If you think the staid old mannequin business is all about drab ivory formsupon which department stores hand the new fashion line, think again. Whenstores need mannequins that are more than mere molded human shapes, theyturn to the 45-year-old Pucci, a man who takes the mannequin over themoon.

Rich is a department-store chain based in Atlanta, wanted a tasteful,attractive mannequin to model clothing styles for bigger women, so it soughtour Pucci. His solution was Birdie - a voluptuous flirt with her eyesclosed, her lips pursed and an attitude as a big as her 112 centimeter hips.And New York's Saks Fifth Avenue drew crowds to its windows in 1998 when itdraped John Bartlett fashions from a line of Pucci's pastel-colored,cartoonish mannequins, Swirly, being the star. Others in the group includedEyvis, a one-eyed orange dummy with a purple pompadour and sideburns; andJet, a yellow lad with blue hair and a goofy smile.

Not all of Pucci's creations are weird or outsize, but there is always anartsy edge and custom jobs are his speciality. For the Rock and Roll Hall ofFame in Cleveland, Pucci developed extra-thin mannequins to fit clothes onceworn by superskinny rockers such as Jimi Hendrix and Sid Vicious.

"Ralph is fabulous", says Ignaz Gorixchek, a vice-president at Neiman MarcusGroup Inc, on a recent trip to the Pucci studio in Manhattan, where he triedGucci and Prada suits on a mannequin being designed exclusively for theretailer. "He is unique because he's always looking for a new twist, a newinterpretation for mannequins. Nobody else in the United States doesthat".

A sense of the bizarre is as strong as the smell of paint in the Pucciworkshop. As a few dozen employees busily pour and polish mannequins inprogress, freshly painted body parts dangle on a line. Torsos await limbs.And boxes of hands fill the shelves along one wall.

There is also a whiff of money. Mr Pucci won't reveal sales for hisprivately held business, Pucci International Ltd. But demand is so strongthat Pucci hopes to crank out 250 mannequins a week this year, up from 200 aweek in 1999. His dummies sell for about $1,000 each (compared with about$500 for run-of-the-mill department store mannequins), thus his sales couldtop $13 million.

The mannequin mogul's secret is his stable of artists and fashionistas whowork on his designs. Fashion designer Anna Sui, supermodel Verushka,architect Rubin Toledo and pop artist Kenny Sacharf, among others, all havecollaborated with Mr Pucci to transform mannequins into objects thatsometimes attract more attention than the clothes they model.

A handful of other shops in US also make upscale mannequins; chief amongthem are Adel Rootstein Inc and Goldsmith Inc, both of New York. But interms of the weird and the wild, Pucci's designs stand alone, a distinctionthat has helped his shop withstand consolidation in the industry over thepast decade. "Pucci does things that are much more stylish and sophisticatedthan anyone else", says Ken Smart, a vice president at the Saks Fifth Avenueunit of Saks Inc.Adds Simon Doonan, the window designer for Barneys NewYork, "Ralph has created his own little Bauhaus."

Forming a Career
Pucci rose from modest beginnings. His father, Nicholas Pucci, operated amannequin-repair shop in New York. Instead of joining the family business,Ralph Pucci went to college to study journalism. But jobs were hard to comeby when he graduated in 1976, so he decided to help out around the repairshop while floating his resume about.

Soon, he realised there was more opportunity in producing mannequins than inpatching them. Inspired by the Olympic, he came up with mannequins inathletic poses--diving or doing handstand s--for retailers such a Macy's,which decked out the entire first floor of its San Francisco stories withthe figures. He started experimenting with abstract forms and color--one ofhis first successful creations was a sleek, glossy-back mannequin withambiguous, flowing features that graced a Barneys window in the 1970s.

Business grew steadily until the late 1980s, when an economic downturnforced many department stores into bankruptcy and left others hurrying tocut costs. "When the economy got strange, people were not buying zillions ofmannequins anymore", Pucci says. To survive, he was forced to start knockingoff the cheaper dressmaker form s--the headless, limbless dummies thatpopulate many store windows. Shopping as a national pastime in US lost someits pizazz back them, he recalls. "It was just sop predictable and boring",Pucci says. By the mid-1990s, department stores had rebounded and werelooking for ways to create a buzz and bring shoppers back. In 1994, heworked with Naira Kalman, a children's author and illustrator, to develop anunusual; line of mannequins called Tango, based on characters from herstories. The whimsical dummies, with features such as ponytails and unturnednoses that are more commonly found on children's dolls, were a hit withretailers. With the Tango line, Mr Pucci's artistic mannequins came backinto high demand.

About that time, Pucci moved his operations to a sprawling loft inManhattan's Chelsea district. From his brick-waled penthouse, with views ofthe World Trade Center and the Empire State Building, he kicks off each newcollection with a party catering to the downtown art scene.

(To be concluded)
(The Asian Wall Street Journal)