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More than mannequins

By David Momphard
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Oct 20, 2005, Page 13

Window dressing is designed to catch the eye of those passing by, but the best designs manage to get them in the store. PHOTOS: DAVID MOMPHARD, TAIPEI TIMES

They are the people who make designers' products look perfect. The unsung heroes of fashion are sometimes far removed from the design houses and catwalks, working in the realm of retail and confined to storefront windows.

"It's the challenge of making something designed for every day look like it would make any day special," said Wang Xiao-lan (王少藍). Wang is the window dresser for local designer Isabelle Wen (溫慶珠) and charged with making the fashion guru's several Taipei outlets the standout storefront on the street.

"The most important thing is, of course, to bring Isabelle's personal style to the fore," said Wang, whose arrangements generally go for the straightforward clothes-on-a-mannequin look. Such a style, she said, is the best way to show people the clothes without distracting them with other images. "People can pass by and imagine themselves in the outfit."

Other times, however a more radical approach is called for.

Window dressings are basically of three schools of thought. One takes a page from magazine design, literally, by blowing up the same ads found in glossy glamour rags to window size. Another is to prop up a mannequin and pull some clothes over it.

In the final school of thought, however, designers think outside the windowsill. More akin to museum installations than department store designs, these displays might include special lighting, sound, animatronics or even live models to catch the eye of a passersby.

Display designers Riko and Begin. PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES

The height of the window dressing world is making up the massive glass enclosures of upscale boutiques like Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton; making NT$80,000 handbags look like a million bucks. Of course, these brand empires don't leave their windows to chance.

Instead, the flagship store in Paris or New York will distribute materials and instructions down to the centimeter on how their window displays in the rest of world should look, putting the onus on local window dressers to execute the plans. But the thrill of landing such work is dampened by the fact that you probably can't tell your friends what you're doing.

"Sorry," said Prada and Gucci representative Sudia Huang when asked about the process behind the stores' displays. "We don't share this type of information with the media."

The glitziest of the world's glamour houses guard the ingredients that go into their displays as zealously as Colonel Sanders guarded his recipe for fried chicken. Huang said talking about design concepts or plans with anyone outside the company is grounds for dismissal. Even saying who photographs the clothes or dresses the windows is a no-no, and the freelance designers and photographers the company hires are legally sworn to secrecy.

Simon Doonan made a name for himself and ultimately landed a film deal for the rights to his book Confessions of a Window Dresser, a glass-steaming kiss-and-tell about his world-famous designs for the windows of Barney's New York department store. More than a memoir of an artist's insight into his work, the book told of working with designers such as Lagerfield, Lacroix, and Armani and of collaborating with the most notorious names in the art world: Mapplethorpe, Rauschenberg, and La-Chapelle.

While the windows of Taipei's department stores don't have the exposure of Barney's New York, the pressure on local designers is likely to increase with the expansion of the city's upscale retail real estate in the Da'an district (大安區). Here buildings of the Shinkong Mitsukoshi Department Store are going up at Sim City pace and boutiques are moving in while the paint is still wet. With the buildings looking similar the differences are accentuated by the window displays.

Visit Paul Smith's space here and you're greeted with a headless mannequin knitting the scarf he's wearing. At another boutique down the corridor, the clothes racks become a tidal wave of polished chrome that swirls around the store from the door to the changing booth to the cash wrap. Often the work of the designer moves into the store itself, choosing the store's furnishings and display tables and cases.

This is certainly true of another big-business boutique, Piin Home Furnishings, which has made a name for itself with its eye-catching in-store displays. Located on the upper floors of the department stores it occupies in its three current locations, Piin doesn't have street-side windows to lure customers, but spares no effort in creating a furniture fantasyland inside.

"We're given free-reign to create displays," said Riko Lee (李虹蘭) "We know what areas we need to change out and will take a shopping cart around the store to collect whatever materials we want to use." She and Piin's other display designer at their AsiaWorld location, Begin Hong (洪千惠), were both previously employees of Working House, but moved to Piin months before it first opened its doors to help shape the store's image.

Lee said the greatest satisfaction comes inadvertently from curious customers. Once, when hanging items from the ceiling using spools of red string, a visitor to the store asked where she could buy a spool.

"I had to tell her it was a display item," Lee said. "I'd bought the string at a fabric market because I thought it would have a lot of uses in the store displays. But to think someone would want to buy it is gratifying."
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