Has Visual Merchandising turned into an Art Form? We say yes!

San Francisco might not be the most fashionable city, but once in a while it amazes us with a the creative input up-and coming designers, boutiques, and the work of artists turned designers, or installation artists turned visual merchandisers.

Kavin Orantes, the new Visual Director at high-end retailer Wilkes Bashford might not have planned to develop a career in fashion. But as shown in his windows bellow, he might have just found the place to express his love for clothes and creativity.

We had a little chat with him about the craft of directing the visuals at Wilkes.

Pre-fall windows at Wilkes Bashford

What does your work at Wilkes Bashford entail?

My work is mainly consists in the visual display of all the brands at Wilkes, starting with the window displays – from sketch to actually putting on the windows. I also do merchandising, and sometimes a little bit of administrative work, collecting records for the store’s buyers.

With your background in fine arts, how has this helped you to create a visual identity for the store?

My background in fine arts has helped me in terms of understanding color, and how to compose window displays. So, the windows are created as I would create a painting – starting with the rhythm, the composition, colors, the space, and the unity of it all. My goal is to bring it out, and push it forward into a more artistic view of windows, and not just have clothing displayed in plain air. I can create a story, and actually enhance the look of the clothes.

Also, inside the store I oversee the styling of the mannequins and forms, the color story of absolutely everything. The merchandising for me is more based on color, and that way I can have a synchrony in each floor. The point is to make it look beautiful, and then organize it, so that the customers feel attracted to the clothes.

Tell me about these two windows that you created recently.

The first window is called “From the Sketch.” It was a sales window. The whole point was to put sketches of the garments that we carry at the store. First it was just sketches of garments. And to be honest, at that part I was just playing, an planning to do a huge collage with clothes on the window. But when I was actually putting it all together I came up with the idea that it would be better to put “paper clothing” on the forms. So I created some dresses, sports jackets and shirts with the sketches I had done.

From the sketch

Sales window

The second window has a traveling them and it’s called “And away we go.” The backdrop is made of vintage postcards from different parts of the world – these had been collected over the years by Wilkes’ manager of both stores. To portray this story we used one of our biggest brands, Brunello Cuccinelli. Their garments are really versatile, and you can actually wear them on different occasions, everywhere in the world. They not only matched the idea of travel, the brand look is trimmed and young, and their color scheme and fabrics give a great example of luxury travel garments. I was trying to make it look cool with airplanes, cutting the window in spaces, and thus, framing the different looks on the window.

And Away we go!

How has your craft, and the different techniques that you’ve learned along the years helped you accomplish this kind of creative work?

I have the vision of an artist, but I need it to fit with the vision of a visual merchandiser. Now I’m using them both together, in order to deliver a better visual display.

How long does it take you to crate the windows?

The making of a window can take from one to two months, starting with an idea that has to be presented to the company’s visual manager to be accepted. Once they give you an ok, the project goes into pre-production, where we see what we need for the window, and how are we going to get it – for example, the manufacturing of especial items, the props, new lights, and so on.  This process takes about two months, and we build it all on the same day.

What is interesting is that we already have the projects of every window since the beginning of the year. These are planned according to the schedule of trunk shows, special event, and visiting vendors.

I also pull clothes from the store to style the mannequins. These have to be approved by the managers before dressing up the windows.

What is the favorite thing about your job?

Everything, but I think the process of creating window displays is my favorite part, because it is here where I can be free to create and express myself as an artist.

Images by Kavin Orantes