What is a wax mannequin? You may know this history but I didn’t so here it is!
When they opened King Tut’s tomb in the 1920s, they found a torso with exactly the same measurements as the pharaoh, standing beside his clothing chest. It seems clear that fashion-forward thinkers needed to display their wares right from the get-go.
Of course the original torso was not made of wax – that was a later innovation designed to lighten the load for window display people in the early 20th century.
Fashion dolls have been used since the 1400s to demonstrate clothing destined for the wealthy in royal courts.
Marie Antoinette used to send dolls dressed in the latest fashions (her choice) back to her mother and sisters at Palais Versailles so that they could keep up!
Full-sized mannequins began to be used at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution but they were heavy, with iron frames.
By the 1920s, mannequins were made of wax, making them much easier to move around shop windows.
The art deco fashions of the day looked magnificent on the mannequins. They became poseable and were articulated. So mannequins are easy to change and are essentially leaders of fashion and ideas.
Now for the big news for music lovers in Flin Flon: Wax Mannequin, also known as Christopher Adeney, will perform a show at Johnny’s Social Club on Sunday, July 22. Tickets are already available at the Orange Toad for only $20 each. The show will start at 7:30 pm. That is all very normal for our town but that is the last of the “normal” information for this show.
Wax Mannequin is originally from Hamilton, Ont., and has just released his seventh album, Have a New Name. This album is a back-to-the-beginning approach with the producer from his early days in 2002-2003, Edwin Burnett, expanding the impromptu sessions into an album with grand piano, viola da gamba and double bass accompaniment, all backed by a 12-voice choir. It has been called “the most sonically ambitious Wax Mannequin Album to date.”
This tour is an album release event. Wax Mannequin is coming to Flin Flon direct from the Brandon Folk Festival (sorry, but there will be no time to get a review from John Scott before the gig) but his style is much more eclectic than folk fest might suggest. He is a singer-songwriter and a performer but he sometimes writes atmospheric pieces that are much longer than your average pop tune, like the nine-minute “Longest Hour,” which is a travelogue of sorts.
Other songs are more whimsical, like “Squirmy Wormy,” and yet others, according to one reviewer, “display a maturity that signals Wax Mannequin is indeed more capable of reaching wider audiences without sacrificing any of his edge.”
Earlier albums have a punk-folk vibe and early in his career he was described as a cross between Bruce Cockburn and Frank Zappa, with a bit of Tom Waits thrown in! Not going to lie, totally cool!
Have a New Name, as the seventh album for this performer, is his most fully realized.
Dean Martin, the drummer extraordinaire responsible for securing this performance for Flin Flon, has a great ear for talent and has brought us incredible performers like Foon Yap and Hello Moth in the recent past so do yourself a favor and get tickets for this show. It will be fantastic.
