When I first read "Confessions of a Window Dresser" by Simon Doonan .... it was because of my very private OCD of window shopping .... that particular disease you develop when you are a shopaholic in denial .... and the only way to satisfy mad shopping urges is to do "window shopping" ... that oh so clever term for "shopping with no intent to buy" heheh :) .... And because of my bouts of window shopping, i naturally got a super education on the role of "window displays" in stores .... that siren call that lures unsuspecting victims to shop when you don't need the shopping !! ..... Simon Doonan is a celebrity window dresser .... to make it simple ... Simon decorates and arranges the displays in the the windows of shops, currently at the New York based clothing store Barneys .... He is most famous for putting a bunch of taxidermed(stuffed)  rats in tuxedos with diamond bracelets as collars for a Saville Row display among other equally shocking creative ways to entice a curious shopper to the proverbial parlour .... a shopper who is "immune to slick big budget advertising" and has the attention span of a fruit fly !! .... This post is not about Simon though .... it is about the powerful Art of Window Dressing ... a 24 hour advertisement for a store even when it is closed ... Every savvy retailer understands the power of a shop window as a means of luring in customers with a curation of their products, style , price and competitor differentiation which are executed by a specialized tribe called the Visual Merchandisers  ... As far back as September 8, 1901, the venerable New York Times said in an article titled "The Art of Window Dressing" ...  "The object of the show window can be made to induce customers to enter the place. To gain that object, we must give people something to see. To make them see, we must give them something attractive - in other words we must hold up the passing pedestrian on the street, and, if he has no desire to buy, we must create in him the desire." ...... And one of the most imaginative in the business of seducing customers to buy is definitely Selfridges, London, .... a high end department store voted the best in the world, stocking all the latest fashion collections, must have toys, gifts and baubles ... Its founders are credited with the phrase "the customer is always right" ... and its flagship store at Oxford Street, London (opened on 15 March, 1909) is famous for its window displays and "consistently attract tourists, designers and fashionistas alike to marvel at the current designs and styling and fashion trends." ... Shima was in London recently and took photographs of their Summer 2013 windows called the Selfridges Seasonal commandments .... read on to see what she saw :)

Selfridges Window, The Seasonal Commandments, Summer 2013