I had the day off today (as the client I'm temping at only needs me three days this week, the bastards) and so I spent the morning out having a coffee, browsing bookshops, buying some knitting yarn and strolling the streets of Newtown. As you do. (Or at least, I do.) Thankfully the sun was out today and it was a little warmer than yesterday, a day which was officially The Coldest Day Of The Year.
Can I just say, thanks for nothing Global Warming!
Anyhoo. I passed a recently now ex vintage clothing store on King St south, the quieter and slightly grungier (but these days most interesting) part of my 'hood. This same store was vacant only about 4 months ago and had had a display of a variety of second hand and vintage shop fitting for sale. In amongst the detritus were two male vintage display torsos, really one hard plastic display torso and one fabric covered tailor's dummy type mannequin. Both probably 50s vintage or so, judging by the look of them.
So a second hand jeans store opened and the dummies disappeared before I got around to ringing the phone number in the window. Intending to buy the tailor's dummy style torso. I didn't realise it, but these months later the jeans are gone and the store is empty again. Entirely empty, except for two male display dummies! Yup, they were back, or maybe they never left. The exact same ones.
So today I rang the number on the For Sale sign, passed over $40 and I'm now the proud owner of a vintage tailor's mannequin. He's armless, headless, slightly careworn but I love him unreservedly. He's a perfect size medium, stoic, solid and true and with a particularly masculine cut to his gib. It was only on Tuesday that I had priced new ones in a retail display store (about $235 and upwards), but they are pale, wan creatures lacking in substance and history to this little beauty.
He's currently modelling the scarf I knitted a little while back, and I'll post a picture when I get the home computer situation sorted. Soon he's about to have a mock-up of a piece of men's knitwear I'm designing and hope to sell to a magazine. I think it's the start of something meaningful.
7 comments:
The effect of climate turmoil here seems to be damp summers. Torrential rain today and it's been chilly all week for the time of year, down to 14C. Was like this all last summer so I'm sorely pissed off.
Once I get started at the new place, I am looking at replacing my (3 yr old) laptop. It was a top of the line IBM when I bought it.
I'm going to finally take the plunge and "go Apple". Let me know if you would be interested in my old laptop.
my best friend has a manniquen and it continually models what he is working on or collecting.
they can be a lot of fun; including those lonely saturday nights.
Sounds cool, Andrew!
but is your mannequin blue like mine?
Do they still have the other one in the window?
I'm jealous! Looking forward to seeing some knitwear modeling!
What's his name?
Excellent !
love your posts...given that you've been bloggin for a while, id love to have your opinion of my place
http://xicodecadoro.blogspot.com
check it out and tell me what you think
cheers
During high school, my art teacher (who strangely resembled a mannequin himself) used to have a mannequin in the class room that we had to draw. Her name was Esmeralda. Sometimes Esmeralda was in the nude. Sometimes she wore clothes. In any case, I felt really cheated not having real live subjects for life drawing.
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