When the economy of the capital accelerated its development during the third decade of the 20th century, and the department stores, precursors of the department stores, made their appearance, some businesses that until then had navigated the sea of modest profits, suffered a boost. such that it surprised even its owners.
Such was the case of the small workshops dedicated to the manufacture of mannequins, which in just a few years began to receive large orders, resulting in what is known in Darwinian theories as “the survival of the fittest”, which in this case was translated in disappearing in case of not having the necessary infrastructure or surviving if they worked day and night to cover the commitments.
After the elegant stores in the first square made the windows fashionable where flirtatious plaster damsels displayed the latest pirated fashion from Europe and gringolandia, the big stores began to fill entire sections with puppets displaying their seasonal clothes, because well That was said by that German merchant named Holding, who was one of the first to exploit the potential of this human-shaped furniture.
“Each mannequin is like a non-salaried salesperson who relentlessly promotes clothing.”
But far from business philosophies, the small artisans of this trade with workshops in Tacubaya, La Obrera and La Candelaria, coped with that boom for their product and practically put the whole family to work for weeks. It is not surprising that, given the prudishness of the time, some workers in these workshops had the label of “libidinous” stuck to their foreheads or that it was suspected that every time they passed the lacquer brush to one of their pieces, the filthy thoughts invade when touching up those modest parts.
Years before, in Spain, the case of a group of mothers of families who had launched an attack in the press against the mannequin workshops for inviting morbidity by detailing with “malignant premeditation” some genital parts in their plaster casts was reported. and even add “a rude little ball at the top of each breast”.
However, our artisans continued to receive handsome dividends for their work and ignored the gossip. That they touched the buttocks every day, yes; that they knew more about female anatomy than any lecherous doctor, too; what to
Sometimes in those lonely afternoons when passing the little brush, his fantasies raised more than one sigh, but of course!; however, above all it was an honest business that fed their families.
Sometimes there were very specific requests for the factions of each doll. Before the second half of the 20th century, the Center’s stores almost exclusively admitted mannequins with the features of Rita Hayworth, thereby promoting the ideal of the petit-bourgeois housewife that emerged in the United States; However, over time the artisans also embodied the so-called “Miroslava” fashion in their creations, and from plaster dolls with blonde hair to crowded ones, they showed the actress’s features and her “big eyes of fire”, according to an officiant of these necessities interviewed for the magazine Presente.
For the fancier boutiques that sprung up after the 1950s, some workshops offered high-quality figures almost resembling a waxwork, orders usually having to be placed several months in advance and in very small numbers. but it was well worth it, because more than one client fell in love with those flirtatious dolls that resembled movie actresses.
Some artists reached such a degree of excellence in the detail of their pieces that they even made the leap to other trades, such was the case of the famous political militant José Neira, who after founding the newspaper Revolución Social and being imprisoned, went into exile in Europe where he learned the old trade of mannequin making. Years later, upon his return to Mexico City, he created a workshop, but the quality of his dolls was such that he soon became a wax figure artist and founded the first museum of this type on Calle de Argentina, number 21. in our country, later transferred by his children to the well-known compound of the Juárez neighborhood. There is no doubt that every man has a destiny.
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2023-08-13 10:53:24
#art #mannequins #universal
