DRESSCODES 20

At a time when étalagisme, the artistic science of storefront display and merchandise presentation, is becoming professionalized and claiming the decorative status of its creations, the Parisian street is modernizing in step with the evolving forms, materials, and techniques of shop façades and the scenography of their windows.
Although all sectors are affected by this phenomenon, fashion boutiques are the most frequently redesigned to artistically stage clothing and its accessories. By boosting sales, these modes of display also transform shop windows into urban objects of visual delight. This talk explores the aesthetic renewal of Parisian fashion boutiques during the 1920s and 1930s. Through a selected corpus of storefronts, it examines how the art of display was used to target a bourgeois clientele whose consumption placed particular emphasis on clothing, while also catching the eye of less affluent passersby.
It investigates how fashion presentation devices operated within the commercial context and influenced contemporary visual culture, as they organized in the streets a true parade of shirts, dresses, shoes, hats, jewelry, and handbags addressed to all.