Rough Times for Retail Manifest in Rough Window Displays

Some time has passed since PSFK took a survey of retail window displays. We were curious to what effect the current economic challenges were manifesting in how retailers were using windows to attract customers. We didn’t see much glitz. In fact, Kenneth Cole, Paul Smith, and Diesel in fact presented some pretty rough imagery. Kenneth Cole posts a slew of provocative slogans ranging from ‘Boycott designer t-shirts’ to ‘Truth: It will all come out in the washington‘. Paul Smith forgoes the clothes for wrecked band instruments (party’s over?) But the darkest of them all comes from Diesel who have assembled a sinister collection of windows inspired by what looks like the set of a stalker movie. The two front windows contain racks of old video equipment with flickering surveillance footage.

We’ve assembled a gallery of these examples plus a few others that caught our eye. Have a look here.