As a lifetime New Yorker, I’m continually inspired by all the city has to offer. While I was a young art student growing up in the Big Apple, I would frequent Manhattan's SoHo area. Back in the day, the neighborhood south of Houston Street featured an art gallery behind almost every door. In my college years, this was my mecca. But as inevitable as death, and taxes, the retailers moved in and the artists moved out. Art is cool, it promotes fashion and is a catalyst for trend. Fashion and trend naturally promote and support retail. But retail isn't always cool. In fact, it can be uncool. Must it be?
After graduating college with a degree in fine art, my career in visual merchandising began taking shape. One stop along the way was WalkerGroup/CNI, arguably the largest and most influential retail design group at the time. Our offices and studios were located on Gansevoort Street in the heart of the Meat Packing District. In those days, of course, it truly was the Meat Packing District, with scores of bovine carcasses literally hanging from hooks along the sidewalk. The neighborhood was colorful, but certainly not cool. At least not yet.
Our industry was well-represented at the time with big-name supplier offices and showrooms located on 15th Street, overlooking what was to become the High Line … now that's cool. And then the uncool set down its roots. The Meat Packing District is now a major retail hub. But strangely, in an unexpected twist of the inevitable (death and taxes), art followed retail with the opening of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Ironically, (at least, from my perspective) the museum is located on Gansevoort Street in the shadows of what was the WalkerGroup studios where I honed my retail design sensibilities.
In walking through my old turf on Gansevoort en route to the museum, I passed a plethora of shops, seemingly rubber stamped along the way. I couldn't help being struck by the irony: A great art museum drawn to this store-cluster as retailers today struggle to find a way to draw customers to their shops. Even in the face of advancing technology, brick-and-mortar stores are not going away. But to survive, retailers must entice shoppers into their environments. For starters, wouldn't it strike a responsive chord if retailers captured the heart and soul of the spanking new Whitney on Gansevoort Street? Wouldn't they elevate the in-store experience if they integrated art into their environments? Perhaps they would create a space that’s recognizable and memorable. A store that’s theirs and theirs alone. Perhaps that would give the consumer a reason to enter their stores.
So on your next trip to New York, visit the city's newest icon. Spend an afternoon with O'Keefe, Bellows and Stieglitz; converse with Warhol, Hopper and De Kooning; be inspired by Guston, Polloch and Stella; and bring some of the Whitney's heart and soul into your environment. Let retail follow art … now that's cool.
Eric Feigenbaum is a recognized leader in the visual merchandising and store design industries with both domestic and international design experience. He served as corporate director of visual merchandising for Stern’s Department Store, a division of Federated Department Stores, from 1986 to 1995. After Stern’s, he assumed the position of director of visual merchandising for WalkerGroup/CNI, an architectural design firm in New York City. Currently, he serves as the chair of the Visual Merchandising Department at LIM College (New York), and was also an adjunct professor of Store Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. In addition to being the New York Editor of VMSD magazine, Eric is also a founding member of PAVE (A Partnership for Planning and Visual Education). Currently, he is also president and director of creative services for his own retail design company, Embrace Design.
Catch Eric's session (“Retail's New Paradigm: Commecting with the Community“) at IRDC this year, Sept. 9-11 in Austin, Texas! For more information about IRDC, visit IRDConline.com.