Some shops in our district make a big effort with their window displays. but the very term ‘window dressing’ has come to mean something like “A superficial or actually misleading presentation of something “.
Can good window displays actually make a difference to a shopping centre? The Guardian has an article today on a window-dressing project in Willesden:
The Real Charcoal kebab house on Willesden High Road, in northwest London, has had a makeover. A graphic history of the kebab, depicting Persian soldiers cooking meat on their swords, now occupies the windows. Further down the street, the Hairways barber, run by Tony Antoniou for more than 20 years, has a smart new sign and a playful graphic treatment in the windows depicting 12 comedy hairstyles for the 12 days of Christmas. The black-and-white headshots of the Bros and Vanilla Ice lookalikes ? standard barber fare across the land ? are still there, but otherwise the place is unrecognisable.
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It was fitting, in the week that Mary Portas delivered her government report on the state of the nation’s high streets, that I should spend a morning scrutinising the design of shop fronts. I was one of the judges of a competition funded by the Mayor of London to revive Willesden High Road…..
Frustratingly, the Guardian piece only has one photo, but the project has its own website where you can find out more – and see each window involved.
To be honest, some of the window displays still don’t seem very wonderful after the their ‘transformations’. But what appeared to be a pretty tired looking street of shops has undoubtably benefited from a bit of attention.
Food for thought for our district, maybe.
