Photo below: Adel Rootstein Mannequin.
Photos by Marsha Bentley Hale

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I had six weeks until graduation so I came up with the wild idea to take a five week Mannequin Adventure in Europe to further trace the history of mannequins. A key stop would be Euroshop in Dusseldorf, Germany.

At Euroshop major mannequin manufacturers present their latest lines of display figures. This would give me the opportunity to introduce myself and request an audience with each company to find out more about the history of mannequins.

I had never traveled to Europe by myself. I had done extensive research in London regarding the ancestry of display mannequins however I had only visited a few cities in France by train, riding on the coattails of a friend.

I basically had one credit card with a very small limit, and very little “dinero”. I managed to buy a month long Eurail pass. My friend whom I had traveled with previously gave me a briefing on how to travel the trains.

I had one last visit with Eric and Leza Lidow telling them of my intent to dig up the history of mannequins in Europe. They surprised me with a gift of five hundred dollars. As a bonafide starving student it was a fortune to me.

At Euroshop one of the people I met was Adel Rootstein. When I told her of my quest to learn about the history of mannequins she invited me to visit her showroom in London and stay at Blakes Hotel as her guest.

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