Article ID: CBB887514621

Real Women, Normal Curves, and the Making of the American Fashion Mannequin, 1932–1946 (2020)

unapi

In the 1930s, American mannequin designers promoted a realistic style of mannequin modeled from the physical features of fashionably beautiful white women. Lester Gaba, an enterprising mannequin designer, argued that realism in display was needed to counteract the bizarre theatrics of pretentious surrealist-inspired window displays of the 1930s and early 1940s. In this period characterized by anxiety and uncertainty, the glamorous, lifelike mannequin became an active participant in American consumer culture. This article contextualizes that phenomenon, claiming that real and ideal bodies were at odds with one another in fashion discourse. Meanwhile, display professionals, fashion practitioners, and the mannequins themselves played crucial roles in articulating and reinforcing narrow understandings of beauty, while conflating norms and ideals in universal terms.

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Authors & Contributors
Bijsterveld, Karin
Wosk, Julie
Berger, Michael L.
Berne, Rosalyn W.
Biddle, Jeff E.
Bijker, Wiebe E.
Journals
Technology and Culture
The Bridge: Journal of the National Academy of Engineering
Design Issues
Gender and History
Geron. Tijdschrift voor Sociale Gerontologie
Icon: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology
Publishers
Johns Hopkins University Press
University of Minnesota Press
University of Pennsylvania
Akademika Publishing
Boston University
Princeton University Press
Concepts
Technology and society
Design
Women and technology
Consumers and consumerism
Technology
Urban planning
People
Wedgwood, Josiah
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
21st century
19th century
20th century, late
Places
United States
Greece
Netherlands
Americas
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