For a long time, store windows were the only 'public' point of contact between brands and their customers - and too often neglected. Hundreds of square meters of showcases that just displayed products without creating a presentation, blindly following merchandising guidelines of the period. Only a few brands had understood that store windows were a unique space for telling a story: Paul Smith (by installing objects unrelated to the brand such as Dyson vacuum cleaners, old Vespas or by making them really amusing), and Hermès, belonged to this category.
Today, when the Internet is, without doubt, the preferred point of contact between customers and brands, they are rediscovering and reinventing the store window. They are becoming a place that narrates real stories, particularly where the encounters between art and luxury are the most visible. Brands use them as a means of instant communication - attracting the attention of the passers-by and making them pause to admire it.
Here are some recent examples that are superb:
The Louis Vuitton store windows for the launch of the Kusama collection:
The Hermès store windows with their interplay of sand and pigments (and the works of Manuel Merida)
Bally rediscovers its history and its roots in the shoe business
Starbucks sponsors the Edward Hopper exhibition... and makes it known