A free early Christmas present has come my way in the form of a fabulous online archive for Eaton’s Department Store in Ontario, Canada. One of the best shop archives I’ve seen – on or offline. High resolution images, audio, the lot. A huge amount of work has gone into this by the look of it.
The windows themselves are lovely. Not avant-garde, no top of the range mannequins. But great examples of the everyday, of classic display techniques when no one was afraid to theme a window, to employ any amount of eye-catching technique to lure in the shoppers.
This Wedding Bureau window from 1948 is a beauty of that do-anything genre. Pots, pans and kettles hang from net parasols (as they do), tidy sets of matching tins and floral trays lean against kidney shaped coffee tables.
The glamorously dressed mannequin – with her impressive 40s shoulder pads – gently clasps some sort of dish sponge, offering it up to the passer-by for perusal and approval. What lucky bride to be could have resisted that?
having whiled away many an hour in the homewares section of department stores, mesmerised by the selection of accoutrements on offer, I would've had my nose & quite possibly my whole face pressed up against this window for sure.
Ailoid