The first distinctive changes were cautious: fluttering, real-life lashes and movable glass eyes. Later, as the times grew more daring, belly buttons appeared between skimpy bikini halves; dimpled knees and smooth, fleshy thighs flashed below microminis; nipples poked through braless blouses. Even mannequins, it seems, keep up with the times.
Last week a window of Manhattan's R.H. Macy's displayed the latest trend in store dummies: "groupings." There, apparently engaged in conversation, was a trio of plastic, stylized males with featureless faces and bald heads. Such clusters of interacting mannequins, now on display at many major department stores, often waltz, golf, and...