Rarely do I walk past a Harvey Nichols Store and fail to notice it's consistently inventive window displays. The current designs for London fashion week are no exception, comprising of a complicated array of coat hangers to form dinosaur skeletons. Designer Janet Wardley is the creator of this inspired piece of work, and describes it as 'angular, prismatic and colourful', intended to be uplifting.
Standing in front of the Leeds store this week, I felt more as though I were viewing a window to an art gallery than a designer shop. What I find impressive about Harvey Nichols' window displays, is that they sell the image of the store rather than their products. The focus is on the dinosaur sculpture rather than the product in front. The design is simple and graphic; as a whole image you see the figure of a dinosaur. However looking more carefully, I was suprised to see the skeletal effect was acheived by using coathangers; a clever link to fashion and also visually stimulating. Wardley explained the sculpture of the dinosaur reflected fashions current obsession with "architectual cutting". I think her using coathangers to produce it from is an enlightened response that helps to give the window displays their 'wow factor', and definitely made me look twice.
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