Nowadays, mannequins apparently overlook models by their increasingly diverse aspect. We face a trend that has appeared as a consequence of the development of visual merchandising and the intention of store owners to deal with the advance of online shopping.

The main reason for which we see such a diverse amount of mannequins is connected with the fact that people still have this need to see exactly what they are about to purchase, go to stores, try something and return it instantly if they don’t like it. Physical stores still have this advantage of being closer to customers than any other virtual store would do, by keeping the relation between the salesman (with his / her experience and knowledge) with the customer.

A virtual interface has the major disadvantage that the offer is presented all at once, without taking into account that some elements of surprise are also important, such as the stories about the other people that were interested in that particular item, their opinions, and so on, things you cannot get but from the salesman only.

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Mannequins have become more than just “window dressing”. Mannequins are the quintessence in visual merchandising, an aid for the shop assistant; what (s)he is unable to communicate, the mannequin does it easily, because the salesman might not always be around to tell you things you want to know about that certain item of clothing, or other stuff you are interested in. Mannequins are central for retailers trying to lure online customers back into stores.

Technology is forcing retailers to adjust the inside store experience, making it more compelling; many retailers understand that the mannequins are a very important tool for doing that. Therefore, they’re getting a makeover: no longer just slim sizes and inexpressive faces.

They have a shape and a size that would mimic a real person’s body. Many stores widened the sizes of their mannequins to fit every customer’s interest. Now, the customers are able to see how an item of clothing could look on them and not only imagine how it could look. Some companies have gone even further, displaying very true-to-life mannequins, depicting human’s everyday activities.

This interest that retailers display leads to an important development of mannequin manufacture in terms of shape, material and use. We deal with a true increase of a new kind of art, mannequin manufacturers struggling to cope with the need of more and more diverse approaches to the strategies of visual merchandising. Action mannequin is one of the main products that appeared as a consequence of this increase of the demand for special types of mannequins. It is a relatively new trend, although some features of an action mannequin were used before by the important brands as a way to differentiate themselves from other fashion houses in the desire of being more interesting and looking more creative.