Mannequins | MARC JACOBS

SITU Fabrication was contacted by Marc Jacobs International to create six solid white oak mannequins for fashion week. The mannequins were created by butcher blocking together profiles and using both a 3- Axis and 5-axis CNC Mill to carve the shape. They were then finish sanded by hand and lacquered. My role for the project was a combination of fabrication and research. Primarily, I was in charge of the programming and operation of the 5-axis CNC mill. For this, I used the software Rhino; for the modeling, and RhinoCAM; for the programming. I was also involved in creating and laminating the rough profiles together. and conducting research for hardware options. SITU | Lakhena Raingsan, Matthew White, Abe Weissman, Amy Jarvis, Matthew Burns

Marc Jacobs Mannequins

Situ Fabrication started by scanning the form of an existing mannequin to create a 3D model, and then set up a two-stage milling process.

First, singly curved profiles were milled out of 1.7-inch-thick planks of white oak. These profiles were then glued together to create a stepped massing of the bodies. We then milled the segments again using our 5-axis CNC router to create smooth, doubly-curved surfaces.

Pieces with more detail, like the hands and feet, were created separately using a flip milling technique with large sheets of laminated white oak. We worked with custom stainless steel hardware for the connections at the shoulder and wrist. Each of the milled pieces were then sanded by hand and finished with a water-based lacquer.