The artificial dummies used by dress designers, shop keepers, photographers, artists and most commonly by retailers. These artificial humans are called human replicas because they are very much similar to humans in their body structure. These human dummies copy the attributes and features of humans. The classification of these artificial dolls is also done as male and female version. To target the little angels from society mannequins are also present in the form of kid’s models. Together with these models and versions human replicas are also available in different colors, shapes and size, so they can be used to target any part of people from the society.

Seeing the growing competition is retail business, the importance of visual merchandising has increased tremendously. Retailers are relying on visual merchandising techniques to attract customers towards their store. And the most helpful and useful product in this regard is bendable mannequin. The importance of flexible mannequin can be judged by the statement of a very known and giant in retail industry declaring mannequins to be ‘silent salesmen’.

Starting from wooden sculptures, now a day’s these fashion dummies have become silent salesmen. While history cannot tell the exact name of a person who created the first ever mannequin, we know that they started to circulated in France as display products. Over score of many years these wooden sculptures have made it to the life sized and lifelike original look dolls.

Wood:

In the very beginning of their life mannequins were made with wood. Wooden models have balls and sockets which make joints to connect different parts of body. They can be painted very easily and showcase a very lifelike original look but since it is not a feature of wood it cannot show a pure original look. But the very big disadvantage of wooden mannequins is that they are very heavy.

Polystyrene:

Another material with which display dummies have been manufactured during earlier years is polystyrene. A hard plastic material, which is very strong and has a very long life span, has been used to manufacture mannequins for recent 15 years. It is very lightweight and transport friendly material. But it also has a disadvantage that it cannot be sprayed with paint again and again. This disadvantage makes it a bit expensive. Polystyrene gives a plain and realistic look but it is not very clear.

Wax:

Wax has also been used to manufacture bendable mannequin lately in earlier 19^th century. Wax mannequins are very realistic body forms and give a very lifelike look. Wax is very lightweight and cheap material. It can be easily cut and mold in any desired form on low temperatures. Normal temperatures also do not affect wax and it can easily with stand normal temperature. It can easily be mixed with any color. Wax mannequins were used very often but now a day’s only wax figurines can be seen.

Fiberglass:

Fiberglass is currently most widely used material for production of display dolls. Fiberglass models are very lightweight and can be transported very easily from any place to any place. The other feature which most material lacked is the color; fiberglass can be painted again and again with colors. To give more realistic look fiberglass dummies are featured with joints and balls. Connecting the body parts of adjustable dummy models these joints and balls can be used to give motion to these models. The one disadvantage that fiberglass flexible mannequin models have is that they require extra care in their handling. Fiberglass is a very sensitive material and cannot withstand any shock or fall. If is accidently falls, it gets completely shattered in no time, torn into very small pieces it cannot be reconstructed again.

Taken a look at the materials with which these models has been manufactured overtime, now have a look at the types of dummies.

Yes these display models are present in many different types, the most commonly used types of these dummies are:

• Headless
• Abstract
• Realistic

Headless mannequins:

Headless mannequins were used very commonly some time ago, but now their time is over. As is obvious from name a headless dummy is one which has all the body parts sculpted but does not feature its head. This type of model was used quite often when there was less height available or there was need of very realistic models. But they are obsolete now a day’s.

Abstract mannequin:

Abstract dummy is complete human except facial features. The body of this type is completely sculpted or manufactured but extra details such as nose, ears, lips, eyes, abs and some other facial features which give a mannequin more realistic look are not sculpted. This type is most widely used now a day’s and in the recent years. But in near feature their time will also be over as the trend is growing towards realistic models.

Realistic mannequin:

As obvious from name a realistic mannequin is one which not only has all the body features of human but also features all the additional facial features which can give body form a more realistic and lifelike look as well. These types of models give very genuine like humans. Facial features are very carefully sculpted to give them a clear look. Realistic mannequins are used very often now a day’s. The market for realistic mannequins is growing very fast. Both the retailers and buyers have more tendencies towards realistic models. These dummies can be used to create artistic display scenes which can easily grab the attention of buyer in just one look.

The business of manufacturing and selling human replicas is also growing very fast. Many businessmen are jumping into this field. The use of display products has seen tremendous increase and it can be judged as there are many small businesses for selling of used mannequins as well. There are some business owners who rent mannequins for events as well, mannequins for sale is a very profitable business. This can be a metric to judge how good mannequins have been doing from business point of view.