When was the last time you saw an African American mannequin in a store window display?
Just like the models on the runway or in fashion magazines – mannequins are 90% white.
When retailers refer to diversity and inclusion for their window displays, they are referring to the body size of the mannequins, not the ethnicity.
We applaud the fact that there are a lot more plus size mannequins appearing in store windows. But why aren’t there African American mannequins, especially in stores located in cities with a high concentration of African American customers
To be fair, most retailers are no longer using mannequins with realistic faces anymore. They use egghead or headless mannequins. So the ethnicity of the mannequin is not an issue.
Or if the mannequin has a face with African American features the often paint all the mannequins in the store the same color (usually white) so that they all “blend in together” all the other mannequins.” Like this:
As a result of the low demand by retailers for African American mannequins, there are very few vendors who make them.
Fortunately we have found a vendor who can supplies us with the mannequins you see in the post and additional styles here.
In addition to full size mannequins we have several styles of African American male and female heads.
And we have a pre-teen girl, but no pre-teen male or ANY African American children.
I will end this post with an excerpt from The Root about an article they wrote about the #VogueChallenge. The Vogue Challenge encouraged people to reimagine the iconic Vogue cover with yourself or some other black beauty on the cover.
“In a world currently consumed with black trauma black beauty may feel like a luxury we can’t currently afford as the moment demands we keep our eye on what feels like an ever-moving goalpost.
Nevertheless, beauty is not only necessary to black life, but it is a revolution in and of itself: it demands to be seen and dares us to imagine something better than there has been.”
