We’re back. No, I’m not talking about the economy, although even with the stock market’s volatile ride, there are sure signs of recovery. When I say we’re back, I’m referring to visual merchandising taking center stage in retail’s on-going theater.
Even in the face of international unrest, great political change and difficult economic challenges, the industry is still brimming with promise. Going forward, we’ll share alternative construction techniques and explore the nature of exciting green materials. A new professional ethic, based on universal design, will address the health, safety and welfare of the shopping public. Stores will be designed for the human experience: interior space for human function at human scale.
Change is the one constant. At times however, we come full circle, returning to what got us here in the first place. A front page article in The New York Times recently proclaimed the return of the mannequin, which in turn, asserts a new appreciation for the importance and impact of visual merchandising. Even as billions of marketing dollars are being invested to ensure worldwide recognition of brands, visual merchandising is assuming its role as the communicator of the brand.
Coinciding with the re-emergence of visual merchandising is the creation of the Algonquin Visual Merchandising Round Table. Inspired by the celebrated Round Table of the 1920s, the new group meets at the venerable Algonquin Hotel under the painting of Dorothy Parker and the rest of the original cast. It all started after creative consultant Tom Beebe, LIM’s Marjorie Lee Woo and I shared a cup of coffee at the Algonquin. We decided to make this a regular event, gathering leaders of the industry to simply discuss the art of visual merchandising.
To date, the group has met three times, discussing everything from globalization to the windows on Fifth Avenue. Attendees have included such notables as Dan Evans, Michael Steward, Christine Nakaoka, Christine Belich, James Damian, Judy Bell, Joe Feczko, Ron Pompei and William Herbst, to name a few.
The pendulum is swinging and visual merchandising is back. The round table meets bi-monthly to discuss the important role of visual merchandising in a newly defined retail process. Will you be joining us at the next round table?