KARACHI: They don’t move or say anything but they dress well. Roaming in the mannequin market on the first floor of Karim Centre, a busy shopping centre in Saddar, brings to mind the 1987 movie Mannequin, where the mannequin on display in a shop window comes to life as Emmy. The hit movie caught people’s imagination which gave way to a sequel in 1991. One also thinks about the internet video trend, the Mannequin Challenge where live groups of people stand still as a camera films them. Could it be that these dummies, some of them with pretty features, are alive?

The fiberglass Chinese female mannequin could have been alive but it is missing both its arms and legs, so I guess not. “They can be assembled easily,” says the shopkeeper who has the arms on a shelf and its legs popping out from a box. The mannequin is also missing an eyelash. The shopkeeper smiles. “Maybe the eyelash glue dried up. No worries, we will give her new eyelashes,” the shopkeeper smiles and says, adding that the lashes are the same extensions worn by ladies.

There are several kind of mannequins. The plastic ones are all made in Punjab. They have the female or male form but are missing heads and are called hangers, and they only have a front, no back as they are hung against walls. They come in a variety of colours such as skin colour, white, black, pink and golden. They cost only Rs100 a piece and are favourites with un-stitched shalwar kameez suit shops that hang the suits on them.

There are male hangers and mannequins, too. Some have features and even mustaches and beards while others have smooth heads with no features at all. There are also child mannequins for modeling children’s clothes. “They can also be made to order,” says Mohammad Farooq of Umair Ali Brothers. “Of course the full mannequins provide a better display than the headless hangers,” he says.

“We also make fiberglass mannequins in Punjab, but the China-made ones have better finishing.”

The mention of the China-made mannequins made one turn around to glance back at the one missing an eyelash. Did it wink? There was an urge to ask the shopkeeper if he also saw what I had seen. But better sense prevailed.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2018