:]( Mannequins develop six-pack abs and toned muscles to reflect the fitness trend. [1990s:]( “[Heroin chic]( becomes popular on the runway; mannequins become unrealistically thin. [2000s:]( Mannequins begin to come in a wider variety of shapes in response to public backlash about dangerously thin forms. Spain bans companies from using forms that are smaller than size 38 (US size 6). [2010s:]( Adjustable mannequins that can be digitally programmed with precise measurements reflect an interest in sustainability and in different body shapes and sizes. [Nike adds plus-size mannequins to stores]( controversy follows. AP Photo/Tom Gannam Explain it like I’m 5! Mannequin vs Manikin --------------------------------------------------------------- A mannequin, of course, is the form typically found modeling clothes in retail shops. Manikins are also human-shaped models, but they’re used for medical purposes, often to help simulate surgical or clinical experiences for students. Although manikins lead less glamorous lives than their department store counterparts, they still manage to intrigue and inspire. Consider the case of Resusci Anne, a CPR manikin used for medical training for [more than 60 years](. Her peaceful face is based on that of a young girl who was pulled from the River Seine in the 1880s. Her body was never claimed, but her face was so lovely that a pathologist at the morgue was compelled to make a death mask for posterity. Improbably, the mask became a sensation in home decor, and soon every proper Parisian Bohemian had one hanging on the wall. “L’Inconnue de la Seine,” the unknown woman of the Seine, [became a muse]( for Picasso, Nabokov, Man Ray, director François Truffaut—and, eventually, Peter Safar. The Austrian doctor was inspired to use the face of L’Inconnue for his new invention, the resuscitation dummy, after discovering a copy of the mask at a relative’s home. Deemed “Resusci Anne,” the unknown girl has been saving lives ever since. Though Annie, as she is often called in the US, may have a woman’s name, she and other manikins used for CPR training generally have flat chests without breasts. Studies have found that bystanders are less likely to perform CPR on women than on men in a medical emergency. [The “Womanikin” breasted vest was designed to fit on manikins,]( and help close the CPR gender gap. [Read Quartz’s Obsession on CPR]( AP Photo/Niklas Larsson pop quiz According to Fusion Specialities, what’s the next industry trend? Mannequins enhanced with augmented reality featuresMannequins made from sustainable materialsNon-binary mannequinsHyper-realistic mannequins nearly indistinguishable from humans Correct. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Watch this! All in the Fuccon Family --------------------------------------------------------------- [The Fuccons is a series of Japanese comedy sketches]( about a family of American expats living in Japan. The catch? They’re all mannequins. Enjoy. take me down this 🐰 hole! While testing a 16-kiloton nuclear bomb in the 1950s, the US government created a fake town in the Nevada desert and populated it with mannequins. Check out the [eerie and fascinating photos of the aftermath from the Department of Energy](. AP Photo/Koji Sasahara poll Are you more likely to buy clothes when you see them on a mannequin? [Click here to vote]( It definitely influences me.Sometimes.Not at all. In last week’s poll about [Prohibition]( 39% of you said that during the American ban on alcohol sales you would have been moonshiners, 34% of you fancy yourselves mafia boss material, and 27% would have been booze runners. Correction: In that email, we mistakenly claimed that Al Capone died in prison. [He was released from Alcatraz in 1939]( because he was suffering from advanced syphilis and died in 1947. 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20Mannequins%20&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) [🎲]( [Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Stacy Conradt]( edited by [Annaliese Griffin]( and produced by [Tori Smith](. The correct answer to the quiz is Non-binary mannequins. Enjoying the Quartz Daily Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! Want to advertise in the Quartz Daily Obsession? Send us an email at ads@qz.com. Not enjoying it? No worries. [Click here]( to unsubscribe. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10011 | United States [Share this email](