HOUSTON — A house under construction in southeast Houston is turning heads thanks to a pair of mannequins on display from the window.
“It’s crazy though cause you never seen nothing like that,” laughed Ciro Ramirez, who works near the home on McHenry Street in Southeast Houston’s Golfcrest neighborhood. “Be a supervisor! Make sure they workin’!”
In fact, Ramirez thought the two unclothed mannequins positioned in front of a large window on the home’s second flood were the workers. In the past, mannequins dressed like a construction crew have been positioned outside, seen by neighbors, and featured in photos on Swamplot, a real estate website.
“This is tame to what you usually see out here,” said Margaret Kiesel, one of the homeowners, of the current display.
Kiesel says her husband, Jorge Nava, has positioned mannequins in several different scenes with up to 15 on display at a time.
“He’ll move them, he’ll have their hands poking out the window like if they’re waiving to people. Usually you’ll have them climbing ladders or on top of scaffolds, just all throughout the yard, by the trees,” laughed Kiesel. “He just really gets into it.”
Kiesel, an interior designer, says she had worked on a project in the Galleria, and when Saks Fifth Avenue moved to their new location, they sold a lot of their inventory in their old store.
The couple bought mannequins to display as art in their home of more than 20 years. However, Kiesel says when the remodeling process took longer than expected, currently going on three years, the couple decided to try to make the inconvenience a little more fun for themselves and their neighbors.
“It’s been a labor of love, I’ll tell you that,” said Nava. “The thing is, they’re not dolls. Like my father-in-law says, I’m out there ‘playing with my dolls’. He’s got about half an acreage, and I’ve got the other 100 (mannequins) over there.”
The couple says those mannequins have drawn quite a crowd, from first responders to helicopter pilots from nearby Hobby Airport.
“Nothing negative, everything positive,” said Kiesel. “You can see the (pilots) giving you a thumbs up, and then they fly away.”
Nava says the displays have also helped him and his wife meet their neighbors, creating new connections in his lifelong neighborhood.
“It’s not the neighborhood that makes you,” said Nava. “You make it.”
The couple hopes to wrap up their home renovations by late summer or fall. One idea Nava is considering once it’s complete: positioning the mannequins throughout the home to simulate a cocktail party underway.