Ralph Pucci's Still Life in Motion

"I remember growing up with the Pucci Mannequin Repair truck in our driveway," he recalls. "My father would leave early, come home late. He was the salesman; my mother handled the finances. It was a true family business."

"It almost became like a sculpture," Pucci says, "and that became a real statement."

"Retail used to be driven by creativity: from the chairman down to visual design," Pucci says. "But eventually it became about cost. They said, 'We can get these in China. They're not as good, but they're cheaper.' That was the beginning of the end."

Ralph Pucci joined his father's Manhattan-based business in 1976 and shifted the company from repairing mannequins to creating sculptural, motion-driven figures. The studio introduced dynamic poses—diving, jogging, stretching—and dramatic displays such as high-gloss white mannequins on bicycles that functioned as frozen performance pieces. Collaborations with illustrators and artists brought new, fantastical energy to the figures. As retail priorities moved from creative vision to cost-cutting, buyers increasingly sourced cheaper mannequins from abroad. Store closures and the acceleration of online retail during the pandemic led to the closure of the longtime mannequin facility staffed by skilled sculptors, sanders, and painters.

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