Poetry and the first signs of Xmas

It aint often I'm impressed, I've gotten too damn cynical for that I think. Too much hard sell, marketing and generally catering to the lowest common denominator has been dragged before my withering eyes (and no small part of that installed by me, myself.)

I was in Eastgate (buying yet more Xmas lights), and , as I get there before the general opening time of 9 a.m. I get to have a wee shufty 'round the centre. The last time I was there I passed a boarded up 'watch-this-space' shop front, this time it was open, I'm thinking I'd caught it on opening day as the fella at the door was stressing that the power had not been switched on yet and-it-was-nearly-opening time.

The store- Poetry. On chatting to the fella at the door Poetry is part of the Cape Union Mart chain, catering 'exclusively' for ladies and very obliging he was when I asked to take pictures. Although very straight forward, sparse even, the windows were fresh and garden themed, featuring fresh, bright potplants even! Not a very big store, but in my mind, not big enough for sectioned off/backed windows, the big, wide and open-backed windows took the eyes into the store looking interestingly full yet not cluttered behind.






The classic looking cupboard in the one window complemented the one's used for merchandising instore which helped with the feeling that the floor merchandising and window presentation were one and the same.




Elsewhere in the mall I snapped this small boutique, Ana Sousa. Not as obvious in the picture as I would've liked was the 'prop' which was an interestingly complex tangle of wire and leaves forming a sort of a chair/stand for a shoe/accessory group - anyway, it caught my eye and made for an eye-catching focal point in an essentially minimalist display.








And on to the first Xmas window for 2010 on this blog - A.D. Spitz shoes. I've seen some really interesting windows from Spitz and some dreadful ones. Shoes on the whole can be difficult to 'display', the easy thing- to fill the window with everything you have or risk the shoes being overpowered by props, especially in a window, the size of the one featured. Here, I think the backing works well. focusing on the small, neat shoe and accessory groups. The three dimensional reindeer heads were repeated in smaller windows and instore.




I promise to get back to being brutal next time....