CHAPTER X.FIXTURES.
Having erected a proper framework and covered it in an artistic manner, the background is complete, and the decorator next turns to the subject of proper fixtures on which to display his goods.
The writer is a firm believer in good window fixtures, for they assist greatly in making a handsome display, and thus selling goods. Therefore an adequate supply of substantial brass and nickel fixtures is not an extravagance, but a necessity. I said an adequate supply. The big city store needs a great variety of fixtures, for there are many windows to trim. The small store cannot afford more than enough to be used to good advantage.
Side brackets, or arms, must be provided amply, and enough uprights and rods to make whatever racks or trees may be required for small goods. Special display require special fixtures, and where the fixture cannot be entirely covered, a homemade erection would be out of place. When a need arises for a good fixture the expense should not be considered.
From a town of 50,000 inhabitants a merchant writes: “I can no more expect my trimmer to create a good window without proper fixtures than a carpenter to make a good piece of cabinet work without tools. Windows that will attract attention to our goods are necessary; thereforewe buy every fixture that is required.” A firm in a town one-half the size of the above, states: “If we were forced to choose between inside fixtures and window fixtures the window fixtures would get them every time. We could sell goods off a dry goods box when once we had brought the people into our store; but without a good window display we fear we could induce very few to enter.”
A general merchant in a town of 5,000 writes: “I never paid any attention to my windows until a year ago, when I instructed one of my clerks who was going to the city, to buy whatever fixtures we might need to trim a window properly. To my horror he purchased nearly $200 worth of fixtures, including a jointed form. I felt like sending the goods back, but, at the clerk’s earnest solicitation, decided to keep them. To-day I would not part with them for double the amount they cost. My windows are talked of all over the country, and my competitors are making frantic efforts to imitate my style of trimming windows.”
Another merchant writes: “I never bought a window fixture that did not prove a good investment.”
The decorator more frequently finds a lack of fixtures to be his stumbling block than any other detail of window trimming. Dearth of proper fixtures is more fruitful of complaint, contention and ill feeling between the trimmer and his employer than all other causes combined; and, while there are many unreasonable and “stingy” employers, on the other hand, it may be observed that in very many cases the more indolent and incompetent the trimmer the louder are his complaints; and to such a degree does he sometimes carry this that his colleagues become wearied of his “hobby,” he becomes persona non grata with his employer, resulting finally in being driven out to make room for one with more tact, better temper and a larger store of latent resources, enabling him to make the best of the, perhaps, meager supply of materials at hand.
Did any one ever know of an incompetent and unsuccessful trimmer who did not lay all his troubles and failures to the lack of fixtures; or a capable and successful one who did not climb to the top in spite of his handicaps of this kind? Again, there are many ambitious young men who do make an effort to surmount these difficulties, regarding this as the “make-shift period,” sighing the while for the time when they can take their place in the great establishment, that “promised land” where their troubles will have ended, where there are fixtures galore for every wrinkle, and where they must but say, “presto, change,” and the marvelous creations they dream about will be complete. It is no secret with experienced men that this state of things exists only in dreams, for, if the great store is replete with all the modern appliances, so, also, are the requirements multitudinous in proportion, and the trimmer who has failed to cultivate to the utmost his inventive faculties while occupying his humbler sphere cannot hope to succeed in the greater one; and, yet again, it has been proven that the average store, doing a business of $100,000 a year, is as fully equipped in the fixture line, in proportion to volume of business done, as is the great metropolitan establishment whose sales run into the millions.
It is well to agitate the fixture question in every proper way with the employer, and to try to obtain those that are necessary; and it is well, also, to keep an eye on the lumber pile, for with saw and hammer one can rig up fixtures with which he can make a creditable display of any class of merchandise, and at the same time train himself to become a man of resources; for, far and away ahead of all other gifts the successful trimmer is always resourceful, and the ability to hastily construct necessary fixtures is twin brother to the gift that enables a man to handle every kind of goods givenhim in all the ways it is capable of being displayed at short notice which is the characteristic stamp of the true artist, and determines his value to his employer as well as his standing in the profession.
Here are one or two illustrations:
IDEAS FOR HOMEMADE FIXTURES.
IDEAS FOR HOMEMADE FIXTURES.
IDEAS FOR HOMEMADE FIXTURES.
If you have been asked to show underwear, for instance, and metal fixtures are not obtainable, don’t entertain a trimmerget some curtain poles, saw into required lengths, procure some three-pronged metal towel racks from house furnishing department, screw them on pole, as seen in cut, and you have a fixture that the goods will sufficiently cover, so that no one will guess it was not originally manufactured for the purpose.
To make a very effective centerpiece for a linen or handkerchief window, cut from any old boards the shape of a vase, say thirty-six inches high. Pad one side of this to the shape of a vase with old papers, excelsior or any old rubbish; cover with muslin, then puff all over with cheesecloth; now two feet from your dark background stretch from floor to ceiling coarse, black tarletan; place the flat side of vase against this and pin your handkerchiefs or napkins on in vine and flower effect. The tarletan is entirely invisible and the goods have the appearance of “growing” right out of the vase.
To make an effective and artistic arch quickly, nail your uprights to the floor, cover with carpet padding; over this puff, pleat or stretch plain cheesecloth or whatever you wish to cover it with. Now get some flour-pail lids for caps, procure some barrel hoops, cut out about one-third and nail either end to the side of post caps. The space can be filled in by puffing or pleating.
These methods are shown in outline in the above diagram.
A Method of Arch Construction.
Another, more elaborate arch is made as follows: Go to the lumber room, where old boxes and barrels are kept, and there are usually a saw and hammer about the store. That’s enough. Remove the wooden hoops carefully from your barrels, and save the heads. If you have not enough pieces among the boxes to serve for uprights purchase a few 2 × 4s, and also a bundle of lath. If you wish to make an arch, use the 2 × 4s for uprights, run a board across the top, and nail blocks in such a position that by bending lath or light strips, and nailing them to the blocks, the circle of the arch will be formed. See illustration. Puff cheesecloth upon cardboard or the thin wood used for backing pictures, and fasten it to the circle of the arch, allowing it to run down as far as the pillow. Allow the top board to project a trifle beyond theface of the arch, and cover or puff this edge. For the pillars take heavy carpet paper, or roofing paper, and cut it the length you wish the height of the pillar to be. Cover the surface of this paper with cloth or velvet. Then bend the paper in cylindrical form, around the upright, fastening at the back with brass paper fasteners. It will have the appearance of a solid and substantial pillar. Twine smilax or ivy about this and you will be surprised at the effect.
Barrel heads may be fastened together with light strips and then nailed to the top of an upright to form a pedestal on which any class of goods may be displayed. The top and standards may be closely covered with cloth, or draped from the edge of the top to the floor. Another way is to put a barrel head at the top and bottom and drape in hour-glass shape, drawing the cloth together at the center and tying with a bow of bright ribbon, or other material.
By winding hoops with cheesecloth you can use them in a variety of ways. In an illustration is shown a suspended hoop fixture which makes a good centerpiece. The pins in the center, which are to hold merchandise of various kinds—hats, bonnets, shoes, etc.,—are pieces of broom handle nailed to the flat of the hoop. Another good homemade fixture is in easel form, one-third of each hoop being cut away, as shown in the picture. A standard with half-hoops fastened to the sides makes agood fixture for showing laces, furnishing goods, etc. These are all outline drawings and do not show the fixtures covered, but when they are wound with cloth they present a very neat appearance, and are certainly useful.
Knitting needles driven into an upright standard, make neat and serviceable bars for displaying furnishing goods.
The country trimmer is frequently at a loss to make a good corset window. Boxes of goods may be piled up, to be sure, but that requires a great deal of stock, and never looks very well, either. A dozen corsets, properly placed, will make an excellent display, and will sell more goods than a mass of rolled and boxed corsets. Have a dozen oval pieces of 1-inch board sawed, of a size that just fits the bust of the corset. A corresponding number of pieces should be made to fit the waist measurement. Connect these two pieces by means of a standard, and lace the corsets lightly over this improvised form. By extending some of the standards you can have the real corsets of your display set up, so that all may be plainly seen. Allow the top of the corset to project several inches above the bust piece, and upon the shelf thus formed put a puffing of bright colored stuff, or place a potted palm. For a narrow window such a display is especially desirable, and it may also be adapted to any shaped window to advantage.
Perhaps the above suggestions will give the reader ideas of utilizing the lumber room to good advantage. In another chapter a variety of suggestions is offered, many of which will require more or less ingenuity on the part of the decorator to prepare properly.
There is a paper with surface printed in close imitation of onyx, which is being utilized by many window trimmers to manufacture onyx standards upon which to display goods. Take a round pole, three feet long and about three inches in diameter, and nail upon either end a 12 × 12 square of 1-inch boarding. Cover all surfaces with the onyx paper, and set several of these stands in the window. Over them lay suits of clothing, pieces of dress goods, or place upon the tops pairs of shoes or other articles. A pretty effect is created by twining smilax around the standards. Onyx columns to support backgrounds may be made in a similar way. The paper may be obtained from any first-class stationer, and when viewed from the sidewalk closely resembles real onyx.
When showing small articles in a window effective accessories may be employed by using draped stands of irregular heights scattered about the window, upon each ofwhich is placed a palm plant. If the stands are draped in red or yellow they show off the green palms to good advantage. Smilax may be twined about the bases.
Have strips of single or double thick window glass cut to the size you desire. Place two 1-inch screw eyes in your frame or window side, and rest the edge of the glass upon them. Fasten the ends of two pieces of picture cord, or chain, to the screw eyes, draw them over the outer edge of the glass and fasten them about a foot or eighteen inches above the shelf. This fastening is easily made and removed, and the shelves will be found very substantial.