Ebay’s “Shoppable Windows”
If you are in the New York City area on June 8th thru July 7th, then go by one of these four locations to view Ebay’s interactive windows:
- 175 Orchard Street
- 154 Spring Street
- 7 w. 18th Street
- 30 Gansevoort Street
Ebay will be covering up empty storefront windows with “shoppable windows”. The interactive windows will allow shoppers to purchase items from Kate Spade’s Saturday collection. You will order the items on the big screen and have them delivered to you within the hour. The customer pays the delivery person with a Pay-pal credit card reader.
This is one way to connect your brick and mortar store with the digital world! I’ve always told students that you should treat your windows as another sales tools. Ebay now proves it!
JCrew installed at Lane Crawford
I recently started a Tumblr blog- nothing fancy, just a place to post random images I like (as if pinterest wasn’t enough!). It’s called The Fashion Teacher – Tumblr makes you sign up for an account when you want to follow others – hence why I have one. I follow a bunch of fashion blogs on various sites, and can spend the greater part of a morning browsing through all of them. JCrew is one of the sites I follow, which is how I came across this cool story on the displays they did for their new store within the Lane Crawford Department store in Beijing and Hong Kong:
—APPLIED ARTS—
For the visual displays that appear inside specialty shop Lane Crawford, our head of creative services, Ruth, was inspired by a toile-style wallpaper she’d first seen inside the historic building at 50 Hudson Street (now the J.Crew Ludlow Shop) in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood. From there, the design team riffed on the idea and decided to create a life-size cityscape inspired by J.Crew flagships throughout Manhattan to serve as a fanciful backdrop for the clothing on display.
—DIFFERENT STROKES—
The store design team, which includes Brandon and his assistant, Ellie, created the initial miniature renderings (which remind us of the dioramas we created in grade school) using reference images of the storefronts and architectural blueprints. Brandon and Ellie then turned their workspace into an artist’s studio, spending several weeks filling in the illustrations—which were anywhere from 6 to 9½ feet tall—by hand, using watercolor paint.
—FLORA AND FAUNA—
As part of the display, Ellie collaborated with artist Rebekah Maysles to create spot illustrations of various plants and animals one may encounter in Manhattan, including mice. (“But cute ones!” Ellie insisted.)
—PICTURE-PERFECT—
Ruth, Brandon and Ellie traveled to Hong Kong in advance of the opening of J.Crew at Lane Crawford to install the larger-than-life displays, which were shipped over in gigantic crates, to outfit the 2,700-square-foot retail space. The team worked through the night to ensure the display was properly placed to create a playful cityscape effect reminiscent of the Manhattan skyline.
Controversial Windows
I don’t make my students shy away from doing displays that are provocative or controversial. I say push the boundaries! But when I came across this article in the Daily Mail, on the windows skin-care retailer LUSH did, I wondered if they crossed the line?
Although I do not find what they did offensive, it does turn my stomach a bit and does not make me want to go in their store. Which completely defeats the purpose of visual merchandising!
I applaud their efforts to bring animal cruelty in the cosmetic industry to the public’s attention, but when I hear the word LUSH and think of skin-care, I envision beauty and goodness.
What do you think? I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this.
Here are a few pictures from the full article, although read the article so the photos are not taken out of context.
Louis Vuitton Store Opening
Not much to say as I think the photos speak for themselves. I was wasting time in between correcting assignments when I came across these photos. They were taken from Chiara Ferragni’s blog, The Blonde Salad. Her blog is fashion site where she posts photos of her “outfits of the day”, I tried to bypass those and just show you the awesome mannequin stylings of the Louis Vuitton store opening in Montenapoleone, Italy:
That’s Chiara in the middle, this photo would have been so much funnier had she put her bag over her head too!
Where have we seen this before?
I would love to see this store in person!
(images via: The Blonde Salad)
Lady Gaga’s windows for Barneys New York
As I was speaking to some students regarding the upcoming holiday season and how plans should already be made regarding Christmas windows, I just remembered that Lady Gaga and team will create Gaga’s Workshop on the fifth floor of Barneys and its windows. This will be really interesting! I’m trying to keep an open mind but I already have some preconceived ideas of what her holiday windows will look like….and it ain’t pretty!
Kelly Wearstler’s new in-store boutique
I’ve mentioned in the past what a HUGE fan I am of Kelly’s work, suffice it to say I am beyond ecstatic that she has launched a RTW collection! While there are so many pieces of her collection I am already in love with, I was pleasantly surprised to see the stores carrying her designs had created a pop-up boutique for her line, instead of just hanging everything on fixtures. Here are some photos from Kelly’s own blog:
The San Francisco Giants Spring Training Store
Since baseball season is upon us now, I thought this little story would be apropos:
Actually the title above SHOULD read World Series Champions! I’m so proud of my hometown team. I’m even prouder of one of my students!
Humberto S. approached me after class one day to let me know he was going to be absent for a couple of days. When I asked why, he said he had to go to spring training with The San Francisco Giants to set up their fan store. I said, “WHAT, I don’t believe you!”. He laughed and said, seriously, he’s the visual manager for the store they set up in Scottsdale, AZ every spring training! OF COURSE I excused him from class; The World Class Giants need to have a World Class store!
He was so eager to show me photos of how he set up the Dugout store using techniques he’s learned in class (I’m grinning from ear to ear). Looking at the photos below see if you can spot:
- Product Merchandising
- Vertical Merchandising
- Horizontal Merchandising
- Color Blocking
- POP
This is the before shot. When all your merchandise arrives to your empty store space and you have the daunting task of figuring out where everything goes. If you’ve done a Layout or Plan-o-gram, then you should have no problem!
Lots of boxes to unpack! I see this space utilizes a slat wall system. I hope Humberto and team don’t forget to adjust all that track lighting once the merchandise is in place.
It’s starting to look like a store……
Almost done……
Finally ready for business!
I like what you did above the cashwrap area.
Lots of product, neatly displayed
Even though it’s one big space, the store is divided into mini-departments: men, women, youth, and novelty
The Windows!
The store is located at: 7408 E Osborn Road, Scottsdale, AZ, 85251. It the team five days to set the whole thing up!
Thanks Humberto for sending in these photos ! I think this was definitely worth missing class, because you can learn so much more from actual “real world” experience than anything a textbook can teach you. You get an A for job well done!
Go Giants!
(all images via Humberto S.)
International Retail Design Conference
Mark your calendars now and start preparing because the International Retail Design Conference will be held in San Francisco on September 7-9, 2011 at Parc 55 Wyndham. Now I really have no excuse to not attend!
“Learn from, network with and be inspired by the designers behind some of the world’s most respected retail brands. Join us next fall for the International Retail Design Conference, where industry-leading designers, architects, planners and visual merchandisers convene to share strategies, make connections, stay current and be inspired. www.irdconline.com.”
This is a great opportunity, not to be missed!
Carine Roitfeld to do Barney’s Windows
She goes from one highly coveted job to another! Carine Roitfeld, the former editrix of French Vogue has now been tapped to help style the fall campaign for retailer Barney’s New York. She will work on their catalog, a short film, and the Windows! I guess a girl can have it all.
She is a styling genius, so I personally can’t wait to see what she comes up with; for more information go to thewindow.barney.com
Juicy Couture’s bad window displays
Recently the class took a “field trip” to the Westfield Mall – San Francisco Centre, which is located right behind the campus. They had a number of questions to answers regarding retailers and their displays. As I’m sitting here correcting this assignment, I’m noticing a trend I’ve seen before. This trend is so incessant with my students every semester, that I actually feel compelled to write about it, in hopes that the retailer will get a clue and do something!
Juicy Couture has bad, dirty windows! When I say windows, of course I mean their displays.
Whenever I pose the question to my students to go out and find the retailer with the least inspiring, or least effective windows, no doubt, I will get a handful of responses that all mention Juicy Couture!!!
Some of the responses I get are: “ill-planned”, “no wow factor”, “they looked dirty”, “not eye-catching”, “they need to put some thought into their displays”. These are typically the usual responses I get for fast-fashion retailer, Forever 21, not what I would expect from the high-end, Juicy Couture brand.
As much as it pains me to admit this, I have to agree with my students. Whenever I walk by the Juicy windows here at the SF Centre I do think, “Gosh they look dirty”. Since they are storefront windows on the street and not “in the mall”, I don’t know if this is the responsibility of the retailer or the mall management.
I will also give Juicy the benefit of the doubt and assume maybe these ugly windows are just a San Francisco problem and not an issue with their other stores. Let’s hope!
I know Juicy is capable of some really over-stylized, über glamorous windows. It’s what the company was founded on; so don’t get me wrong, I still adore the brand, but Juicy has lost a little of its cache since Pamela and Gela sold it to Liz Claiborne. I do see on their website they are looking for a Visual Manager (look under Store Design), perhaps this explains everything! Hey Juicy give me a call if you need help, I can’t work full-time as I already run my own firm, but I would love to help you make those windows more fun – which is what Juicy is supposed to be about!
I Do Windows 
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