Some Mannequins,Ladyquins & Kinderquins.

7 May

I don’t consciously seek mannequins out, but they seem to find me! Here are a few I’ve come across in my travels. Photos below.

I did a bit of fact-finding on mannequins (pronounced man-uh-kin/s, btw.)

Here’s some TMI trivia:

Mannequins have a surprisingly ancient history. The earliest forms date back to around 3,000 BCE in Egypt, where wooden and clay models were used to display jewelry and clothing. The word comes from the Flemish manneken, meaning "little man", making the mannequin linguistically masculine, despite being associated almost entirely with women's fashion.

The early versions were far more unsettling than today's sleek fixtures. The first modern mannequins were made of wax with real hair, false teeth, and glass eyes- lifelike, but heavy and prone to melting. In the 1930s, doll maker Lester Gaba created a mannequin named Cynthia and took her to social events — Tiffany's sent her jewelry, and LIFE Magazine featured the pair, until she fell off a chair and shattered.

Beyond fashion, mannequins have had some surprising uses: during World War I, dummies were placed in trenches to draw enemy sniper fire, and the CIA used one as a countersurveillance tool. And throughout the decades, their shapes have quietly mirrored each era's ideals, from the flat-chested flapper of the 1920s to the Marilyn Monroe hourglass of the 1950s and the stick-thin Twiggy-like silhouettes of the 1990s.