The art of curating the essence of a brand in a window-display requires an astute sense of the market and an intuitive penchant for visual minimalism for maximum impact. Not only do the curators and designers of display windows have to create a visual cue and trigger for impulse buying and understated brand equity, but they also have to be noticed amid the cacophony of colour and crowding of senses of a pedestrian sidewalk, girding the storefronts. Remaining true to the brand with four seasonal variations in fashion trends of spring, summer, autumn and winter is a testament to their ability to harness the bold, the bizarre and the beautiful to the bonkers!
With millions spent on content research, demographic studies, brand economics and non-verbal and unwritten messaging, it is a classic exercise in the adage of ‘more than meeting the eye’. The magic of the emotive impulse to possess happens in the depths of mind and heart – well beyond the roving eye of the riviera of retail.
The art of making it happen within the confines of a market window to entice a fleeting glance from the moving demographic on the sidewalk, enough to get them hooked and in through the store, is pure curatorial genius. Artistic visual voyages have come a long way since the days of the avante garde American surrealist Joseph Cornell and his circa 1920s’ ‘shadow boxes’ that revealed a world within a world.
Fashion is, in essence, expression – both individual and collective. It is a statement personalised in style of adornment and atonement. A defiant surrender to line, colour, form, light and texture, capable of both blending and standing out, when intended. It is a Nintendo of deliberate notions of calibrated risks and exalted exuberance. In Heisenberg’s definition – it is both a wave and a particle delta simultaneously, without the stabilisation of the proverbial Planck’s constant!
Luxury brands wield their ‘magic’ by creating desirability, exclusivity, and a sense of aspiration through a combination of factors like superior craftsmanship, rich heritage and carefully crafted brand experiences. They transform ordinary purchases into extraordinary experiences, often by connecting with consumers on an emotional level and fostering a sense of belonging to an exclusive, elite world. Some brands even go to the extent of forcing their consumers to prove that they are worthy of access to rare merchandise, while others make people take appointments just to view an upcoming limited-edition inventory being unveiled akin to an invention that could change humanity.
The curated window becomes the ethereal intangible enticement into what is perceived as luxury. The genius of the ‘brand mirage’ is the illusion of chasing an emotion with something materialist, positioned strategically slightly above reach. The limbic animal instinct is excited by the chase to acquire the seemingly unattainable, either for personal satisfaction or motivated by vanity.
With a shop front window averaging 10x20 ft, the art of selling a story and transforming it into a dream is what distinguishes the mundane from the magical. The sheer spectrum of emotions are statements in color and content with props using animal motifs to mannequins. Mannequins are no longer just dressed to hang clothes on; they are in kinetic state of fluid movement – be it skiing in Swiss Alps donning Moncler gear or strutting the streets of Champs-Élysées in stilettoes. The illusion of choices is indeed a complex phenomenon. Perceptions of product-related narrative may change when viewed through the lens of a diverse demographic with brands beginning to umpire crazy differentials. The elasticity within messaging allows the brand to breathe and become an emotion strong enough to precipitate a purchase, often beyond the cusp of reach.
Fashion is that perpetual engine that creates the excitement of demand beyond the utilitarian functionality of an umbrella, a shoe, a pair of pants or a time-keeping watch. Fashion is an expression of persona and exuberance, which may lay low or dormant in some, but is intrinsic to all. It is beyond the sensory and the sensual. It casts a spell at all perceivable levels and is a multi-trillion industry with its all-pervasive and invasive apparatus that advertises and collects consumer data – from mobile devices, bill boards, glamour magazines, campaigns, fashion shows, awards, beauty contests, cosmetics industry to accessories. It creates that unquenched demand and desirability for consumers, regardless of the dimensions of their purse or pocket. Perhaps, it is panacea to the oft-heard vain lamentation of fashionistas, ‘…But I have nothing to wear’!
The author is an India-born, world-renowned Canadian museologist, a Commonwealth Scholar and author of numerous books on the future of museum practice