£2,000 “DRESSERS”

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 3, Issue 5, 1 November 1924, Page 51

£2,000 “DRESSERS”

MAN whose skill, good taste, and originality are often admired by t women is the shop window dresser; hut those who see the results of his work seldom realise its difficulties. He must be original, yet not too original, or he will offend the law. The most successful window-dressers in this country are those whose skill has involved their firms in police prosecutions for causing street obstructions. There are records of numerous fines imposed for this offence; and it is significant that the dressers responsible at the time are now among the most sought-after in Europe. What most attracts attention, the dressers have found, is either something mechanical that moves, or something alive. Exquisite colour schemes may appeal to the few but leave the many quite unconcerned, and crowded windows fail to draw any but the keenest bargain-hunters. A live squirrel in a cage will attract 40 per cent, more customers than an array of hats or wax models by themselves; and a mechanical device that has novelty and ingenuity and perhaps a touch of humour to recommend it, will increase a street crowd outside the shop by approximately GO per cent. Expert dressers have their wax models of female figures specially made from living models. Some of the languishing figures that stand or repose in graceful postures in the windows are copies of famous models in Chelsea and Paris. After studying in Paris and Brussels, as many dressers now do, they can command a salary of £2,000 a year.