The Doll Forum

“It seems to me that all the wisdom in the world is in the eyes of these wax men”. Raymond Roussel

As mentioned at the beginning of this thread Imans was initially a wax modeler. These sculptors were known to reproduce life size models of famous figures at the time. Here we have Imans creating a mannequin of Madame Molé - Raymond a charming 1786 portrait of the Comédie Italienne actress Élisabeth Félicité Pinet (1760-1833). Occasionally Imans' workshop would make life size figures of famous people, earlier in this thread you will see one of Charlie Chaplin.

Pierre Imans takes the mannequin to new heights with modernist figures, new poses, and some of the first mannequins with darker skin tones. Shoppers become familiar with these mannequins as abstracted versions of perfection. Beautiful displays were created where the mannequins are positioned in such a way that they seemed to be interacting just like a group of people. The displays were really quite amazing.

Kimmi Lovecok wrote:Historical treasure, great knowledge, dedication and very serious science!!


Pure GOLD!

Please Continue..........

Thank you Kimmi, it is a journey into the past. I am happy that you have that you have enjoyed it.

By the 1920s, realistic dolls with sculpted wax heads and glass eyes became mannequins as we know them today. Their poses were sophisticated, their bodies stylised, and their manner elegant. Their shape reflected the ideal figure at the time, which was straight-up and boyish. The mannequins were able to have a large range of poses because of the various designs of their bodies and limbs some of which were articulated.

Again, thank you Joe for this amazing historical collection. Great insight into how detailed this industry was.

FUN FACT: Boobs and Barbies
in the 40's and 50's, American companies sanded the nipples off the older mannequins , which were deemed to be overtly sexual..

How will mannequins change in the future?
Unlike the early 20th century, the large majority of mannequins we see in shop fronts are now a standardised 8 to10 size, much smaller than the size 14 of the average woman. Fashion companies promote the androgynous look of the fashion runway and don't seem to be showing signs of changing their models anytime soon. “Clothes look better on tall, thin, abnormal bodies" seems to be the mantra of the fashion industry.
Below are some more examples showing the body designs of mannequins during the turn of the century.

seagull wrote:Dang, that's freaking awesome, those sculptors knew their stuff

Can you imagine figures like these displayed in stores today seagull .

The morality police would be out removing any trace of human resemblance on every mannequin they could find

Flapper fashion followed ushering in the informal woman and her reckless easy going style. With the rejection of the Victorian era comes boyishness and androgyny.
Ankles, knees and legs become exposed. Mannequins begin to embrace the more slender female form, often with elongated necks. They take on a variety of poses and expressions, rather than one anonymous ideal.

However in the Edwardian times social gatherings and dinner parties were a common theme. During the Époque period women wore many layers of clothing. Restrictive corsets , elaborate gowns and flamboyant hats were seen everywhere. Women were very much dressed up formally, something you would not see today. Store displays reflected this.

The life of the well to do

The first abstract mannequins :
French mannequin company Siégel and Stockman creates abstracted, simplified, geometric, abbreviated renditions of human form, which were featured at the 1925 International Exposition of Decorative Arts in Paris.
It was the beginning of the Art Deco period, the futuristic and stylized German Science fiction movie Metropolis in 1927 also had a great impact on the way some mannequins were made.
Below are some more rare images of mannequins from the Art Nouveau period.

For the most part, today’s commercial mannequins have departed completely from realism or variation, instead having transformed slowly into faceless, block coloured drones over the last 100 years. Visual displays have turned into a corporate version of reality.
Women, too, have begun to attain this corporate ideal through plastic surgery, which mannequins have begun to mirror as well. In South America where cosmetic procedures are considered the norm for women to alter their bodies, mannequins have morphed into big-busted, tiny-waisted, pert-buttocked fiberglass fantasies.This can also be seen in the life size sex dolls produced today.

The Edwardian period is sometimes portrayed as a romantic golden age of long summer afternoons and garden parties.
The Edwardian age was also seen as the period of opulence between the great achievements of the preceding Victorian age and the catastrophe of the following War. As wealth spread from the rich to the middle classes, consumer spending increased dramatically as wonderful new large Department Stores opened. Window shopping became a popular activity of the bourgeois.

By the late 1880's, the Industrial Revolution had created new technologies that changed the way people lived. The growth of industry shifts in manufacturing and technological innovations, this leads to increased productivity. Gender roles shifted as women made use of the new technology to upgrade their lifestyle and their career opportunities. To put it in simple terms, women left the home to join the work force in huge numbers.