DALLAS, Jun 21, 1999/ FW/ --- Are you Buying? is one of the seven questions asked in this FIT exhibit.

If there is one use of the mannequin which is recognized worldwide, it is their use as a sales tool for retailers.

Visual merchandising might be a new word. It was not coined until the 20th century, but it has been practiced by retailers for the past 200 years.

Are You Buying? presented a wide range of display mannequins - from early wax figures to the Theatre de la Mode fashion dolls to the new plus-size mannequins by Pucci.

From the early mannequins to the modern, this area of the exhibition illustrated the various forms, sizes, and silhouettes that display mannequins take.

The upturned nose, the provocative poses, the almost alien-face of today's mannequins challenges the ideals of beauty, consumption, desire, spectacle and style.

The support of the mannequin manufacturers were also very apparent by lending FIT their historical and latest lines of mannequins.