The art of decorating dry goods windows and interiors

by L. Frank Baum

It is bad advertising to display too many lines in one window. The most effective window usually contains but one line of goods. Dress goods never show to advantage when mixed with other articles, and silks and calicos, in the same window, each detract from the other.

Special windows always win more attention, and are more easily trimmed and more quickly changed when they have served their purpose.

DETAIL AND WORKMANSHIP.

I will here say a few words upon the subject of detail work in window trimming. I have always found that anything which was worth doing at all was worth doing well. It may take a little more time and cost a little more money, but you will obtain the desired results in the end, and your window will be the means of increased sales of the goods displayed.

I have had a great deal of experience with window trimmers, and have found that the great majority of them do not pay that strict attention to detail which is so necessary in a perfectly dressed window. They will say, “Oh, that is good enough,” “No one will notice that,” etc., when they detect some omission in the detail of the work. But they are wrong, for a great many of those whose attention is attracted to the display will as quickly note the defect as the skilled window trimmer himself.

One of the greatest troubles the window trimmer has to contend with is the lack of time necessary to do complete and perfect work. The house wants the window changed, and wants it immediately, ignoring the fact that it requires time, both to take out the old and put in the new display, and on that account it is absolutely necessary that a great deal of the work should be done in the workshop before going into the window at all. You may find a picture or model that would make a good subject for a novelty window of certain kinds of goods, and it could be worked out in fine style if only sufficient time were given for detail work, that is, making all of the different parts of the subject in their proper place, and leaving out of the work not the slightest detail necessary to make the finished work identically like the picture or model. This would, necessarily, require considerable time and labor, but when the trimmer gets advanced in the work he will become so interested that he will not be satisfied until he has it complete in detail.

The special efforts of the most successful window trimmers are directed toward the carrying out of the small details, without which there can be no perfect specimen of the window trimmer’s art, and for lack of which so many windows present a crude and unfinished appearance.

WHAT TO DISPLAY.

The mission of the show window is not to display unsaleable goods, but to sell goods. If you can’t make a pretty picture and sell goods at the same time let the picture go, but make a display that will sell the goods. But don’t forget that if you can make the window attractive enough to arrest the gaze of the passerby your goods are half sold. This may appear to you ambiguous at first, but a little thought will teach you never to lose sight of the fact that goods must be sold, and that an attractive window will help sell them. But a “picture window,” in which the value or utility of the goods is sacrificed to make the picture, is not art, but foolishness.

In the selection of goods for your window two classes are best. First, new goods, of which there is ample stock; for, being new and seasonable, they are in demand and can be sold with profit and the money reinvested. Second, old goods which must be disposed of, probably at a sacrifice, in order that the money tied up in them may be used to better advantage. These last are “bargain” windows and each article must bear its price ticket. Cut the price sufficiently to interest people. Bear in mind that these goods might lie on your shelves years without moving if there was no show window to dispose of them. Properly displayed and properly priced, the show window will sell them like hot cakes, even though they are old enough to have gray whiskers. People dearly love bargains.