Whilst wandering up and down Oxford Street on Sunday last week, I picked up on another visual merchandising idea I believe to be a trend, steps. Below are the images I took of a River Island window display. River Island have used steps on the backdrop of the window display with a mannequin sat on the bottom step and another set of steps facing forwards, where shoes and bags are displayed. I think that the steps have been used effectively to display the accessories. It is easy for accessories to get lost within window displays, in amongst mannequins etc but here the steps provide elevation for the products, they are lifted higher reaching peoples eye line rather than being on the floor or worn by the mannequin, where they are not quite as noticeable.
It isn't just window displays that this vm technique is being used for, I noticed that steps had also been used within in store visual merchandising. The images below I took of H&M (left) and River Island (right). I really like how the steps have been used in both of these stores to create a visual merchandising feature along with numerous mannequins. I am particularly attracted to the River Island example as it gives a catwalk feel due to the positioning of the mannequins, they have been placed behind one another in a line form, the use of the lights also adds to this effect. The H&M example is also effective, I think that it is particularly powerful due to the duo colour palette. Only green and black garments are displayed on the mannequins located on the steps and therefore they successfully compliment each other meaning that the overall display flows really fluently. In a sense I think that as the mannequins are elevated by the steps it gives them, and therefore the garments worn a somewhat prestige feel, which may not have been achieved so effectively if the mannequins were simply placed on ground level.
I thought that Zara (below left) had used steps in an in interesting manner. In the other examples I came across during my research the steps are being fully utilised, with products and mannequins displayed on them however with the Zara window display, one mannequin was placed on one of the lower steps and the rest were left clear. Zara has built up a direct image with their visual merchandising, it always has the same sleek and simplistic feel and this display is reflective of this. Aldo was also amongst the stores using steps within visual merchandising on Oxford Street. The steps which featured within their window I found to be relatively simple and subtle, they have a cage effect which allows shoppers to not only see the window display, but also the rest of the shop as they are able to see through the steps. This is intelligent use of visual merchandising on Aldo's part as it gives the brand the chance to showcase their whole shop worth of products through their window display rather than just what is placed in the window.
Love, Isabella x
Photo Credits: All own images
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