Designing the Department Store

The book builds an original argument for the department store as a significant site of design production, and therefore offers an alternative interpretation to the mainstream focus on consumption within retail history. Emily M. Orr presents a fresh perspective on the rise of modern urban consumer culture, of which the department store was a key feature. By investigating the production processes of display as well as fascinating information about display-making's tools and technologies, the skills of the displayman and the meaning and context of design decisions which shaped the final visual effect are revealed. In addition, the book identifies and isolates 'display' as a distinct moment in the life of the commodity, and understands it as an influential channel of mediation in the shopping experience. The assembly and interpretation of a diverse range of previously unexplored primary resources and archives yields fascinating new evidence, showing how display achieved an agency which transformed everyday objects into commodities and made consumers out of passersby.

Emily Marshall Orr is Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary American Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, USA.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Geographical and Historical Context Contributing to the History of the Department Store Chapter One: Retail Architecture The Visibility of Constructionand Renovation The Changeable Design of the Storefront Architectural Display as Competition Technical Scope as a Show Feature Chapter Two: Window Display Professional Development Making Window Displays Stocky Style Draping Techniques and the Female Gaze Sculptural Style Machinery of Display The Unit Principle Chapter Three: The Shopfitting Industry Silent Salesmanship Science of Shopkeeping The Shopfitting Industry and Exhibition Culture From Density to Openness Chapter Four: The Department Store Interior Seasonality A Great Decoration Event Virtual Travel via Display The Model Room: An Interior of Interiors Professional Development Conclusion The Modern Displayman In Summary Bibliography