The Changing Face of Milans Visual Merchandising--意大利ASPESI米兰店

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本文转自:http://www.fashionsnoops.com/sem_blog/defaultblogmsg.asp?id=263&comments=show

文中可见ASPESI在意大利是与芬迪Fendi、巴黎世家Balenciaga等齐名的品牌。

Over the past two years, a regular weekend stroll through Milan’s exclusive shopping district, including Via Della Spiga  and Via Montenapoleone, has allowed me to spot the gradual change in the way high-end designer stores do visual merchandising. The trend is moving away from stereotypical window displays, which promote key products to entice shoppers, into window displays that amuse, provoke thought and establish an emotional connection with the passerby.

The starting point was the highly innovative and eye-catching upside-down Viktor & Rolf boutique. There, literally everything including the front door, chimney, shelving and ceiling were flipped upside-down.  

Balenciaga  

Martin Margiela

Then last year during Milan’s womenswear s/s 2008 shows came Balenciaga, on Via Santo Spirito. The windows consisted of floor to ceiling gold blinds, which didn’t showcase any products, or let you see inside, creating mystery and excitement. Could it be that by shutting people out we are even more tempted to take a sneaky look inside? Almost as if the products in-store are given more value and exclusivity when they haven’t been looked upon by too many eyes?

About a month later Martin Margiela opened up his store on the ground floor of a residential building, located just off of Via Della Spiga. Here the typical Italian wooden shutters, used to close out of the summer heat, gave the store a homey non-retail feel. In fact the only way to find this designer store was to follow the white hand painted footsteps that guide you to the traditional courtyard.  

It is apparent that mainly international brands bring unconventional visual merchandising concepts to the classical shopping streets of Milan. However, lets not forget that Moschino has always produced theatrical window displays – but now that more Italian brands are catching on, it’s getting more and more noticed.  

Moschino

Fendi

This month Moschino created a window with a beautifully decked out dinner table for little mice! This satirical window display has also been shown at Fendi, who this month related cartoon–like windows with life-size plastic robots holding onto the latest Fendi bags and accessories.  

Italian lifestyle brand Aspesi, who also opened their shop here about a year ago, has always been hot spot for checking out super innovative windows displays. Those include an old-style moving train track winding in and out of volcanic mountains and green fields, and also a great white polar bear with all his computer devices. This month Aspesi seems to have taken inspiration from Balenciaga’s ‘blocked out’ window display. They simply got a bunch of different colored balloons and packed them up against the windows.  To create a bit of fun as you enter the front door, you are guided through a cave of balloons.

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Aspesi

Prada

Prada is also leaning towards to the “blocked out” window displays with their full TV screen window showing hypnotic purple hues with Prada’s logo perfectly centered in the middle.

What seems to be clear is that international brands have brought a certain artistic and less commercial way of doing visual merchandising to Milan’s high-end shopping district. The Italians have definitely caught on and decided to play along in their own way, which tends to be more satirical and playful at least for the time being.