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Life-Like Mannequins Inspire Real-Life Shoppers

A mannequin maker in Colorado is helping retailers boost clothing sales by creating more life-like models. These are custom-made mannequins that look like the real people who shop in stores — or the way shoppers imagine themselves.

In a Disney Store in Southern California, an employee helps a young customer wave a purple wand at a talking mirror. It's part of the store's redesign, which includes playful child-size mannequins that encourage shoppers to interact with the merchandise. The mannequins appear to curtsy and jump after balloons.

The idea behind the new mannequins is to show children in real and imaginary play poses. Jeff Zimmerman, Disney Store's West Coast regional manager, stands near a plastic white castle. On top is a mannequin sitting cross-legged, wearing a blue Cinderella dress.

"[The mannequins] kind of evoke a sense of imagination of your child, maybe wearing that dress, and what else to explore in this particular neighborhood," Zimmerman says.

The 32 redesigned Disney Stores are calling their sales very strong for swimsuits and costumes shown on these mannequins. The company believes the displays played a role in that success.

Chains like Athleta, Charlotte Russe and Dick's Sporting Goods are also putting money into new mannequins. And that's boosted sales for one of the world's largest custom mannequin makers, Fusion Specialties.

Outside of Denver, sculptor Ileana Barbu is carving a two-foot clay sculpture — one of the first stages in creating a custom mannequin prototype.

Next to her, gray limbs hang from a so-called "arm caddy." In fact she's surrounded by life-size body parts.

"I have a bunch of heads like those ones, like my colleagues have worked on, too," she says.

Each design coming out of this studio meets the needs of specific retailers. Peter Huston, who manages this brand for Fusion, says mannequins can change dramatically depending on what they're selling.

"That's why, for Guess Accessories, a tall, sleek mannequin, that has actually the detail removed, but gives you these beautiful fluid lines to accentuate accessories, is a very appropriate and unique use of mannequins," Huston says.

But, the needs of Guess are very different from those of Dick's Sporting Goods, which recently updated its mannequins to have more chiseled muscles and athletic poses.

For Disney, Fusion created pint-sized mannequins after studying real kids at play.

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