Closets and Their History

The closet is a place we hang our clothes and store our shoes. But the closet hasn’t always been called the closet and for that matter the places we store our clothing has had other uses as well as names.

Armoire - This term comes from an early French term meaning a tall cabinet, wardrobe or closet. The armoire originally was used for storing weaponry in medieval times rather than clothing. Armoires typically come with double doors, which hide the interior shelves or space for hanging items.

Wardrobe - Because homes didn’t have built in closets in the early days, the first wardrobes were patterned after the armor bearing closets known as armoires. The wardrobe usually has double doors, carried to the floor and usually covering the drawers at the base. Inside the wardrobe may be hanging rods as well as sliding shelves and some had mirrors. The British sometimes call the wardrobe an oakley as they were typically made from oak. Some wardrobes are large walk-in rooms lined with oak and shelving. Others are still simply large ornate cabinets.

Cheffonier or Chiffonier - The French translation of Chiffonier means “rag-gatherer” or “rag-picker”, suggesting that it was originally built to receive odds and ends that had no other storage place in the home. A glorified junk drawer! Cheffoniers date from the Empire style of furniture in England and were built of the favorite wood of that era, the rosewood. To define the look of a chiffonier varies. Some it was a tall set of drawers while others say it is a piece of furniture that is smaller than a sideboard with the whole of the front enclosed by doors. The Chiffonier typically sits wide and low; a sort of buffet. The doors were usually paneled and even edged with brass-beading. The chiffoniers feet were either padded or had claws and even gilded sphinxes.


Chifferobe or Chifforobe – A hybrid piece of furniture built to function as a closet in the twentieth century. Popular more in the southern United States than anywhere else, chifferobes were first seen advertised in the 1908 Sears and Roebucks Catalogue. The product description described the chifferobe as a modern invention. Many passages of popular southern literature (To Kill a Mockingbird, Wise Blood and The Ballad of Sad Café, to mention a few) use the furniture known as a chifferobe in their settings. The name chifforobe came from blending the words chiffonier and wardrobe.

Traditionally the chifferobe combines both a long space for hanging clothes like a wardrobe along with a set of drawers like a chest of drawers. Most designs host a side-by-side function, with closet down one and the drawers on the other.

The Reach-In Closet - The most common type of clothes storage today is the reach-in closet. These closets are wide in variety and typically come with a wooden rod for hangers to hang clothes on. Reach-in closets vary in size and door types. There is sliding doors, the bifold door and the regular pull open door.
The Walk-In Closet - Moving beyond the average reach-in closet, the modern home style is that the larger master suite closets are big enough to house a chest of drawers and other furniture, which saves room in the master bedroom. It is common for people to cut down on furniture in the master bedroom and relocate it to the master bedroom closet.

Today's walk-in closets are very elaborate and often allow virtually all items stored in the closet to be visible in a glance through open shelving. It is also common to have an island centered in the master closet to hold items such as tilt-out hampers, sliding belt racks and tie racks, lockable jewelry trays, shoe cubbies, shoe racks and shelves, among other things. Some islands also store luggage and fold away ironing boards.

Yes, the way we store our clothing, shoes and accessories has evolved and changed over history as has the amount of clothing, shoes and accessories we own. Now you know the history of the closet.

Ron Maier is the Manager of Only Slimline Hangers, a leading online resource for slimline hangers which are space saving hangers, non slip hangers and slim line hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyslimlinehangers.com.

Showing Off Your Window Display

The art of creating a window display that stands out and grabs peoples attention is an important and valuable skill as a way to increase sales. Your window display is often your best chance to make a good first impression or even a bad one. Your window display also gives walk-by traffic a chance to see what you sell and how you sell it. It conveys something about your store, your identity and the emotion or idea you want to get across to your potential customer.

What is a good window display? It is one that intrigues, seduces, entertains, and invites potential customers. For this reason, you want to try something unique, something that stands out from the rest of the other window displays customers are passing by. In this, don’t be afraid to take risks. Yet don’t confuse your customer. For example, if you are featuring fall clothing, don’t put the bikinis in with the sweaters. In this way, there is a balance of simplicity and creativity that must be achieved. You don’t want to try and do too much or sell too many different products. That’s not to say you can’t cross merchandise, which is a good idea, but, again, keep your window display uncluttered.

When thinking through your display, don’t scrimp on cost and always be consistent. Consider your window display as your silent salesman.

You will also want to change your window display regularly. Keep your displays fresh and new. Depending on foot traffic, changing your display once a month is a good rule of thumb.

Make sure your display is lit well. Good lighting is key. Track lighting gives you the flexibility needed to illuminate the ever-changing environment. You can use the lighting to create a mood and spotlight individual products.

Keep your window display clean, that is make sure it isn’t full of dead flies and dust.

As for the design within the window itself, the simple rules of product display apply. Stack or pyramid products – that is vary height and depth of what you are showing off. If necessary, use a low table. Keep everything stacked neatly. Walk outside the store frequently and look at your display often as you are installing it. Try looking at it with fresh eyes, as your customer’s would look at it. If you are displaying clothing, choose the appropriate mannequins for the types of clothing you are selling. Follow this with how your display your mannequins – how will they be standing, what will they be doing besides showing off your product?

If you find that you just don’t have that decorating and design touch, don’t despair. There are professionals who put together window displays for a living.

If you are a store that doesn’t have a window display and are just considering it, remember to maximize the space available for the largest windows you can install. Once windows are installed, back your display with walls so people focus on what’s in the window and not what’s behind it.

Last, when putting together your window display, if possible, carry the theme or look of your window display into your store with your interior displays.

Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail store displays including mannequins, mannequin forms, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Displaying Your Jewelry To Sell

The difference between jewelry that gets a second look or even purchased and jewelry that doesn’t is often in the way it is displayed. Many jewelers overlook the importance of displaying their art correctly and feel the work will sell itself. This isn’t always so. So what makes a good jewelry display?

Effective jewelry displays require balance between style and restraint. While there is no perfectly right or perfectly wrong way to show your jewelry, there are a few things to consider.

One feature of a good jewelry display is that it reflects the style and personality of the jewelry line and the taste of the targeted customer. Be as creative with your display props, backgrounds, and textures as you are when creating your jewelry. For ideas, flip through catalogs that feature women’s fashions and jewelry. The idea is not to copy the way the catalogs display jewelry, but to use their settings as a springboard to a great new display of your own.

Of course one can get carried away and put too much into their jewelry display cabinet, which can communicate the wrong message. Picture an entire table filled with bamboo stalks, tiger-print fabric, and driftwood under and behind every piece of jewelry. This is far too busy and cluttered, even if those elements do communicate the style of the jewelry line.

Jewelry should show up against whatever props and background materials you use. A clear crystal quartz pendant would be practically invisible on a leopard print silk scarf, but a chunky silver cuff bracelet on the same scarf would stand out nicely.

A background that contrasts visually with the jewelry will help the jewelry stand nicely. Choose no more than three colors for your display elements and tablecloths - for example gray, white, and blue. Each item you use for your jewelry displays would be one of your three colors. Also choose no more than three textures - for example stone, lace, and linen; each display element would be one of these textures.

When laying our your jewelry display, take proportion and height into consideration. You can use all kinds of things to vary your heights in your jewelry displays, so experiment.
Other ideas for visual interest are to put things at unusual angles, and set props at a diagonal. Diagonals are always dynamic.

Lighting is another critical aspect of showing your jewelry. All jewelry looks best when it is well lit. Whether you are showing your jewelry in a store, at a show or on the street, you can’t count of the lighting to be of the quality you want, so be sure to purchase the right type of lighting equipment to correctly light your works.

Now for practical matters. Be sure all of your jewelry is cleaned and shining. You don’t want to show dusty jewelry or work that has been tarnished. Also, avoid clutter at all cost. Clutter creates confusion in the mind of your customer, which will decrease your chance of making a sale. Keep your display as streamlined as possible without sacrificing interest and originality.

Last, be sure customers can touch your jewelry. While you may be a bit hesitant due to shoplifting, keep in mind that studies have shown that customers are four times more likely to buy something they have touched or tried it on.

Will your jewelry sell or attract customers? This could be entirely up to you and the way you have put consideration into your display.

Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail store displays including mannequins, mannequin forms, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com

Wax Mannequins and Wax Sculpting History

We are often amazed at how lifelike one can make a wax figurine. Some recall the number of wax museums you could visit when growing up. So what is the history of wax figurines and is wax still being used to create lifelike people?

Beeswax has historically always been an excellent medium for preparing figures and models, either through carving or by casting in molds. At ordinary temperatures, wax can easily be cut and shaped; it melts at a low temperature; it mixes with any coloring matter, and takes surface tints well. Its texture and consistency may be modified by the addition of earthy matters and oils or fats and when molten, it is highly responsive to impressions from a mold. With wax, once it sets and hardens its form is relatively resilient against ordinary temperature variations, even when it is cast in thin laminae. This is possibly why we have seen wax used for modeling since the Middle Ages.

During the Italian Renaissance, modeling in wax took a position of high importance, and it was practiced by some of the greatest of the early masters. The bronze medallions of Pisanello and of the other famous medalists owe their value to the properties of wax: all early bronzes and metalwork were cast from wax models first. The famous wax bust attributed to Leonardo da Vinci acquired in 1909 by the Museum of Berlin is the work of an English forger who worked about 1840. The wax model of a head, at the Wicar Museum at Lille, belongs probably to the school of Canova, which robs it of none of its exquisite grace.

There are a number of very high quality wax figures from the 16th and 17th centuries, mostly portrait figures and religious or mythological scenes, often with many figures. Antonio Abondio (1538-91) pioneered the colored wax portrait miniature in relief, working mainly for the Habsburg and other courts of Northern Europe, and his son Alessandro continued in his footsteps.

Towards the close of the eighteenth century, modeling of medallion portraits and of relief groups, the latter frequently polychromatic, was in considerable vogue throughout Europe. Many of the artists were women. John Flaxman executed in wax many portraits and other relief figures which Josiah Wedgwood translated into pottery for his Jasperware. The National Portrait Gallery has forty wax portraits, mostly from this period.

Meanwhile, as storefronts were becoming popular as was the rise of the mannequin, the idea of using wax seemed the most apparent solution. With wax, models could be created in the most flattering way to the store’s clothing line. One of these great wax model designers was Pierre Imans a mannequin manufacturer from Paris. Imans was known for bringing a beautiful sense of human element to mannequins by capturing body expressions in wax. He created interactive compositions of figures, as though they were in the process of living and unaware that they were also being observed. Heads and torsos were sculpted as one. With a slight turn of the head, a hint of movement was achieved. Hands were more delicately posed to create storytelling attitudes.

Miss Modesty, a wax mannequin of 1899 is a prime example of the development of storytelling attitudes. She stood in a store window, with hands and arms covering her face, stating reservation and shyness because she was wearing and selling corsets and undergarments.

At the turn of the century, the women's suffrage movement was gaining momentum, a definite influence on the female mannequin. In fact, a particular Siegel mannequin that was set upon a turning base (she was without legs) translated into a determined, assertive female of that era. With one arm held back and a hand slightly clenched, her head was high with vision focused straight forward. The other hand was more relaxed, showing a touch of softness. True to the accepted body language of her day, she portrayed the mature woman, with hips thrown back and heavy bosom thrust upwards.

After World War I, countries were plunged into the chaotic realm of picking up the pieces and getting back to the business of normal living. Concurrently, there was a major transition in the type of material used to sculpt mannequins, and there was a move from wax to plaster.

Plaster figures didn't melt in the show windows. They were much lighter in weight, and easier to handle. But at the same time, with plaster, it was more difficult to achieve the detailed features and anatomy that were possible with wax.

Wax figurines are still made today, but not wax mannequins. Today’s mannequin is typically made of fiberglass yet retains the very lifelike features of history’s wax mannequins. Despite the lack of need for mannequins made of wax, the medium of wax is still in high use and may always be due to its numerous qualities.

Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail store displays including mannequins, mannequin forms, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com/

The History of the Mannequin

We have seen mannequins and heard the word, but do we know who invented them or how long they have been used?

The word mannequin came from the Dutch word "maneken" which means little men. There are two accepted spelling for mannequin - "mannequin" and "manikin" which is nearer the original Dutch word. The meaning of the term today is either ‘a model of human figure for display of garments, hats or furs or a dressmaker’s assistant who wears new costumes to display them for sale in dressmaking houses.’

No one actually knows who created the first full figure mannequin. It is thought that the creation of a clothing form dates back thousands of years. Later, an item called a ‘fashion doll’ began circulating around France. These dolls ranged from 12 inches to life size and where always stylishly dressed. The dolls were exchanged among the royals and merchant class.

It was later on during the Industrial Revolution and the invention of plate-glass window displays that such ‘dolls’ became useful in showing off a store’s clothing. Various types of mannequins were designed initially made of everything from cloth and straw with lead feet to wax.

Wax mannequins were said to cost $15 apiece, a tidy sum during that time. Even during that time, the mannequins were mostly females and already reflect the "ideal beauty" of the time - having "full bosoms." The problem with the wax mannequins was the heat coming in the large glass windows caused the mannequins to melt. As for the heavy-duty mannequins with lead feet, these only posed a problem when moving or dressing as they could weight up to 300 pounds.

If you look at mannequins from different time periods, you will see that each era has its own characteristics - from facial expression, to body language (pose) and of course, the measurements. Modern mannequins look like life-sized Barbie dolls - tall and slim, with great body tone, looks bored and usually a size 4. Compare them with mannequins fifty years ago, and you will find that mannequins manufactured after World War II were shorter, and had a happy facial expression. Early mannequins were also only manufactured in three basic poses - left foot forward, right foot forward, or both feet together.


The depression and the Second World War brought about shortages and shop windows became rather somber with the mannequins of the day looking slightly melancholy and concerned. However this all changed when the war was over and by the late 1940s mannequins looked happy and prosperous, some of them even wore a radiant smile. Male mannequins in particular looked relaxed and some even had holes drilled between their lips for inserting pipes! Mannequins reflected the "ideal beauty" of the time it was designed and manufactured.

In the 1950s new materials became available and by the late 1960s the true mass production of fiberglass and then plastic mannequins became a reality.

Advances in technology have continued so that mannequin artists can now manufacture any conceivable design and are bounded only by the limits of their creativity.

Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail store displays including mannequins, mannequin forms, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com