Mannequin maker thrives on legwork.

• Position: Bob McNeill - People - Company profile

Mannequin maker thrives on legwork

Hands are the first to go. Then you have to worry about arms, legs, torsos and faces.

That's according to mannequin-maker Bob McNeill, who works knee-deep in body parts, fashioning new limbs for customers who come up empty-handed.

One of only about a dozen mannequin makers in the country, McNeill, 44, works from a cluttered outdoor studio south of Fayetteville, sculpting bodies from fiberglass and latex. A top-quality refinished mannequin from McNeill's shop costs from $195 to $295; new bodies run $300 to $600 or more. A pair of new hands sells for $39.95.

Though he doesn't keep a body count, McNeill figures he refinishes and creates several hundred mannequins each year. Business is brisk, but McNeill, who declines to give sales volume, says profits are modest if you take into account the long hours he spends on his creations.

His busiest time is from January to April, as stores revamp for the new season. The hot mannequin look is as fickle as fashion, McNeill says: "We go from basic realism to idealism and graphics, from suntan to light or alabaster."

Today's look is sophisticated, cold and detached -- "a tragic mirror...