Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Saturday 16 February 2019

More Fun Than Fashion


I took this photo as I walked past a fancy-dress shop in Nottingham's Victoria Centre in 2015. The strange assortment of outfits, and the way they were displayed, appealed to me. Mannequins (or dummies) are usually draped in the latest fashions in department store windows, and it made a change to see something promising more fun than fashion. We are coming up to Carnival time here in Lanzarote when outfits just like this may well be on show.

Two years ago, on a visit to the Elder Museum of Science and Technology in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria (another of the Canary Islands), we saw some of the fantastic costumes that had been used in that year's carnival.




Here in Playa Blanca, where I live, I saw this shop in the Marina, The mannequins were outdone by the painting on the wall outside.



In this 2011 photo my sister-in-law feels somewhat overdressed next to these shameless mannequins awaiting the opening of a new shop, also in our local marina.


This week's  image prompt came from the Eugène Atnet album of the George Eastman Collection on Flickr Commons. Why not see what other contributors made of it by visiting the Sepia Saturday page.


Postscript. If you put the word 'mannequin into Google and hit the 'News' tab, all manner of quirky stories appear. More naked mannequins were seen from the Nottingham Wheel this week, and a dry cleaner in Worthing bids a sad farewell to 'Serena' after years of faithful service.

6 comments:

  1. All really excellent matches. Your first photo looks like a fantasy illusion ready to come to life.

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  2. I need to start taking pictures in anticipation of what a Sepia Saturday prompt MIGHT be - if only I were a mind-reader! Your naked mannequins reminded me of a photo I have of my grandbaby girl dragging around an arm she found in a department store where a naked mannequin was lying in the aisle like a crime victim.

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  3. Absolutely fun for us, these photos and descriptions are exquisite, and your second photo reminds me (slightly) of the showgirl fashion I designed for my favorite Barbie (she was a gift from my grandmother)!

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  4. Great fun photos. I have taken photographs of the traditional l fashions in Austrian windows, but never anywhere else. A good start might be Edinburgh and all the tartan shops!

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  5. Some great displays here! But that first Elder Museum carnival costume takes the cake! I wonder how the woman who wore it managed to maneuver around in it?

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  6. The fun and color and fantasy of these made for a fun post.

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