Shopping For a Mannequin at Mannequin Madness

Since deciding to sell used, beautiful clothes online, I have wanted a mannequin. Clothes just look better on a real body as opposed to a hanger. But since my house is rather small, I couldn’t figure out where I would put it or if it would freak me out. I started looking for one causually online and discovered, a mannequin was not an easy thing to get. There are no mannequin stores, at least in the Bay Area. I looked for a while and then found Mannequin Madness (2020 Dennison Street, # 15, Oakland, CA, (510) 444-0650, mannequinmaddness.com), which is in a brick warehouse-type building near the Oakland water front. It is by appointment only, so I made one for last Sunday.

On Sunday, I visited Mannequin Madness to look at dress forms. I had decided that a dress form in my house would be easier to find a place for, etc... I took along my friend, Joey, who has a truck and was interested in seeing the mannequins for his own reasons. We were a little early, so we found a Starbucks near the water and had some coffee. Then we drove back to the warehouse and met Jay, the owner of Mannequin Madness. I really didn’t know what to expect, but the space was very artistic though packed tightly with mannequins. Many of them had come from department stores and were all shapes, sizes and genders. There were children and adults and pregnant women. Only one of them wore anything, so the affect was very surreal.

And looking for a dress form, I actually found a mannequin-like dress form for only $85, which was a great deal. I wanted to post some photos of my trip there because it’s the kind of place that most of us never have the chance to visit. Also included is a photo of my mannequin wearing one of my Betsy Johnson knit dresses.