CURTAIN UP! IT’S THE FORTNUM’S CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR
There is surely no bigger show in the social calendar than Christmas. The lights, the glitter, the dressing up, the elaborate preparations, the sense of anticipation as the main event draws near… So when Fortnum’s creative director, Paul Symes, went searching for inspiration for his Christmas windows, a theme of ‘Showtime!’ seemed an obvious candidate.
It was inspired not (as one might think) by too much exposure to ‘Strictly’, but by the 1980s Pet Shop Boys video for What Have I Done to Deserve This?, in which the singers are surrounded by a troupe of glamorous dancers, who swirl through the scene, dressed in sparkling costumes and trailing immense feather headdresses. The sense of glamour, magic and excitement is unmistakeable. It was this atmosphere that Paul set out to capture in his latest Christmas windows.
A sense of theatre
Fortnum’s itself has often been compared to a theatre, thanks in part to its elegant and historic façade, its red carpets and tailcoats and the general air of luxury and elegance that lifts one out of the everyday world. ‘Fortnum’s is so like a theatre,’ agrees Paul, ‘so we wanted to create the feeling that a show was going on around you.’ To that end, there will be mannequins in the store as well as in the windows, including a rather spectacular display of showgirls suspended in gilded bird cages that descends right down through the atrium. ‘We had to use abseilers to install them,’ says Paul. It’s tempting to call the whole effect ‘burlesque’, except that that is a word with many and varied connotations. ‘We’ve been very careful to stay on the glamorous side and not stray into anything seedy,’ says Paul. ‘This is a bit of Folies Bergère and a bit of Busby Berkeley. We’re just putting on a show.’
Each of the windows looking out on to Piccadilly shows a different scene, each set in the theatre – inside a dressing room, outside the stage door, a cab dropping off the star dancer, dancers chatting on stage just before the curtain goes up, and so on. The idea was to give a sense of something even more exciting about to happen beyond the scene. Each scene is completed with lots of old-fashioned props, such as dial telephones, old stage-lights, pieces of stage set and old chairs. ‘There was a lot of ebay purchasing’ says Paul. Thanks to the current love for all things vintage, this part wasn’t as hard as it might have been.
The work begins
The Christmas windows project began in earnest in June with an idea and a mood board. The team made some sketches of the mannequins and the sets to flesh out the idea, then, once the theme had been approved, the construction work began. One team built the window sets offsite while Paul and his team began to source the many different elements needed, from the mannequins to the Christmas baubles.
‘We bought 2nd hand mannequins, as new mannequins don’t come in such a range of poses as they used to,’ says Paul. ‘Dressing a mannequin is a skill and few people have it these days, so mannequins tend to all look the same. So second-hand was the only way to go. We had them resprayed, had wigs made, had a make-up artist come in and make them up on site. For me it was like going back 20 years, when I worked on shop window displays and it would take a whole day to dress a single mannequin. We bought shoes from the high street and feathers from the internet, which we dyed ourselves in buckets with Dylon.’
In late October, the first wave of decorations was installed inside the store. Paul and his team spent a week working through the night to decorate Fortnum’s sales floors so there would be no disruption to customers. If you had come in every day that week, you’d have seen something new each day – Christmas trees popping up on each floor, fully decorated in vibrant pinks, reds and purples, garlands on every banister and display cases filled with Christmas decorations and gifts, not to mention painted faces at the top of the Food Hall pillars.
Once the interior decorations were in place, the windows along Piccadilly and Duke Street were shrouded and emptied and the team worked flat out to install the mannequins in their new home. Finally all was ready for the grand unveiling on 10th November, and the dancers were revealed to the Piccadilly crowds. To accompany them, Paul compiled a soundtrack that includes the noise of the theatre – audiences clapping and calls from behind the scenes - as well as some jazzy showtime music. In December the music will change to Christmas carols, but still in a jazz-band style.
Light fantastic
The finishing touch is a spectacular, neon-lit Christmas sign installed on top of the main canopy, in place of the usual Christmas trees. Typically for Fortnum’s, the neon lights were commissioned from a small family of neon light-makers based in Walthamstow – the use of old-fashioned craftsmanship is an ongoing theme for F&M. And now, with all the lights ablaze, the dancers in position and the jazz tunes playing, there’s no doubt that the Christmas show has well and truly started. ‘This is the biggest free show in town!’ says Paul.
View the below slideshow to see more of our fabulous Christmas Windows
Fortnum's Wonderful Windows
Fortnum’s window displays have acquired a reputation all of their own, especially at Christmas when the glorious and magical scenes draw onlookers from far and wide. The displays are created by a dedicated team of in-house designers, who begin with a theme – often a classic tale such as Alice in Wonderland or the Snow Queen – and create a series of stunning scenes, each of which cleverly weaves Fortnum’s many products into the story.
The window displays change throughout the year to ensure that they capture the essence of each season, from Valentine’s Day through Easter and the summer holidays right through to the excitements of Christmas.
This year our Christmas windows will be unveiled in early November with all due ceremony; but to gain an insight into how our windows take shape, you can watch the video of how last year's display came into being.
Christmas Windows 2010
View our exclusive interview below with Paul Symes our Visual Presentation Manager: