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Tuesday, December 03, 2019
When Department Stores Were Theater
The New York Times: After the hundreds of jobs going poof and the thus-far inadequate discounts, the saddest thing about the closure of Barneys New York is that its signature naughty window displays will recede even further in collective memory.
It is always sad to see something die, no matter what it is. It could be a tradition, a style, a way of life, etc. The thing is, the world is always changing and when something dies it just means that something has replaced it in a way that works for where the world and society are currently at. Whether it is better or not is up for debate and whether it will come back is yet another debate. This is a sad article because it details the loss of how something was. I think the past is important because it details where we have been and lets us look to see where we want to go. It is also sad because people still have memories of when things, like what is illustrated in this article, were this way it feels like you are killing memories when something dies, it becomes bittersweet. But its okay because while that one thing is gone, we have other things that will do just as it did, and things will continue on this way.
I recognize that this article is inspired by Barney’s, and focused on department stores of similar scale, but I have a hard time agreeing that window displays are dead. Perhaps they have become passe at the expensive, unobtainable storefronts, but they are thriving in smaller stores. I knew someone who worked storefronts nearly full time years ago, and it was a fairly full-time gig. These days, however, there is little mention of window work in the entertainment industry. The landscape of shopping and purchasing has changed drastically since the late 90s. There are all these articles about things millenials have killed, when in reality it is the advent of the internet that has killed these things. Online shopping has made it possible for boutique clothing stores to compete globally, and the giants of old have lost their appeal. When I was growing up, people would make pilgrimages to the famous department stores, but they have now clearly fallen out of vogue.
2 comments:
It is always sad to see something die, no matter what it is. It could be a tradition, a style, a way of life, etc. The thing is, the world is always changing and when something dies it just means that something has replaced it in a way that works for where the world and society are currently at. Whether it is better or not is up for debate and whether it will come back is yet another debate. This is a sad article because it details the loss of how something was. I think the past is important because it details where we have been and lets us look to see where we want to go. It is also sad because people still have memories of when things, like what is illustrated in this article, were this way it feels like you are killing memories when something dies, it becomes bittersweet. But its okay because while that one thing is gone, we have other things that will do just as it did, and things will continue on this way.
I recognize that this article is inspired by Barney’s, and focused on department stores of similar scale, but I have a hard time agreeing that window displays are dead. Perhaps they have become passe at the expensive, unobtainable storefronts, but they are thriving in smaller stores. I knew someone who worked storefronts nearly full time years ago, and it was a fairly full-time gig. These days, however, there is little mention of window work in the entertainment industry. The landscape of shopping and purchasing has changed drastically since the late 90s. There are all these articles about things millenials have killed, when in reality it is the advent of the internet that has killed these things. Online shopping has made it possible for boutique clothing stores to compete globally, and the giants of old have lost their appeal. When I was growing up, people would make pilgrimages to the famous department stores, but they have now clearly fallen out of vogue.
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