Billie Blair is one of my personal favorites out of all the Rootstein collections for three reasons. The primary reason is her role in fashion history (more about that below).
The second reason is she was from a Rootstein series where the poses were atypical from the standard standing poses of hand on hips or arms straight down. Instead her poses exuded movement and exuberance as you can see from the catalogue below.
The Billie Blair poses became iconic. So iconic that sadly many retailers (and private collectors) decided to “whitewash” her. Meaning they had her repainted so that she looked like an Anglo woman instead of the brown skinned African American woman she really is.
Below is one of many examples of a white washed Billie. And in this case they even gave her hazel color eyes. Totally erased her ethnicity, they just wanted her body. (Don’t get me started on the racist implications of this and how angry it makes me)
And the last reason why Billie is one of my personal favorites is because in the 20 years that I have been recycling Rootstein mannequins I have NEVER seen a Billie. Her scarcity makes her even more special to me.
Her series was released in an era when mannequin recycling wasn’t as popular as it is now. So retailers would just throw mannequins in the trash when they no longer wanted them – even if they were in good condition. Rootstein, the company, encouraged this because they did not want their mannequins falling into the hands of manufacturers would would use the mannequin to produce knock offs.
And this mannequin series was more popular was more popular with retailers on the East Coast and Chicago, cities with a larger African American population than in the SF Bay Area where Mannequin Madness is located.
One of my customers on the east coast just recently acquired a Billie from a vendor in Europe and had he restored.to her original beauty. He took the photo below of Billie in his home and provided the information about her role in fashion history.
The debut of Billie Blair and the Spectaculars Series was in 1984. Billie Blair was pose codes, E1 and E2. The Billie Blair, E1 suspended pose was available up to the time of recent Bonaveri merger with Rootstein.
Rootstein models , Pat Cleveland and Billie Blair were part of the American Models featured in “The Battle of Versailles” which took place November 28th, 1973. The historic fashion fundraising event for the restoration of “Palace of Versailles” the fashion show that pitted five French designers against five American designers.
The success of the American designers at this event changed fashion history which you can read about in this Harper’s Bazaar article. The poses of the Billie Blair and the Spectaculars Series mannequins, look similar to the runway show photos from The Battle of Versailles.
It’s interesting to note, during the Oscar de la Renta, segment of the Battle of Versailles show, Billie Blair was “The Genie”, waving a silk scarf near a standing still model. And the model once having the scarf waving from Billie Blairs hand, near the model, that model would move in time with the “Barry White”, music
This restored Billie Blair mannequin is in pose code E2. She is styled in Yves Saint Laurent suit, Calvin Klein camisole, pave diamond hoop earrings and drilled shoes.
