Aug 8, 1999 / FW/ --- Moving into the early 1970s, Hindsgaul of Copenhagen introduced the stylistic collection called Gazelle.

Gazelle leaped into new realms of haughty sensuality. Women had, indeed, gone beyond the narrow 1960s scope.

Male mannequins, on the other hand, had not quite loosened up. Strangely enough, the older, slightly balding male figure was beginning to come into his own.

As if in rebuttal to the gasoline shortages and worldwide financial problems, Hindsgaul also came out with its male Super series, a few of which laughed out loud via facial expressions and gestures.

Shortly thereafter, the company introduced the "Young Latins" and "Ebony".

Decter of Los Angeles presented it's Reflections VII collection with Asian and Black mannequins "walking" arm in arm.

During the 1970s, life situations were emphasized in presentation, with figures interacting, sometimes touching. It was a decade of "let's communicate, let's tell a story, let's liberate our bodies."

By the end of the decade, some mannequins began to show pain, worry and stress in the intensity of their expressions and body attitudes. There also existed an undercurrent of abstract figures that were pushing aside realism, such as Greneker/Wolf & Vine produced Princepessa.

Conceived by Henry Callahan, she was graceful with extraterrestrial presence. She could have passed for the sister of Mr. Spock from the "Star Trek".

The Italian firm Prifo, which becane Almax, produced "Close Encounters", hi-tech humanoids with extreme and abbreviated body language.

Such figures read quite well by the new breed of minimalists and work in perfectly with the computer age of the 1980s.