Enabling Disabled Mannequins

The mannequin business is really tricky. After watching the Pro Infirmis video, I began to question why stores don’t just use a variety of mannequins in their shops. After all, a Cambridge University study found that “women prefer brands whose advertising reflects their own identities” (Amed, Imran). If this is the case, retailers should just begin making their mannequins more varied and different. However, I soon found out that there are mass-producing mannequin factories. Although each mannequin is hand-crafted through a series of processes, they are all shaped by the same molds. Having a mold restricts the variety of figures mannequins can be modeled after. So the reason why mannequins all look whole, perfect, and the same is not because retailers truly want to discriminate people with disabilities from being commercialized, but because it would take more time and effort. It’s true that molds could be created to have different body shapes (i.e. curved torso or missing limbs) but that will still limit the options for body shapes that mannequins could have. Consumers would be seeing the same disabled figures, and still not be able to experience the whole scope of disabled peoples’ physique. We even saw in the video that the artist crafted the new mannequins from already-made mannequins kind rather than from new molds. If some stores truly care about incorporating disabled people in their advertising, they could create different molds or alter their current mannequins to have them look different. As of now, all flawed mannequins with missing parts and damages are thrown out, but if enough people are concerned about this topic, this could change. 

Resources: 

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25319920 

http://www.businessoffashion.com/2013/03/the-fashion-industry-still-has-an-image-problem.html

As you can see, the mannequins all look the same because they are made from the same molds. This is a look inside the mannequin factory.