to attract special attention to a certain fragment of the display. Such a static
representation of a costume design, above all, presents costume as a work of art, an
artefact, or a costume on an individual in the context of a specific historical time frame.
Costume in the modern art of window dressing should also be considered as an
original form of representations of a fashionable costume. Window is a closed space,
limited by a clear frame, which has a certain height, width, depth, and length. Window
is always perceived in the context of the building, with its historical architectural
features, style, materials, colour, etc. Windows as a representation form are created for
a long time and are usually static. The narrative of a window is a “narrative-reminder”,
so there should be a kind of stimulus that will always attract the attention of passers-
by. Such an stimulus could be: the costume itself – its shape, for example hyperbolized
or distorted, its colour or decoration; the mannequin demonstrating the costume –
form-image of the wearer, posture, movement; special unusual lighting – dotted, from
the inside, colourful; a large photo, where the scale of the costume wearer and his/her
recognisability (a well-known public figure or model) attract attention.
The condition of the costume representation in the shop windows is the full
functioning of the window in the conditions of day and evening perception, its
readability. In any case, the window should be compact, laconic, symbolic,
informative, which is amplified and accentuated by the compositional-conceptual
centre. The dominant function of the window is to sell while advertising, so the
costume therein is positioned in the first place.
Windows in stores interiors should be considered separately. Like exhibits in
museums, they provide a display from all sides. However, unlike museum expositions,
stores windows are a group of mannequins that are combined by products from one
collection, by the function of costume, and so on. Similar windows are often open and
placed on the same level with the visitors and are of the same height. In this way, the
illusion of the availability, routine, and democratic nature of this form of
representations is created. Its narrative is laconic: target group, season, and quality of
design, properties and advantages of materials, often status, that is, the name of the
brand or designer, and always information about relevance, fashion, practicality and
expediency. Essentially, mannequins, as an element of windows equipment, are either
conceptual (exclusive, custom-made) or, vice versa, extremely realistic.
Our time is an era of not only mass production and consumption, but the era of
mass production of specific images by means that are accessible to the overwhelming
majority of ordinary citizens. The point is that the practice of selfie, the accessibility
of designer items promoted by various means as samples of advertising, make it
possible for anyone to independently create his/her own image through accessible and
understandable to him/her and his/her entourage images. The hybrid forms of costume
representations, such as television reportage, TV shows about style and fashion, TV
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