Variety in Store Design

I work at a very big and famous department store. (I’m not going to write the name on this post because I’m not sure its allowed). I’m not in a managerial position as of yet but I am proud to say I go the store manager to completely revamp the second floor (women’s clothing) to my exact specifications.

What happened is simple and I’ll write in as a concise a manner as I can.

I was in another (and I think major competitor) department store and I saw a easy to miss thing that really stood out to me. It was a dress form. In case you don’t already know, a dress form is like mannequin but its cut off just below the waste and does not have a head. Anyway I saw this dress form and it was none I have ever seen before. It was all plastic and had funky link arms and elbow joints, like the play mobile toys my brother used to play with when we were younger.

I have been shopping and working in fashion for the longest time and have never seen this simple and almost unnoticeable feature.

I went home a bit later on and then I had an idea. I thought I would go online and see if I couldn’t find dress forms with very distinct and unique looks. The reason for this in case you are not familiar with the fashion industry is that the slight details in a stores layout make a really big deferent in sales. (People like shopping in places that they feel comfortable.) so what I wanted to do was find something that would make the store that I work at really stand out. I knew at the time that it was a long shot, I mean, let be real, the chances of a major department store listening to an idea from a small sales rep is very small. But I thought if I could really put together something cool I would have the confidence to go over the boss and run it by him.

So I found these really funky bright yellow dress forms and put together a floor layout plan. I went to my boss the next day and handed him the folder with a summary of my plan and the online stores he could go to get the things I described.

I was as shocked as you to hear about a month later that the store was going to go ahead with my idea!

Long story short, dress form can make a big deference to a place. You don’t need to take my word for it, a major department store did, oh and I got a raise to prove it.