Sales Floor Why are all the mannequins white?

Ringwraith917

Ringwraith917

Professional Badass
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Walking past the Houston White display in men's and the thought occurred to me which hadn't before in the 18 years I've worked here (possibly showing my general insensitivity to these issues). The collection is targeted towards racial minority audiences, right? (I reach this conclusion based on all the models in the photos being of a minority) Why is the mannequin white? Oh, all the mannequins are white. WTF?
Does anyone know if the idea of more racially representative mannequins has been considered?
 
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This is an interesting question to bring up. Communication is always very clear when setting Black History Month or Latino Heritage Month to not use any mannequins at all so that there is no question of what ethnicity is being represented for those collections. I'm going to guess because the Houston White collection is not geared specifically toward a particular minority like BHM & LHM are, it is ok to use a mannequin there.
Also there is this on .com & he's used on multiple items:

Screenshot_20240320-153512.png
 
Well, they also have no hair. I've seen other, non-Target, stores where all the mannequins are just like ours except black or gold or silver. I think the idea is for the mannequins, bland as they are, to not distract from the clothing on them and for some basic uniformity other than size and shape.
Just noticed that we have a pregnant one where the maternity clothes are.
 
Some of the ones at Dicks are 25% larger than life size with huge muscles. Kinda like The Captain. Never paid any attention to the color or facial likeliness. I get my work out stuff from the institutional selection at Amazon. Cheaper.
 
Black Sheep 214 said:
Well, that’s creepy…
Click to expand...
Like this old episode of Seinfeld.

seinfeld.fandom.com

The Pie

"The Pie" is the fifteenth episode of Season Five. It aired February 17, 1994, and it was written by Tom Gammill & Max Pross. Tom Cherones directed it. Jerry is miffed after his girlfriend Audrey (Suzanne Snyder) refuses to take a bite of his pie (by shaking her head and not giving Jerry a...
seinfeld.fandom.com seinfeld.fandom.com
 
Dream Baby said:
Like this old episode of Seinfeld.

seinfeld.fandom.com

The Pie

"The Pie" is the fifteenth episode of Season Five. It aired February 17, 1994, and it was written by Tom Gammill & Max Pross. Tom Cherones directed it. Jerry is miffed after his girlfriend Audrey (Suzanne Snyder) refuses to take a bite of his pie (by shaking her head and not giving Jerry a...
seinfeld.fandom.com seinfeld.fandom.com
Click to expand...
The only thing I remember about this episode is the stuff with Poppie not washing his hands and Jerry refusing to eat the pizza. As a germaphobe, that always stuck with me, lol.
 
Black Sheep 214 said:
Well, that’s creepy…
Click to expand...

It comes in handy to curse them out by name when you're fighting to get a pair leggings on & need to reattach a leg at the same time. Or when you have to put on their shoes for eleventeenth time because they always fall off. That's right, I'm talking about you, Evelyn!
 
You’re supposed to envision yourself in the outfit. The mannequin is meant to not be seen, as in you see yourself. Anyone can look good in this outfit.

If we had dark mannequins people would question the wardrobe placed on them versus white ones. Heck maybe some vms would inadvertently dress them differently.
 
Dead and Khaki said:
Ours are literally white, matching the rest of the fixtures. I never saw that as implying white race. What other color would look good with the surroundings? Gray, maybe?
Click to expand...
When mannequins first came out, I remember reading the document about it and while I don't recall the exact wording, they did say that multiracial mannequins were not planned "at this time".

I'm surprised they never implemented multiracial mannequins.
 
oath2order said:
When mannequins first came out, I remember reading the document about it and while I don't recall the exact wording, they did say that multiracial mannequins were not planned "at this time".

I'm surprised they never implemented multiracial mannequins.
Click to expand...

Kohl's has mannequins with different colors throughout their stores. I find it distracting (along with them being shiny). The consistency of having the same color gives a better brand presence.
 
Just speculation but I always thought they used white because it wouldn’t clash with any color clothing and since lighter colors reflect light better it makes the clothes show out better, especially under the spotlights. But who knows? Maybe white ones are basic generics and they’re cheaper. Spot does love a deal…😂😂😂
 
SigningLady said:
Kohl's has mannequins with different colors throughout their stores. I find it distracting (along with them being shiny). The consistency of having the same color gives a better brand presence.
Click to expand...

And I do think it goes better with the "modernist" vibes the stores want too.
 

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