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Mannequins are a mirror of how we would like to be, a glamorous alternative of who we are. In 1964 Adel Rootstein developed the first celebrity mannequin when she sculptured a 14 year old Twiggy. Since then the "ideal glamour woman" has been used as a template, from Lynda Carter to Victoria Beckham, depending on current social preferences.
They also mirror our social times. After World War II mannequins were made with happy smiles as they welcomed the troops home. In the months following 9/11 the mannequins in New York were somber and draped in red white and blue. Six months later mannequins had lost their heads and the windows of New York were without glamour or personality. It took more than a year before frivolity returned. The mannequins of Hollywood Boulevard mirror a slightly tawdry, totally unreal sexuality.
Mannequins mirror the cityscape back at us on the windows they hide behind. City reflections take the mannequins out of the window and place them firmly in our world where they are very much alive. Like us. The city they inhabit is familiar but is seen eerily in reverse. The city reflections put the mannequin in a time and space, from the skyscrapers of New York, to the grand emporiums of Regent Street London and to the country shop fronts of rural Australia. | 
