California Apparel News

Need a barometer of society’s changing beauty ideals? Call Norman Glazer at Patina-V. Retailers around the world employ him to build mannequins their shoppers will find ravishing.

In December, Patina-V built one of the first size-20 mannequins. In February, the company will debut another first: a series of hip-hop mannequins frozen in break-dancing moves. Several years ago, Patina- V was one of the first companies to sculpt a wheelchair-bound mannequin.

Venturing into new mannequin styles is a risk for the City of Industry, Calif.–based company, the biggest mannequin manufacturer on the West Coast and one of the biggest mannequin makers in the world.

“It’s a gamble, but it’s an educated gamble,” said Glazer, president of Patina-V. “Fashion dictates what we have to do. Lifestyle dictates what we have to do.”

Patina-V’s research department devours news on fashion and beauty as well as intelligence from salons and apparel manufacturers to find the next big trends in beauty. Sometimes those trends turn up in the new shapes of Patina’s mannequins, which the company showcases twice annually at trade shows, including the March run of Global Shop in Las Vegas.

Other times Patina-V gets requests for new looks directly from retailers. The size-20 mannequin came about, for example, after enough retailers asked for mannequins that more accurately represented their customers. Satisfying this request meant building a beautiful female figure with a voluptuous shape in a size 20, said Bob Lade, a Patina-V account manager. “She’s toned, well-proportioned and has a flat stomach,” he said.

A few years ago, the Kohl’s Corp. requested that Patina-V create a representation of the disabled community that shops at its stores. Patina-V’s sculptors responded with a pretty female figure seated in a wheelchair.

Retailers may be looking for new mannequin looks, but they’ll never get rid of the mannequin altogether, according to Lyn Tobman, department chair of visual communications at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising.

“Clothes have little hanger appeal,” Tobman said. “Mannequins give you a portrait of how clothes will fit on the body.”

Finding the right way to show clothes is expensive, though. Glazer said sculpture and molding can cost in the neighborhood of $12,000 for a single mannequin.

But, he said, it’s been a good business. Patina-V started in 1987 with five employees. The private company kicked off 2004 with more than 150 salespeople, factory workers and professional sculptors, including John Jebb, a former sculpture instructor at Pasadena, Calif.’s Art Center. The company survived a consolidation in the mannequin industry in the 1990s that left fewer than 10 major mannequin manufacturers in the world.

In the past few years, Patina-V’s clients have included Victoria’s Secret, Bergdorf Goodman and Macy’s, as well as boutique retailers such as A. Mason on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Some of Patina-V’s daring lines include “Vanities,” a set of elongated figures that would make modernist artist Modigliani smile, and the clean, airbrushed look of “Image/Men,” eggshell-white figures with minimalist features.

An estimated 70 percent of Patina- V’s mannequins are what the company calls “workhorses”: handsome, realistic-looking mannequins that could fit in well anywhere. Thirty percent are specialty mannequins.

Sculptor Michael Zadowicz said quickly changing tastes mean some mannequins get only 15 minutes of fame in department store windows.

“They’re a different kind of commercial art,” Zadowicz said. “They’re what we see from the culture.”