ture and continue to receive serious study by retail merchants visiting New York. But, within a year at most, they will not be the last word, because alteration of fronts impends not only in New York but in many other large city stores, and a high percentage of them contemplate minor variants of one fundamental principle of display that is feasible for almost universal application to the American department store.
That is the principle of the continuous window space, a display area that extends, unbroken, along the entire front. It was applied in the Bloomingdale Brothers’ store, New York, in the recent remodeling of the Eastern front. With the acquisition of title to a couple of small properties now breaking the main approach, on Lexington Avenue, the firm plans to rebuild the Lexington Avenue front, again with a continuous window space, extending from Fifty-ninth to Sixtieth Street. And here comes the problem so strikingly mooted by Cheney Brothers with their brilliantly executed vertical
window frontage two miles further South. Should the new Lexington Avenue facade of the Bloomingdale store be endowed with windows extending up to the floor level of the third story; or should the window height be restricted to the familiar 10 or 12 feet, or even less?
The answer is to be found in the available perspective, and in the uses to which the doubled height can be put. The perspective is limited by the width of Lexington Avenue which, for purposes of vision from the opposite sidewalk, is no more than 60 feet. This is an ideal distance for double window displays, one above the other, enabling the store to hold the glance of the pedestrian across the way by means of the upper showings, while those walking on the store’s own sidewalk are occupied with the displays at street level. But single windows, used for displays rising from the street level only, would be totally wasteful of all frontage above 12 feet of glass, and even, according to modern window practice, above 8 feet.
There appears to be no inclination on the part of leading American retailers, to bid for distant spectators by means of upper windows. But there is every indication that all are tending to bid for close-up, concentrated observation by means of eye-level displays that shall be readily changeable horizontally. The 200-foot window of Bloomingdale Brothers store is only one among many that have been installed, all with enormous advantages in practical window dressing.
Only on exceptional occasions, as when Spring or Fall may call for an overwhelming exhibition of the mode in all of its ensemble, will a store stage a display uninterruptedly along such an apparently interminable length of front. At all other times, the continuity is broken by means of temporary partitions, which may be very costly woods and exquisite carpentry, providing individual displays extending from 10 feet to 30. With such an unbroken window frontage, supplemented with movable partitions, the maximum of flexibility is attained and, to the discerning vision, this appears to be the future of the department store window in that dimension.
In depth, it may be accepted that practically all existing store windows are constructed with permanent rear walls, or “backs, ” in
RICHARD HUDNUT STORE IN PARIS, OF MARBLE, METAL AND GLASS
GEORGE BARBIER, DESIGNER
That is the principle of the continuous window space, a display area that extends, unbroken, along the entire front. It was applied in the Bloomingdale Brothers’ store, New York, in the recent remodeling of the Eastern front. With the acquisition of title to a couple of small properties now breaking the main approach, on Lexington Avenue, the firm plans to rebuild the Lexington Avenue front, again with a continuous window space, extending from Fifty-ninth to Sixtieth Street. And here comes the problem so strikingly mooted by Cheney Brothers with their brilliantly executed vertical
window frontage two miles further South. Should the new Lexington Avenue facade of the Bloomingdale store be endowed with windows extending up to the floor level of the third story; or should the window height be restricted to the familiar 10 or 12 feet, or even less?
The answer is to be found in the available perspective, and in the uses to which the doubled height can be put. The perspective is limited by the width of Lexington Avenue which, for purposes of vision from the opposite sidewalk, is no more than 60 feet. This is an ideal distance for double window displays, one above the other, enabling the store to hold the glance of the pedestrian across the way by means of the upper showings, while those walking on the store’s own sidewalk are occupied with the displays at street level. But single windows, used for displays rising from the street level only, would be totally wasteful of all frontage above 12 feet of glass, and even, according to modern window practice, above 8 feet.
There appears to be no inclination on the part of leading American retailers, to bid for distant spectators by means of upper windows. But there is every indication that all are tending to bid for close-up, concentrated observation by means of eye-level displays that shall be readily changeable horizontally. The 200-foot window of Bloomingdale Brothers store is only one among many that have been installed, all with enormous advantages in practical window dressing.
Only on exceptional occasions, as when Spring or Fall may call for an overwhelming exhibition of the mode in all of its ensemble, will a store stage a display uninterruptedly along such an apparently interminable length of front. At all other times, the continuity is broken by means of temporary partitions, which may be very costly woods and exquisite carpentry, providing individual displays extending from 10 feet to 30. With such an unbroken window frontage, supplemented with movable partitions, the maximum of flexibility is attained and, to the discerning vision, this appears to be the future of the department store window in that dimension.
In depth, it may be accepted that practically all existing store windows are constructed with permanent rear walls, or “backs, ” in
RICHARD HUDNUT STORE IN PARIS, OF MARBLE, METAL AND GLASS
GEORGE BARBIER, DESIGNER