Analogue Chic

Posts Tagged ‘window display’

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!

{This is my latest adventure in window dressing.  I’m really proud of this one, especially the t-shirt gowns.  I have so much fun doing this, I get such a creative high I can work for hours without a bathroom or lunch break.  The following is a sort of artist’s statement I wrote up, just as a practice exercise for myself as I’m trying to be more professional with my creative output, and build up my portfolio.  As always, all feedback is very welcome.}

My latest window installation at the local Salvation Army store has a CandyLand theme.  I wanted a unique and uplifting look to take the window from the holidays through the rest of winter, without latching on to cliché images of Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day, nor a Currier & Ives/winter sports theme.  I chose bright colors with a lot of contrast, mixed with white, to reference the ongoing winter season while also being cheerful.   

The backdrop is a gradient of royal blue to white, with the fabric draped to imitate snow banks or a horizon.  The 3 female mannequins are dressed in outfits constructed entirely from draped and pinned t-shirts.  Each one presents a gradient of color contrasting with white– blues, pinks to red, and greens—referencing peppermint candies, as well as other seasonal images.  The blue-white figure was influenced by the Frost Princess of the original CandyLand game, as well as Frosta of the She-Ra franchise.  The pink/red/white figure is a representation of Valentine’s Day and the traditional red and white Starburst mints.  The green/white (inadvertently) refers to St. Patrick’s Day, as well as spearmint candies.  The male mannequin is dressed in a vintage button-front shirt in medium brown, with a red t-shirt draped like a scarf, representing chocolate covered cherries or strawberries.  The metal frame mannequins are dressed in solid t-shirts with a contrasting white t-shirt draped like a scarf, serving as background figures.  There is also a tableau of shoes reflecting the same range of candy colors (pink, royal blue, white, gold), and brightly colored handbags hang on the backdrop.  Throughout the display are interspersed paper snowflakes and spirals, and foam flowers and shapes all in bright, contrasting colors.

 The placement and size of the access door continue to be a challenge for me—it is difficult to conceal while still allowing access for safety reasons.  The mannequins are in rough shape, and the lack of spotlighting in the window limits its visibility and attraction for shoppers.  Ideally, I would like to find some suppliers to donate in-kind services to clean the store, wash the windows and line them with UV-protective finish, and refurbish and install lighting in the display window.

I think that this display is a drastic improvement from the last one, although it is maybe not appropriate to compare because the styles are very different.  The all-fabric background in bright colors is a big enhancement, an interesting but not distracting foundation for the scene in front.  I’m very proud of my use of t-shirts as costume material—they have flexible drape, saturated colors, and interesting shape, allowing for an infinite range of designs.  This is also a subtle commentary on the unsustainable excess of “disposable” clothing production and the use of the t-shirt as a “free” giveaway at events, a very costly waste of resources.

I half jokingly hatched this plan several months ago, but after seeing the same window display at the Salvation Army since this summer, I got serious.  I volunteered to dress the window display.  And it's a win-win: hopefully, it will attract customers, and I get to practice styling and composition, and also play with clothes and decorations that I otherwise have no way to include in my collection.  It took about 2 hours to strip the window and find the clothes and objects I wanted to use, and then about 4 hours, with the help of The Fiance, to dress it completely.  And the results: 

Once I had permission from the store manager, I thought for a while about a couple of themes, and finally went with an Enchanted Winter Woodland (the losing theme was a sort of Nutcracker-New Year's Eve party melange).  Ultimately, it was determined by what I could find among the clothes and bric-a-brac, and the dress selection was woefully slim. Anyhoo, on the left hand side, we have the Faerie Queen in green, with one of her attendants in red, and 3 wood nymphs in the background (worst mannequins ever!); and on the right is the Woodsman and his Wife– I really wanted to get a Red Riding Hood-like character in there, but no child-size mannequins :( I was influenced by, like, all of the picture books, fairy tales and fantasy novels I read over and over as a child, Celtic mythology, British literature, and Alexander McQueen's Fall '08 collection (although it was much more Russian than Celtic).  And I was looking again recently at this beautiful paper fashion by Violise Lunn– we have similar influences also. 

I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out, what with limited resources and for a first try.  Ideally, there would have been a lot more fabric on the backdrop, with more of the brown ribbons-suggesting-trees.  And, conveniently not in the pictures, the far right hand side is pretty bare.

Some more highlights: