Window dressing

“We work as a team,” discloses Tanaaz. “We have a brainstorming session where we pool all our ideas together. There’s no such thing as this is my idea, that is yours. It’s ours. In actuality, one idea often triggers off a chain of more. After the general idea is worked out, we draw the initial sketches. Once we have visualised it and worked out the scale and size, then comes the fine-tuning. While planning our ideas we must take into account two essential aspects. There should be an element of impact from a distance so that the shopper is drawn towards it and secondly there must be an element of detail as one comes closer. Since we like to project everything in an unconventional manner, we have to take care that it does not become too childish.”

As for the process of window-dressing, it is basically to draw attention to the products on sale. Tanaaz goes one step further and relates it to the present scenario. At the beginning of summer, she projected the season with a vividly tempting scene from Hawaii, mannequins in summery dresses having a ball on the sandy beaches and relaxing in hammocks. During Valentine’s Day, there were the heart-shaped gifts and wrapping paper (available inside), with male and female models lending a romantic touch.

When the store received a consignment of ethnic linen, it was displayed in the window, not just in the drab bales that one usually comes across, but in a cosy little bedroom scene. There was a full-sized bed covered with a stunning bedspread, a plethora of cushions strewed around, a mock window done up in a frilly curtain, a rug on the floor, more upholstered chairs and even a fireplace. An assortment of lamp shades, candle stands and knick-knacks were subtle advertisements that all these were to be found inside the store.

When the store began to sell stuffed toys, it was again projected in an extraordinary manner. Just keeping the toys lined would not have interested the buyer as much as the jungle-scene as a background, which Tanaaz and her team thought up.

While Tanaaz is actually a textile designer, she feels that it is her five-year studies at NID, Ahmedabad, which has given her enough exposure to take up window-dressing alongside her main profession. “All one needs is to have an eye for form, shape, colour, proportion and scale, One has to be sensitive to design. And it’s real fun doing this.”

She also checks up regularly on international books. But they are on a more sophisticated and expensive scale. The materials used here are the most commonly found ones needed for craftwork by kindergarten children. Chart paper, crepe paper, brown paper, cellophane, tinsel, silver and gold paper and their trademark — corrugated paper. These are cut, twisted and painted to end up in striking results.A waterfall that you see may be plain ol’ cellophane, the Mermaid in the window is a karaamat of chart paper and paints, the mannequins of course wear the dresses and materials found in the shop. A window may take anything from a mere half and hour to four days to complete. And the maximum they have spent on one window is Rs 200. That’s hardly peanuts if you consider the effect it gives off.

With the monsoons expected in the near future, plans are afoot for a window to welcome the Rain-gods. Paper raindrops falling heavily and a rainbow ending in a pot of gold. Children, keep a sharp look-out for this one, you may be the lucky ones to get this gold once the display is over. You’ll find they have delicious chocolate inside.

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