Mannequins. The cornerstone of every visual merchandisers worldview. As the world of retail design grows and evolves, more and more retailers and mannequin manufacturers are exploring and reinventing the traditional forms of display. Mannequin design is constantly evolving, with new styles, treatments and even materials used to produce the mannequins all changing with social mores and global sensibilities. Visual merchandising has become an art form in itself, combining the expression inherent in art with the commercial representations necessary in retail design.
Being at the forefront of retail design in India, Restore’s own VM team is constantly travelling, exploring and documenting global trends in order to stay at the cutting edge of the business and create new benchmarks in retail design. Tanisha Arora, Restore’s own Visual Merchandiser, takes a look at last season’s mannequins trends and gives a context and a perspective on the path that mannequin evolution is taking today.
- Is your mannequin Strategy doing all it can to sell you inventory and your Brand?
- Do you even have a mannequin strategy for your brand?
- How do you dress your mannequins for optimum sales success?
Seasonality and Trends
Dressed mannequins should always reflect the most current trends to introduce customers to something new and exciting. First select what needs to be pushed (New Item/New collection). Assure that selected garments complement each other.
Styling Effectively
- Accessories and Add-ons are important to the style story of the mannequins.
- Focus on colour and contrast. Contrasting accessories/Jewel tones will pop up against each other to highlight small accents.
- Treat the colour of your mannequin as a backdrop for the clothing, too. Use dark mannequins to show light clothing best and vice versa.
- A widely accepted rule of thumb is to change your mannequins’ clothing every two weeks.
Mannequin Positioning
- Reposition mannequins each time you redress them.
- Complement the the backdrop/surrounding of the mannequin to achieve maximum attention.
- Use mannequins in active stances to show movement of clothes.
The 2014 season took mannequin design and utilisation to a level that had not been seen before. As a work-in-progress in the fluid, constantly evolving world of mannequin design and display, the trends of 2014 allow us to understand the directions and influences that are being created and assimilated in this field. It augurs a worldview that will allow visual merchandisers to seek new paradigms of merchandise display and to create environments that augment user experience and comfort and integrate seamlessly into all other aspects of retail design.