For as long as I can remember, I have loved mannequins in store windows or displays. They can be fun or hip or downright ugly, but they always seem to tell a story about the store or the person who dressed them while maintaining the latest of fashions. Lately, Old Navy adds have really hit the jack pot for me, their mannequins are cool and they are funny… love that ad series. See for yourself:

Meanwhile, on our last visit to Vermont, while shopping for deals on the day after Christmas, I spotted these two hotties at the entrance of a store, I quickly pulled my camera out of my coat pocket and snapped away:

Out of nowhere, this shrilling voice started:

Shrilling Lady: Excuse me sir, can I help yoooooooouuuuuu?
Me: I’m just taking pictures of these guys
Shrilling Lady: Well, you can’t. These are copyrighted!
Me: Yeah, like they’re already not copies of the Old Navy ones…
Shrilling Lady: Oh no, these are a little bit more upscale… And don’t try this at Victoria’s Secrets, they’ll call the police.
Me: Like I have any interest in Victoria’s Secrets…

That’s when my diplomatic sis came to the rescue and explained that I was just having fun and took the Shriller off my back… I’m sure she was more worried about the camera snapping away at “their more upscale clientele” while trying on “their more upscale clothes”… I can see it could be an issue but that was definitely far from my mind…

The thing is that 2 years prior, in the same mall, I had a similar incident while take pictures of the ugliest mannequins I had ever seen to date where a store clerk came to tell me I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in the store due to all the trademarks and copyrighted material:

I mean, they were wearing Hannah Montana rags, so I guess, I gave her the benefit of the doubt and put my camera away.

But the absolute best was when I was still living in Montreal and for kicks we’d end up at this outdated store on the main shopping street downtown and spent at least 30 minutes looking at the 15 or so mannequins in the window, all of them with dusty wigs, some of them falling to the side, broken fingers, broken feet, face peeling due to too much exposure to the sun, one even had a hole in the forehead… We went often as they kept changing the clothes with every season but the “girls” themselves remained unkempt and unattractive. Most of the time it was just my boyfriend and I laughing and giggling at the sights, but one time we took a group of friends and went before a night out at the boy bars. We laughed and made loud comments and laughed some more and pointed until all of a sudden, to our hugest of surprises, the owner for the store came outside and told us to “get the fuck away” from his store, this was a place of business not a hideaway for school kids… He was as scary as his “hotties” in the windows… and at that moment, the whole place just made sense.

I must try to go look up that store next time I’m in Montreal

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