TINY MANNEQUINS

Evening Star, Issue 21077, 14 April 1932, Page 11

TINY MANNEQUINS

• ■ 1 ■“ ONE GUINEA A SHOW LONDON FASHION PARADES. Sinco Britain went off the gold standard the demand for mannequins has increased by 40 to 45 per cent, because of tho growing popularity of British fashions. Many, mannequins are attending three dress parades a day, and some of them are earning ns much as sgs daily," said a London fashion expert a few weeks ago. “ I have never known the demand for mannequins to bo so groat as at the present time. Mannequins of all ages from sis to sixty, and of outside build weighing 14st, are in demand at leading fashion houses. ’’ Dress parades are now as popular in the provinces as in London, and hundreds of displays are being held daily throughout the country to show British fashions. Tiny tots receive a guinea for attending a dress parade that lasts for fifteen minutes. Some children earn more than their mothers.

"The training of*fc!)ild mannequins must be very carefully carried out. They are forbidden to use any form of make-up, and must display no sign of affectation, All their actions must be perfectly natural. One of the main points is to prevent the children from becoming vain, for it is only natural that the constant wearing of pretty dresses should give little girls a desire for luxuries. They arc made lo believe that these drosss, which would look pretty on the little girls before whom they appear, look very plain on themselves. “ The life of an adult mannequin is governed in some establishments by rules as strict as those for a jockey. She must neither smoke nor drink, and she must not keep late hours. She must visit a manicurist and n hairdresser daily, and must see a dentist regularly. She must watch her weight and her complexion. “ Formerly few mannequins were able to, retain their posts after the age of thirty in spite of these, rigid rules; but Hie present demand for mannequins of every ago and every build lias relieved tho ending ol one of its greatest tenors—advancing ytms."