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Life as the textile expert at a regional history museum

Monday, September 7, 2015

Labor Day Mannequin Roundup

Sometimes I think I should rename this blog "Mannequins I Laughed At Today" or maybe start an Instagram account for weird museum clothing displays. I'm gathering quite a collection.

Last weekend I was in a museum in Vancouver, and snapped a pic of this "1920s" mannequin that is clearly an escapee from a mall in the 1980s.


I also saw some pretty good mannequin dressing this week. The EMP Museum in Seattle is hosting an exhibit about the costumes of Star Wars and there was clearly some custom work done for that show.

Standard mannequins don't usually have a "light saber fight" option or a "electrocuting someone with the force" pose. 

I particularly enjoyed this set of Emperor Palpatine mannequins that got increasingly hunched over as he got more evil.


The show was really heavy on costumes from the prequels. There was a lot that was underwhelming about those movies, but they certainly went for it with the costumes. I visited the exhibit with some other costume and textile people and we were going nuts for the fabrics and designs. 

Look at that Sleeve
LOOK AT THAT SLEEVE
That is a good sleeve.

Here are two senator costumes from the prequels. We could not figure out what was going on with this cream colored fabric. Is it woven? Some sort of fused or felted fabric? A combo? Also, how great is that furry muppet coat in the background? Too bad these were probably only on screen for a few minutes on some characters that no one cared about. 

After the Star Wars exhibit I wandered into the "We Are 12" Seahawks exhibit. Other than the Lombardi trophy and a Super Bowl ring, it was pretty light on artifacts. The only mannequin was an outfit worn by one of the Sea Gal cheerleaders. The dressing job was fine, but geez. THAT is ALL they WEAR!?

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