Analogue Chic

Posts Tagged ‘visual merchandising’

Besides people watching, I did a lot of window watching as well.

I saw a lot of fantastic displays, especially in men’s shops, with pocket squares and neck ties.  Of course, you can’t beat a good milliner for window fantasia.

Left to right: a men’s shop in the Upper East Side; Kate’s Paperie; Kokin.

These were all a nice aperitif for my interest in visual merchandising and staging.  At the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, I found this book in the shop: Arranging Things: a Rhetoric of Object Placement – it’s an interesting idea, although the reviews are bad.

More on the Cooper-Hewitt to come…

Well, not really.  I’ve just been super busy and stressed out.  So it’s taken me a few weeks to post about my latest window design at the Salvation Army Store.

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So, it’s a bird theme.  I was thinking of birdwatching in the springtime.  Oh, and the bird that was taking up residence in our dryer vent may have had something to do with it…

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The new Salvation Army Store window display is up– OK, it’s been up for a couple of weeks.  It is such a pain to try to get good pictures through glass, dirty, splattered glass.  Sorry, I did my best.

The theme, for the next month and a half, is "Garden Party".  This is a pretty straightforward window, just a tableau of mannequins with a few props, nothing elaborate.  The full-figure mannequins are dressed in casual party clothes, with a mismatched, multiculti twist.  The metal outline mannequins (there’s got to be a better term for these…) are wearing some lovely West African-style robes.  The tea table is set with a really pretty floral teapot, black tea cups on kiwi-pattern saucers.  The backdrop is white, pink and green, with paper blossoms scattered across, and swirls of leaves attached to the window.  East Asian-style paper umbrellas are hung strategically throughout.

I love gardens, and I especially love parties in gardens, so I wanted to create that feeling of an outdoor room, with an easygoing, multicultural guest list.  And yes, the "African" trends of the season are on my mind, but I wanted to interpret African fashion as something cosmopolitan and chic, rather than exotic and curious or campy.

The last photo in the set is my favorite mannequin, just a colorful, cute outfit that would look amazing with ballet flats…

Also a plus for me, this was my least expensive window to date. Nice!

See it in real life!  Main Street, Danbury.

Paper umbrellas, about $8 at Danbury Dollar and Gift, 249 Main Street.  Main Street love!