I am collaborating with Rootstein collectors to create an online resource where everything you ever wanted to know about Rootstein mannequins is in an organized manner. Product catalogues, photos and articles about Rootstein mannequins will now be on this Pinterest Board

Currently both male and female mannequins on this board. But at some point I might create a separate one for the males if this board becomes too unwieldy.

Let me give you some background about on why I created the Rootstein Pinterest board and my personal love affair with Rootstein mannequins. NOTE: all the mannequins in this post are Rootstein mannequins that I have sold a long time ago. If you want to be notified the next time we get some in stock, sign up here

But in case you don’t want to read all that I want to pass along a resource where you can get even more information about Rootstein mannequins. I recommend that you join the Facebook group Vintage Mannequins. This group has mannequin collectors (not just Rootstein ) from all over the world.

There are members in the group who can identify what series your mannequin is from just by looking at the photo or the code numbers. They can tell if the parts are wrong (which happens a lot)

Others in the group have Rootstein parts for sale or may be interested in buying one you have for sale. A few members can refurbish an old one and bring it back it is former glory. I can’t say enough about what a resource this group is for any mannequin collector, but especially Rootstein ones.

For those of you who are new to my blog, I am the owner of Mannequin Madness. In addition to selling new mannequins, we also recycle mannequins for retail chains they close or remodel. Without us, retailers would throw their unwanted mannequins in the trash.

Trashing mannequins is not a good thing to do from an environmental standpoint (mannequins are made out of materials that do no bio-degrade). Plus retailers don’t realize that there are people who would be happy to buy their unwanted mannequins. Many times the retailers are throwing away mannequins that are still in great condition, they are just updating their visual merchandising concept.

My first group of Rootstein mannequins was in 2002 when I acquired 30 of them from a Ralph Lauren store. The store was switching from realistic mannequins to the abstract ones they use now. At the time I didn’t know what a Rootstein mannequin was (I was brand new to the industry). But I could tell that there was something special about them compared to the other realistic mannequins I had acquired.

The ones that acquire from Ralph Lauren were no longer in production. I am sure that is the reason why when I posted them on my website most of them were purchased by Prada and shipped to Italy.  (That is a special story for another post)

Then I discovered there was a sizable community of Rootstein collectors, mainly men who were former visual merchandisers. It was these guys, not retail stores, who began buying my used Rootstein’s.  Even the ones missing parts were valuable to them.

 Anyway, as I started to get more knowledgeable about Rootstein mannequins, my appreciation for them grew. At the time the best place to find information about them was Flicker but that site never resonated with me. Plus it was mainly photos, not much in the way of catalogue images or articles.

One of my customers has over 100 Rootstein mannequins, about a 1/3 of which he purchased from me. In 2020 to keep from going stir crazy during quarantine (I am in California, he is on the east coast)  he and I collaborated on a Rootstein project.

He photographed each one of his mannequins and I wrote a feature about them on my Facebook page. It was so much fun writing up the description of each one. He took the time to dress them in different vintage designer outfits which was like a trip down memory lane.

Then I decided to take those Facebook posts and share them in a Rootstein history category on my blog  so that people who are not on Facebook could have access to them.

The Pinterest Board is the next step, but more. It allowed me to organize everything alphabetically and have others collaborate with their photos and catalogue images.

As of today, it is still a work in progress, but with a good foundation. If you would like to add information that you have, I am happy to add you as a collaborator. Send me an email at judi@mannequinmadness.com


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