Through the Store’s Looking Glass

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The new Alice in Wonderland movie directed by Tim Burton is bound to be a visual feast. It will come out on March 5th, and the stars include Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway. I looked up some of the visuals on the movie’s website, and they look amazing.

Now, with that in mind, maybe someone can explain this disastrous Alice in Wonderland themed window at Printemps.

A bit of background, Printemps is a big luxury department store in Paris. Powerful retailers, such as Printemps, sometimes ask brands to create special pieces for them, which can be exclusive limited edition collections or special display items, which will help the store to sell the brands.

Just looking at this photo reminds me of how much I miss shopping in Europe...

So, Printemps has asked designers like Ann Demeulemeester, Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane, Chloé, Charles Anastase, and Haider Ackermann to design special pieces for their Alice in Wonderland-themed window displays. These are all designers that I respect and like, so I really cannot understand why the resulting window displays do not look very Alice in Wonderland, or fairy tale, or interesting at all. It basically looks like the designers, aside from Maison Martin Margiela and Nicholas Kirkwood, couldn’t be bothered to actually make something for the window, so they took an old piece from an old collection and made up an Alice “story” to go along with it.

Seriously, how is any of this related to Alice in Wonderland? (By the way, the images and quotes below come from an article on Style.com, you can read more about it here.)

Chloe says: "“Running around careless and free in a romantic dress, falling down the rabbit hole, chasing time in a dreamlike state of mind, meeting unexpected characters with many tales to tell—sounds like many a girl’s night out!” I say: boring navy blue dress worn best on a "fat day."

Charles Anastase says: "“I went to John Tenniel’s original illustration of Alice for inspiration. She’s seated at a table having tea, and her dress looks much more asymmetrical and theatrical than that boring Walt Disney version.” I say: A white and blue pouffy dress does not equal Alice in Wonderland.

Haider Ackermann says: "“My favorite character is the Duchess, who at first seems nearly as unpleasant as the Queen of Hearts. When I was designing this piece, I was seeing Alice running, escaping through the forest destroying her shiny dress." I say: This dress looks nothing like Alice in Wonderland, or the Duchess. In fact, that horrible rounded slit on the front makes the dress go from "interesting" to "scary."

Here are some of the better pieces.

Nicholas Kirkwood says: "“I think my favorite Alice character is the March Hare. You can see I’ve made his watch rather prominent. ...this time, I figured, why not just pile as much as I can on top?” I say: Nicholas Kirkwood has one shoe shape he has redone a million times, and its starting to get boring, but at least that one shoe is pretty cool. Especially with all that stuff piled onto it.

Maison Martin Margiela says: "“Alice’s silhouette is a blue upside-down dress with cage sleeve, as if she walked through the mirror and her dress completely reversed.” I say: This dress is beautiful, combining the fantasy of the fairy tale and the innovation of Maison Martin Margiela, and the colour is exactly the right shade of Alice blue.

Cartoon Alice image source.

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Written by Alexandra

February 8th, 2010 at 10:53 am

Posted in Designers, Media, Retailers, Shoes, Womenswear

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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  • I have a good deal of interest in your post. I've been accumulating glassware for years and your info is noteworthy. Thanks for sharing. Do you know of some suggestions along where to go to see out to a greater extent about this?
  • i was beginning to think i may be the only woman that cared about this, at the very least at present i realize i'm not insane :) i am going to make sure to check out a couple of various other posts just after i get a tad of caffeine in me, it can be challenging to read without my coffee, adios for now :)
  • Thank you very much for your help, this has been a great relief from the books,
  • I have read a couple of the articles on your blog now, and I absolutely love your style of blogging. Great job!
  • I cant wait to go watch the new alice in wonderland movie 2010 when it comes out. I first heard about it being remade about a year ago and I was so excited and once I saw who the actors and actresses were going to be I was very happy. I think that
  • Ashley
    I love the MMM dress! The caged sleeve and the blue colour are amazing.

    and the Chloe dress, "boring navy blue dress worn best on a "fat day." HAHA so true. You think they could have done something a little bit more exciting seeing as Alice in Wonderland is all about excitement and adventure! I am so excited for the movie to come out! I watched a short documentary of Tim Burton explaining the visuals - eek can't wait!
  • I was already going to comment on your previous post about Westwood, but this one made me laugh and at the same time think "this is so true". None of these windows look or even vaguely evoke Alice in Wonderland to me.
    At Christmas, Selfridges did a fairytale inspired window display, but at least they were properly whimsical and inspired. I wish I had some images to link to right now!
    xxx
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