Last Christmas, Bloomingdale’s in cooperation with Warner Brothers
Pictures chose the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ as the theme for its holiday
windows.
With the film then set to hit movie houses December 22, the tie-up
became a great example of using the store window as a promotional
tool other than merchandise.
As the sign said, ‘Each window recreates a pivotal scene and features
actual set pieces and costumes used in the film.’
And for those familiar with the ‘Phantom of the Opera,’ the
recreation was so realistic that you can even hear the music just
looking at the store windows though the soundtrack might not be
playing.
'Phantom of The Opera' 'Phantom of The Opera' The stars of
‘Phantom of the Opera’ in this case are the mannequins, playing the
roles of Christine, Raoul and the Phantom.
This gives new meaning to the paraphrased line from Shakespeare,
‘All windows are a stage and mannequins are mere players.’
Obviously, realistic mannequins were used in this presentation. The
enchanting part about it is that using wigs and make up, the
mannequins were made to look like Emmy Rossum and Patrick
Wilson who played Christine and Raoul in the film.
As we already know, mannequins have been used in a lot of
Hollywood films as ‘body doubles’ for action scenes, especially when
something has to be blown up. Using a stuntman might be too
dangerous in terms of life and limb; hence mannequin body doubles
are used.
So, it is not surprising to see mannequins that resemble a real person.
After all, all realistic mannequins have been sculpted with a real
person as a model. Two of the most famous ones are Twiggy and
Erin O’Connor mannequins created by Adel Rootstein.
These store windows enter the annals of visual merchandising
history as bringing a stage play to life.
