Window Dressing

Thanks Scott for the great shots showing various holiday retail windows in Europe. Creating an eye catching window with the main purpose of grabbing the passing shoppers attention and pulling them into the store is no easy task. I've marveled over the years at the art of window dressing and have become a huge fan of Simon Doonan.

Hired as creative director for Barney's NY in 1986, Simon Doonan made window dressing history in 1989 with sticking lumpy caricatures of celebs in holiday windows. Many people found his windows shocking, mostly because of our societies obsession with celebrities. It was unheard of at the time to depict them in an unflattering way.

After many successful years window dressing and a popular book titled "Confessions of a Window Dresser,", Doonan scores a regular column in The New York Observer called, Simon Says. The column features obscure and unsavory topics which gain him more notoriety. Since then, he continues to write and publish books and in 2006 celebrated 20 years at Barney's NY.

I own one of his books and look to it for inspiration when dressing the windows at J. LaMore. While I've never had a spectacular window like Simon's or the beautiful ones Scott detailed, it sure is fun trying!

Jennifer