Mannequin Trends - Overweight Children Next?

Mannequins have been around since as early as 1350 BC, where a wooden mannequin torso was buried next to King Tutankhamen's clothing chest. Torso forms for tailors have also been around for a very long time. Around the turn of the century, when artificial lighting and plate glass became widely available, mannequins began to appear in display windows.

Originally, mannequins were simple torsos, lacking detail or realism. As they became more popular as display fixtures, they became entire human forms. Most started out with impossibly small waists and long legs, and slowly morphed into more realistic shapes that real women could better identify with. Then began the see-saw between realistic and abstract styles, and the advent of exotic poses and more varied styles, including male mannequins.

Becoming more realistic, female mannequin styles change to match average women's bodies. And with the popularity of breast enhancement surgeries, large-breasted sexy mannequins were created to display lingerie for women with "D" cups (natural or not). "Women want to see what clothing will look like on their figures, and these mannequins allow that," says Shawn Daniel of Midnight Mannequins. Despite Marianne Thesander's (author of "The Feminist Ideal") assertion that these super-mannequins turn customers off, sales figures show that three-dimensional display mannequins increase sales, whether they are designed for niche markets, or the general population.

Case in point: MannequinStore.com's Narrow Bridge line of sexy mannequins features large, uplifted breasts, full buttocks and feminine hands with french nails. Their figures fill lingerie and costumes designed for well-endowed women, saving the retailer from "stuffing" their mannequins and causing unsightly bulges and bumps in the displayed items.

Children's clothing retailers are about to have a similar problem. In America today, 30% of children between 6 and 19 years of age are overweight, and 15% are obese*. In contrast, child mannequins are of standard sizing for children of optimal weight for their height. Manufacturers of children's clothing, from casual wear to Halloween costumes, are making sizing more generous. Retailers will have slim child mannequins dressed in baggy, oversized clothing meant to be worn by huskier children. Daniel predicts that the next niche market for mannequins will be plus-size child mannequins, and plans to design a line of extra-large kids for his own company.

* From the CDC National Center for Health Statistics and the American Obesity Association.

http://www.mannequinstore.com

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