Window dresser

Window dressers arrange displays of goods in shop windows or within a shop itself. They may work for design companies contracted to work for clients or for department stores, independent retailers, airport or hotel shops.

Alone or in consultation with product manufacturers or shop managers they artistically design and arrange the displays and may put clothes on mannequins and display the prices on the products.

They may hire joiners and lighting engineers to augment their displays. When new displays are required they have to dismantle the existing ones, and they may have to maintain displays during their lifetimes. Some window dressers hold formal display design qualifications.

Notable window dressers

• Raymond Loewy Early in his career he dressed windows for Macy's in New York.
• Gene Moore was a leading 20th century window dresser.
• Rhoda Morgenstern was a fictional window dresser played by Valerie Harper on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and the spin off television show Rhoda.
• Giorgio Armani the fashion designer once worked as a window dresser.
• Molina, one of the principal characters of Manuel Puig's novel Kiss of the Spider Woman, was a window dresser prior to his incarceration.
• Roseanne Barr worked as a waitress and a window dresser in Denver prior to her showbiz career.
• Marty Lamberti started in 1940 as a background designer and in 1943 expanded his talents to become a window dresser. Marty Lamberti worked for notable chain stores and momma & poppa stores in the New York and surrounding areas. Mr. Lamberti loved his profession and he retired after working 67 years. His talents and artistic flair contributed to many designs and unique concepts that are being used today.
• Simon Doonan. Window dresser for Barneys department store and columnist for Slate.