Christine Fisher-Lathwell – Designing windows in the 1980s

Simon: I remember you describing the way of laying out windows before when you were talking about the triangle and layering within the window. With the change in fashions to the early ‘80s, did that change the way that windows were dressed or did that same basic layout ride through it?

Christine: I think it did because you could … without making it to absolute triangle, you could experiment by … you could maybe get a child model and put in to hold the hands of one of the grown-up models. When the Bridal Wear went in in Mrs Barrows big dress window, the Bridal Wear often there were Children’s models there from the Children’s window wearing little Brides Maids dress so you could change the depth of it, even if you brought it slightly out by putting a child there by an adult …

Simon: Ok, yeah.

Christine: … and then another child the other end. But as long as it wasn’t too rigid, it was fluid, much more fluid so that as I say it needed to have a depth and forward window dressing. You could even change it by having a large notice right in the middle of the group, saying, “Pack and Cullifords Sale Starts at such and such a time.” The type of display I don’t think changed, but as people got better and better at it, the people that stayed there, they began to understand how it should be dressed, but I don’t think that triangular look … because it basically covers the whole window except for the area either side of the top of the window, which was where the spotlights were, so you had to be very careful about putting anything up … you know the spotlights would shine on because they could cause a fire, so that triangle would be you know apexed at the top with one model. You might put a model high on a pedestal and then have a group of them coming down. It’s just always goes back to the triangle and I don’t know if that’s anything to do with the way the earth was built (laughs). I just don’t know.