(Roughly) Daily

Seigel & Stockman was founded in Paris in 1867 and began trading in London in the nineteen-twenties, manufacturing paper maché dummies for couture houses and dressmakers’ showrooms, and benefitting from the rise of department stores. When Peter [Ferstendik, the owner] acquired the company, it was independent of the parent and operating with fifteen employees from a factory on Old St, still making mannequins in the traditional manner as it had done for one hundred and thirty years.

Today, with five times the staff, Proportion>London produces fibreglass models alongside the original paper maché and has diversified into a wide range of display mannequins for retail and museum use that are continually redesigned and updated. “Our competitors copy our mannequins,” admitted Peter, with more than a hint of swagger,“but we are always a year ahead. The only time we should worry is if they stop copying us!”…

Join Spitalfields Life and photographer Patricia Niven “At the Mannequin Factory.”

* Karl Lagerfeld

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As we check for Chucky, we might recall that it was on this date in 1978 that Donna Summer reached the top of the Billboard pop chart for the first time.  Already famous on the disco scene for Georgio Moroder’s “Love To Love You, Baby,”  Summer needed material to fill out a double album (released as Live and More).  She latched onto a piece written in the late 60s by Jim Webb (who had penned hits like “By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston,” and “Up, Up and Away”; originally intended as a 22-minute cantata, it was first recorded in 1967 by actor Richard Harris as a 7 minute single– “MacArthur Park” (which, while Dave Barry’s readers voted it “Worst Song Ever,” reached #2 on the charts).  A decade later Summer recorded a 9-minute album version of the tune that was edited down to 3:45 for release as a single…  which sold millions of copies, and earned Summer a Grammy nomination for “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.”

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