Guénolée Milleret, fashion and decorative arts historian, and Élodie de Boissieu, head of the Ecole Internationale de Marketing et du Luxe, plunged into the history of storefronts. This story begins in the Middle Ages and arrived at its contemporary heights thanks to the work of one artist/designer: Yves Saint Laurent. Store fronts have always accompanied the successive transformations of society, of mentalities; this has never been without a certain savoir-faire of the sensibilities. The medieval shop thus incarnates the sudden emergence of the art of highlighting creation within a window display directed towards the exterior.
Couturiers have long worked in the shadows of their workshops, going to clients to take the measures for a dress or an outfit that they will then create. It took the arrival of Yves Saint Laurent in the 60s for storefronts to become as important as the creations themselves. He also started in a workshop, but then decided to branch out to a window display in 1966.
It was a revolution. For the very first time, a couturier invited any and everyone to come in, choose a style, and buy it. The window displays became an economic, artistic, and cultural mainstay. This story, both past and present, is retraced like never before at the hands of Guénolée Milleret and Élodie de Boissieu. Starting with the classic Parisian model, this book introduces the development of luxury boutiques, the evolution of crafts and commercial or financial practices, as welagl as the metamorphosis of spaces and sales in terms of strategy and innovation. The fascinating descriptions contained within Vitrines du Luxe also depict the luxury empire and the reach of its imination to every corner of society. Through 200 photographs and archival documents, this book illustrates luxury with a touch of mischief – a perfect stuffer for any fashion lover’s stocking!
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