Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1891-08-01
DRESSING TIE WINDOWS.
ELABORATE DISPLAYS FOR CATCH
ING THE PUBLIC EYE.



Some Of Them Do tt windows To At
tract Men ms Well as Women
Window dressing is something of fine
art nowadays. The times cause II to be
so. lie who has the most attractive
window Is making the most sales. Each
merchant attempts to outdisplay the
other. and in the great retail emporiums
the position Of window dresser Is among
the best In the house. For the expert in
this sort of work is rarely to be met with.
lie must be an artist. a mechanic, and
well versed in colors and stuifs
Art window dressing in this country
never had beginning. II Is simply a
growth, the outcome of a struggle for
novelty and To excel ones neighbor and
competitor. A few years ago there were
in New York city but three or four large
dry goods houses. These had the name,
the fame and the trade. Then there
were hundreds of small stores and shops.
For the advancement of any one of these
the public eye must be attracted TO IL
And u was very largely window display
that accomplished this. that built up
rivals 20 tlr old establishments, who had
attempted little Of that sort OF thing. AT
first in these small shops it was some
clever and artisticaily inclined man from
behind the counter who spent a part of
his time in arranging the window.
/ As the business grew the window be-
came the more important. and in the
newer and larger stores of the new con.
4 Germs entering with success into CONNIE
/ tition with the old establishments, win.
dows were built specifically for show
purposes. and window dressing became
n department Of itself Window dress
ers began TO be sent for from London
and Paris. but the most of them COM
menced behind the counter, and in all
their window work have kept pace in
their ideas with the growing demands
OF their concerns Some say that there
are only a dozen first class window
dressers both in New York and Brook.
lyn; others claim that tifere are not half
that number, just what constitutes
good window dressing 1t is difficult to
find out, unless il is simply the power Of
attracting the public eye. Professional
jealousy seems to be largely in existence
about another mans possession Of that
power.
Il can't explain how | dress a win
dow, said one of the best of the craft
the other day; my experience tells mo
how TO display goods and get certain
effects. and that is all there is OF ii.
1 There are no rules about it, although a
| a window dresser told me once you could
learn It all out Of book. But you cant.
II is a matter Of long experience. By
study and practice you gain ideas to be
/ followed out OF course, you must know
/ how to put colors and stuffs together.
/ All the really good men at it have been
/ in the business fifteen or twenty years,
| abroad and here; man must have it in
/ him at the start, and then he must begin
/ as boy lie should have been behind
the counter. and know just how TO han.
die and display goods But there's no
rule about it. Every man in tho bust.
ness goes To work differently"
In most of the large stores the win
dow dresser Is autocrat in his depart
ment, and has his own private room for
/ the keeping OF his framework and mate
rials. In Brooklyn this is especially the
case. There the stores are newer, the
windows larger, and the display in gen.
eral more elaborate. In the window
dresscrs room of store which displays
picture designs as well as goods, there is
much TO be seen. A carpenters bench
for he is his own carpenter-frame.
work of wood. pasteboard and brass
everywhere. standards for tho draping
OF dress goods. drawers and cabinets full
of stuffs, mems clothing and wax heads
In the making up of dummies" used
only the heads arc bought. and a stock
of those are accumulated.
The bodies unclothed are curious af
fairs-a wooden frame 2xIi feet square
and couple Of inches thick, slightly
stuffed and covered with white cloth
with two sticks TO serve as lower limbs
and entirely without upper ones; a short
piece of wood upon which the waxeI
head and neck is placed. Upon thii
framework is the figure, by judieiou
stuffing. built 1--WE fit the man TO tn,
clothes" remarked asioeT of it, mot tn,
clothes % the man" In making up
woman's figure no actually made dresses
are used A consultation with the hea,
of the dressmaking department deter
mines just what patterns shall be shown
Dress lengths of these are cut out anC
draped upon the forms Thus even thu
goods worn by the lay figures may b
sold directly from the window, and Il
often happens that a buyer will wan
lust exactly what she had seen there.
There are two schools of window dress
ing. One believes its object merely the
displaying of the goods themselves, the
other the attracting of attention to the
concern. The latter class are those who
make use of picture designs and wax
figures. a dainty display Of goods,
j they say, "a clever blending of colors
will quickly catch woman's eye. But
, the average man will never give it, mo
nent's look Now our windoos are Il
attract everybody Put in IL group, Z
figure, an odd design. and the men vii
take immediate notice Of it, The good
will be displayed all the same. Nov, 4
man going home from his business catches
a glimpse of our store front. As he sit
down TO the tea table he says TO his wife
Have you seen that now group in -
window? Ii is so and so.
There are no doubt a good many mar
ried women about the city who haven
seen that window Some of these, WI
calculate, will come to the store the mex
morning Had there been merely an ar
rangement Of silks or ribbons, the maj
would hardly have given il glance AM
never a second thought
"lt Is not good, say the experts, 20