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