DALLAS, April 24, 1999/ FW/ --- As mentioned before, the fashion dolls were the progenitor of the modern mannequin.

Originally circulated in France, the fashion dolls became popular abroad as the French fashion influence grew.

These dolls were handed from household to household after the style of dress was copied. When the styles become outmoded, they became toys for children, hence very few survived, if any.

During the early 1800s, the "fashion catalog" was introduced and the need for these unique dolls to dissiminate the latest styles ceased.

The advent of the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of new inventions such as the glass pane and filament lamps, the fledgling industry of "window trimming," or visual merchandising started to take hold in big cities.

The Industrial Revolution changed the social classes, with the expansion of the "merchant class." More money was being circulated, and the "noveau riche" can now afford what was previously available to the royals and landed gentry.

Retail stores opened in more places and the need to display fashion started to rise.

The "fashion doll" took a different form, the modern mannequin was born.

These early mannequins, like their progenitor were made of wax, wood or heavy fabric. Because they need to stand straight, their feet were made of iron. To give it shape, papier-mâché and sawdust were used to "sculpt" its form.

Often weighing over 300 lbs., these early mannequins were clumsy, hard to maintain and worst of all, they melt under the heat of the sun or the filament light.

Even with these disadvantages, the mannequins were very popular during the early days of its development.

It is hard to resist its allure, with passers by stopping by the window and gazing at them. The store window was a make-believe world and a fantasy.

Visual merchandising might be a fledgling industry, yet window trimmers instinctively knew that a store window has to tell a story, albeit frozen in a moment of time.

Window gazing became a popular past time, and it was eventually termed "window shopping."