Monday, November 11, 2013

What is Up with Venezuelan Mannequins?

"Frustrated with the modest sales at his small mannequin factory, Eliezer Álvarez made a simple observation: Venezuelan women were increasingly using plastic surgery to transform their bodies, yet the mannequins in clothing stores did not reflect these new, often extreme proportions."
So he went back to his workshop and created the kind of woman he thought the public wanted — one with a bulging bosom and cantilevered buttocks, a wasp waist and long legs, a fiberglass fantasy, Venezuelan style.

The shape was augmented, and so were sales.
William Neuman NYT

14 comments:

chickelit said...

More manqué than mannequin.

Icepick said...

This presents interesting avenues for legal revenue.

In China a man has successfully sued his wife for ugly children. Turns out the missus had a lot of work done before she met her future husband. He feels cheated because of the ugliness of his children. (Hey, how'd he get more than one?) I'm sure all the old Althouse hands will remember this one.

So this presents an obvious avenue for men in Venezuela to sue their augmented and reduced wives for ugly children. The wives in turn can now sue the stores for only selling clothes that augmented and reduced women could fit into properly.

The stores in turn can sue the mannequin maker.

The mannequin maker can sue the plastic surgeons for getting the whole damned process started.

And I'm already getting tired of this line of thinking, so the doctors will have to do their own work to figure out who to sue.

But the thing is, everyone, especially the lawyers, can now get super rich suing everyone else! Free money! Just like QE Lazy Eight!

ricpic said...

How many Venezuelan women can afford plastic surgery?! Only a tiny percentage can afford these horrible disfigurements. Most can't and of course don't know how lucky they are that they can't turn themselves into pneumatic dolls.

Icepick said...

ricpic, there's a lot of oil and drug money that has gone through Venezuela over the years. I would not be shocked to find that a fair number of men have paid for a fair number of women to get themselves augmented and reduced.

Icepick said...

Also, I believe my business plan is at least as well thought out as the FED's current set of policies for economic growth, though perhaps not as good as the underwear gnomes plan.

Unknown said...

Hilarious. Proof idiocracy is now.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

It is hot, hot, hot in Venuzuela!

Synova said...

It's not as though the mannequins were realistic before either.

:)

Synova said...

The article mentions how Chavez used to fuss about the popularity of women spending on implants and stuff.

All it really is, actually, is when you feel out of control and know that you're powerless to do anything about your situation, you focus on controlling *something*.

Calypso Facto said...

If only she had silicone-plumped lips ...

deborah said...

The breasts are not proportional to the figure. There's ample, and then there's asinine.

Titus said...

Even in Venezuela a queen dictates fashion.

Methadras said...

lol!!! money quote for the ages:

“When there is a defect, I correct it,” Mr. Sousa said. “If it can be easily fixed with surgery, then why not do it?”

For Mr. Sousa, beauty really is skin deep: “I say that inner beauty doesn’t exist. That’s something that unpretty women invented to justify themselves.”

edutcher said...

He's missing another market that could pay even bigger dividends.