86. Peter Mohlmam, The Window Witch

Original Drawing by Tori Haynes

From the catwalk to the department store, there are many modalities of showcasing high fashion. In the realm of window displays, how do you draw people in? For Peter Mohlmam, it's all about seduction. This week, we dive into the wickedly beguiling world of the Window Witch - where fashion design and architecture meet and design is life.

Timestamp Outline 

3:00    Peter Mohlmam, window witch for Gucci, USA under Tom Ford

5:40    Window Witch: anyone who designs, constructs, and maintains a window display in the city. 

6:20    “It’s an odd mix of business and art. It's a very creative process, but one has to keep in mind the human and material aspects.”    PM

6:40    Description of the process of a job

7:07    John Field

8:20    The process of creating an idea and pushing it forward

10:10    “So you were setting up a scene, a stage set for mannequins wearing fantastic things. And the objective was that the scene would be seen from the street. You had to seduce them in.”    VP

11:30    The art of seducing the passerby

11:45    Simon Doonan

13:30    Two things to grab passerby’s attention. 1) Lighting 2) Fashion integration into the propping

13:50    A sense of completion, mise en place.

14:58    “Emotional Utopia”    VP

16:10    New flagship store design would inhibit losing sense of time.

16:59    Notre-Dame de Paris

19:40    Archival process of display

20:55    All about the panels - Le Corbusier aesthetic

22:30    Modularized shapes and props to have consistency and efficiency for reproduction across stores

24:05    What happens when window displays go wrong? Artificial vs natural lighting

25:20    The magic of Christmas displays and months of planning

26:15    “You could almost charge admission [for Simon Doonan’s windows]”    PM

27:50    The downside of the business

29:30    The trends and styles of window displays

31:35    Lighting as painting

32:55    Peter Mohlmam’s favorite and most famous display from August 1999

36:20    Schools of Window Witching - Visual Merchandising

38:20    “Your life’s a story, how you display your creativity and your input into the world”    PM

38:55    Bowerbird - animal kingdom’s answer to the window witch

42:05    Idea of branding

42:45    Completion of self, like the Mirror Stage in Lacan

43:30    Manipulation, sex sells

45:45    “Why did you leave it all?”    VP

47:00    Creating things impermanent vs creating things that have a lasting physical presence