Origins of Window Dressing

• Before plate glass, signs were used to advertise products and servicesOld Time Blacksmith Shop image by Funscapes from Fotolia.com
  
  Before the widespread use of plate glass in the 1890s, window dressing was fairly utilitarian, if not non-existent, as merchants instead used such tried and true standbys as painted billboards, wooden signs and posters to advertise their wares. The emergence of plate glass, however, enabled store owners to display actual merchandise to passing customers behind ever larger windows.
  
  

Early Window Displays

• Early window displays focused on a quantity of products rather than the quality of the designjars with blue lids image by Michael Shake from Fotolia.com
  
  In these early days of window dressing, quantity trumped quality as merchandisers opted for massive product displays featuring heaps of different items, rather than striving to tell a story or strike a mood. In these infant stages, product displays themselves were so novel that little drama was needed to catch the eye of passing shoppers.
  
  

Innovations Spark Creativity

• More lifelike mannequins contributed to more creative window displaysmannequin image by Kirill Zdorov from Fotolia.com
  
  A wide variety of innovations through the turn of the century, however, sparked a creative outburst in the window dressing industry. Electric lights, the use of mannequins rather than dressmakers' forms, and novelty materials, such as metallic lames and cellophane, all contributed to a more theatrical approach to selling wares.
  
  

Window Dressing Becomes Cultured

• Art in many forms has impacted window dressing over time.la danza abstracta image by caironbohemio from Fotolia.com
  
  Beginning in the 1930s, movies, musicals, actors and artists alike impacted the overall approach to window dressing. Period pieces, such as the film, "Gone With The Wind;" ballets, such as "The Nutcracker;" fashionable actors, such as Carol Lombard, and pop artists, such as Andy Warhol, all brought a taste of their own cultural sensibilities to the masses through inspirational imitation in window dressing.