Merry Christmas, My Pretty

While many stores are emphasizing traditional holiday displays, some upscale department stores and boutique stores are hooking customers with curb appeal. While Barney’s New York embraced old-school comedy with its window displays of past Saturday Night Live characters (see “Live from Barney’s New York, It’s Saturday Night!” on the Design and Gallery channel), London’s legendary Harrod’s department store embraced classical fiction with its holiday display.

In conjunction with Warner Brothers, Harrod’s honor of the 70th anniversary of the legendary film adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s seminal 1900 novel, The Wizard of Oz. The display evokes Dorothy Gale’s arrival in the Land of Oz by recreating the lower extremities – and the precious, ruby slippers that adorn her feet — of the Wicked Witch of the East, her only visible remnants after Dorothy’s house crushed her upon landing.
Harrod’s hired Bigstuff Design (Burnham on Crouch, England), which built the project over eight weeks.

According to Bigstuff’s Tony Diaz, the 24 x 13-ft. display comprises five sections, which it built with FRA Polyblock polystyrene encased in epoxy resin and fiberglass. It mounted them a sectional metal frame. Fabricators painted the sculpture and then coated it with cement sealer for a finish able to withstand such a high-traffic installation. Installation required an eight-man crew and transported the sculpture via three separate trucks.

To complement Bigstuff’s creative brainstorm, Preciosa supplied approximately 46,000 Czech crystals that were used to decorate the witch’s ruby slippers (an interesting tidbit: Baum served as editor for The Merchant s Show Window, a forerunner to Visual Merchandising + Store Design, one of ST’s sister publications). Approximately 500 lbs. of glitter and 200 fiberoptic lights enable the slippers to suitably shimmer.

The Wicked Witch display serves a greater purpose than commemorating a silver-screen classic or driving store traffic. Harrod’s seeks to raise approximately £300,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital’s Children’s Charity. The donations will fund the construction and furnishing of three bedrooms at the hospital’s new kidney unit. Harrod’s will maintain the display until the December 21.