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Window Shopping in Paris
Luxe Corp | January/February 2010
From left to right- Marc Jacobs, Christian Louboutin, Hermès
Visual merchandising is a fundamental aspect of a luxury boutique. It reflects the product, style and the signature that constructs the overall image of the brand. Using the store window display as a means of attracting and enticing shoppers has been in practice for decades but what luxury brands have injected in the store windows recently - especially in Paris - is a spirit of originality and creativity that goes far beyond the products on display. Several brands have pushed window dressing to the limits to showcase vivid imagination in concept and real artistry in execution. During festive periods like Christmas and Valentine's, the need for this creative expression is even more heightened as the brands are very much aware that this is 'time to shine'.
In Paris especially, store windows add to the magic of festive seasons and particularly add to the color of renowned shopping streets like the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré and the Avenue Montaigne where every luxury brand worth its name has a store. It's not often surprising to see crowds huddled in front of the Hermes, Chanel or Dior boutique windows like little children enjoying the visual excitement of a toy store. It is a well known fact for example, that a visit to the store window of Hermes forms part of the Christmas shopping itinerary of several people in France, most of whom don't mind travelling to Paris 'to see what Hermes has come up with' in their window display.
As mentioned in a previous article on Luxe-Mag.Com, visual merchandising is one of the first vectors of communicating with the luxury client. Its unique role of bridging art, design, creativity and commerce makes it an exciting yet challenging exercise. The person in charge of the window concept has the task of finding the extra touch that would move people enough to draw them into the store. His job is to ensure that the window display's originality leads to a fantasy that stimulates people's imagination and echoes their feeling for sensory appeal. In other words, the window dressing statement has to be strong. Luxury by its very nature is good at flirting with art and business and this is reflected in recent window displays around Paris, the City of Light.
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