Window dressing: What Is It All About?
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New Delhi, June 16 - The window of a major clothesline store glows green not with envy but with golf grass. It has everything - iron, tee, a cart, balls strewn around and even caddies dressed in green. Two curious onlookers move into the store where a golf match is in progress - or so it seems. These serious window shoppers pick up two T-shirts for Rs 1999 each and a green rucksack for Rs 2000 and walk up to the cash counter. The happiest person in the store is obviously the visual 
merchandiser.
Meet Rinki Parikh, 26, who works as head visual merchandiser with the super luxury brand Armani. She holds a degree in fashion communication from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). When she graduated in 2007, she was sure that she did not want to become another fashion or an accessory designer. It had to be something different. And, she was confident that there would be immense opportunities in the retail trade for her, thanks to the innumerable malls mushrooming across the country, not to mention a host of international luxury brands inundating the market. And, she was not wrong. The international brand Guess lapped her up soon after she graduated as a visual merchandiser following which she moved to Armani.
The greatest challenge of her job, she says, is to ensure that a four-month-old product looks as good as new on the shelf. "A visual merchandiser's job is to dress the store window through mannequins and props and do up the store and display the merchandise through concepts and stories. My job is to turn window shoppers into stoppers and eventually push sales," she says.
The job involves doing up the window display, the merchandise inside the store - what product needs to be displayed, where and with what fixtures, the colors to be used to attract customers to make that all-important purchase. A VM has to identify a slow moving product and decide how it needs to be given prominence (whether it needs to be matched with colors or be lit up in a particular manner) to attract sales. Every fixture in the store has to be a representative of the brand. A VM is expected to do up certain moods - a casual story, a business format, a sports event and even a fashion evening - all packed into the window and eventually the store. The idea is to create excitement for the brand being represented. A VM also gets to spend a lot of time inside the store - training staff on how to fold and clothes, teach them how to follow manuals and merchandise that needs to go on the racks. A VM is also a bridge between the design and the marketing depart
ment.
A visual merchandiser working with an international brand does not have the liberty to design a window. The step-by-step installation guide is sent to him or her to be put up as per specifications. There is a set format to be followed. However, a VM working with a domestic brand can use his or her creativity to design a window, suggest a theme and let it run through the entire store. So, while an international brand can limit its theme to Christmas or soccer, a domestic brand can do up a store with the local flavor of Onam, Durga Puja and even cricket. "For us, the window needs to have a uniform theme around the world. The window in Italy should be the same as in India," says Parikh.
Visual merchandising provides an interactive retail experience. A VM needs to have a strong sense of color, fashion and perspective. It's a science that blends fashion, architecture and even interior design, so one needs to be clued on to the happenings in these different verticals.
He or she should be able to create a mood and make the brand make a statement. Last but not least, a VM's visual treat should be able to compel window shoppers to loosen their purse strings, even buy the bag launched four-months ago!
Author: Vandana Ramnani (HT Horizons)
Date: 18th June, 2010
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