The Mechanical Smile

Title: The Mechanical Smile
Author: Caroline Evans
Published: 2013
Publisher: Yale University Press
Pages: 338

Modernism and the first fashion shows in France and America 1900 -1929

The story of fashion modeling is far from exciting. On the contrary, it is stupefyingly monotonous. What gives it meaning are its commercial and cultural structures.

“Mannequin as a term for women who modelled was not adopted before approximately 1870.”

“The word mannequin derives from the Dutch “mainikin””