What a wonderful view

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These days window displays are more like art installations. This week You! talks to Saira Sadozai, a Lahore-based window dresser...

When out shopping, what is the one thing that compels you to enter an outlet? If your answer is window displays, then you are on the right track! Now, window displays are more like amazing art installations or fantastic scenes from a movie. A mix of art, fashion and design, window displays not only grab our attention, but also prove as an effective marketing strategy.

A window display is an important element of visual merchandising which serves as a retailer’s 3D advertisement. And window dresser Saira Fatima Sadozai is one name who is associated with visual merchandising for almost five years now. She strives to set bench marks. Her richly imaginative work interweaves modern visual graphics with techno 3D for striking windows.

Saira Fatima Sadozai hails from a conservative yet qualified Pathan background and is the first woman in the family who is working in the industrial and fashion sector. The will to learn something out of the box led her to explore an unchartered territory of visual merchandising. Saira got her training from Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Paris. She even won a gold medal from PIFD (Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design) and Lux Style Student of the Year Scholarship Award .

She set out to tap the retail market and worked for corporate sector for some time before opening up her own company. According to Saira, there’s a scope for visual merchandising in Pakistan which is gaining strength with each passing day. “My core strength is product, and retail is my focal point. I was always interested in tapping visual merchandising and retail consultancy by working for offices and banks. I wanted to be distinctive and make my mark. And it is because of my will to evolve that I have accomplished so much until now,” shares Saira.

Saira truly believes that originality goes a long way. She is against plagiarism and detests people who replicate and find the easy way out. “I pick the theme board from the client about the idea of the season but I don’t accept any international window copy or a promise that I will create a replica. The race of copying international brands is actually getting negative mileage. In the long run, whoever creates original ideas will succeed,” she stresses.

Visual merchandising is all about creation of displays, in store exhibits, decor and marketing campaigns. But the question is, how does one create a window and what it entails? “The process is tedious. Initially we have to prepare the props and sometimes it takes a month or more before they are ready, as everything has to be customized. The setting and display on location takes from 24 to 48 hours with a few hours of break in between. It’s tiresome but very fulfilling when you see the final result. We aim at giving people an experience. These displays also help in defining a brand’s vision,” states Saira.

About her ventures Saira says, “I have just done windows for Nishat at Centaraus Mall in Islamabad and at Gulberg Galleria in Lahore; and Nishat Hotel, Lahore - which have been applauded for their painstakingly researched work and nifty detailing. In the past I have done the windows of Working Woman, Kayseria and Leisure Club.”

Regarding the display design of Nishat outlet, Saira explains, “The window dressing is inspired by a renowned Architect, Zaha Hadid’s gigantic skyscrapers. The display incorporates the look of those buildings in its 3D facade, where piercings in the acrylic give the illusion of stacked up geometric petal shaped openings, beyond which there is a backlit structure of tiny windows. This structure is then given a background of glass mosaic in black, grey and white. The tiny glass mosaic pieces are juxtaposed to look like pixels, and when seen from a distance, one’s eye merges them the way we merge the colourful strokes of paintings. The entire structure ends up being a three dimensional art piece giving a dispersed gradient effect. The palette has been kept simple except for the cyan blue colour being omitted in certain parts of the display due to the backlight. This may be reminiscent of the usage of blue and turquoise in Middle Eastern architecture.”

Recently, Saira has opened her own company that offers art direction of shoots and introducing retail and product audit. Art direction involves putting up various sets for fashion shoots by creating a cohesive theme. “I do several shoots - from hanging mannequins to custom made postures, glowing boxes and walls, and floral displays. My work also includes evaluating the product and what can be done to improve it in order to increase the sale graph. My company also identifies other factors to uplift the concept and image of the store which includes the most effective product display concept that people generally disregard. Billboard brings a client at the door of the store; the window display takes him inside and the way the product merchandise has been draped, hanged and displayed helps in selling the product eventually. We also create an impact with lighting and music effects - two important elments of design. The window only gives the glimpse or an idea of any store but product merchandising is what aids in selling the product,” she concludes.