One thing I learned during the grand opening of downtown’s CityTarget (read all about it) is that the urban store has mannequins and the ones in the suburbs don’t.

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Why is such the case? Is it because urban people tend to be fitter than suburban people? Meaning, slim mannequins make sense in the city and don’t make sense outside the city? But why doesn’t Target use plus-size mannequins? Maybe it’s a cultural and historical thing: mannequins have their roots in the urban. Before malls, downtown was the shopping center. A return to the city, meant a return to the roots of shopping: using mannequins.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...