Roman (and Other Places, Too) Holiday

Although I have been back for several weeks, I am still feeling some of the “glow” of my recent vacation — a two week tour of Italy. The glow is fed by all the pictures that I took — nearly 600! I am taking my time going through and editing them prior to getting them processed. Digital cameras are dangerous and wonderful. Dangerous because the number of pictures you take is limited only by the amount of memory you have with you; wonderful because you can snap away freely and edit out the bad pictures prior to processing prints and only print what you want.

It was wonderful to get away from the office for the two weeks and visit places that I have always dreamed of visiting: Florence, Pompeii, Rome and Venice. It has been a very long time since I have taken more than a week off at any given time. But even though I was on vacation, it was next to impossible to totally remove myself from our business. After all, a big part of what we do is look for great gift, fashion and home products, which is much like shopping. And shop I did — more the window kind rather than making actual purchases, as Italy is very expensive.

Several things struck me both as a tourist, a consumer and as a gift trade professional:
1. The Smart car, that tiny two-person vehicle that has only recently been introduced here in the U.S. and is still a novelty on the streets of New York and elsewhere, is very popular and makes sense in the crowded cities and narrow roads. They are so cute! And great for city dwellers, but I would be afraid to drive one on any of our majory highways or in the winter snows.
2. If I was in doubt or did not know that purple, in its many hues, was the fashion color of the fall/winter season, my first two days in Rome left no doubt, and it was reinforced everywhere I went. Nearly every fashion apparel store that I saw featured purple prominently — purple with black and purple with gray mainly, but sometimes

Brightly lit home decor shop is warm and inviting to evening strollers.

even purple with olive. In some of the chic boutiques, purple, black and gray garments were the only things being sold. Another store had a window display featuring both men’s and women’s undergarments that included a mannequin in a man’s lavender t-shirt and briefs! Keep a weather eye on purple migrating into home décor and giftware, just a yellow did earlier this year.
3. Boutique and independent specialty retailing is alive and well in Italy. Street after street where I wandered in Rome, Florence, Venice, etc. were populated with wonderful specialty stores … creative, thriving, beautifully merchandised. That is not to say that there aren’t chain and department stores (there are) or shopping malls (there are). It is just that they don’t dominate the shopping landscape, at least that I saw. Granted, for the most part, I was in very touristy, commercial areas, but I did get off the beaten track a bit, too.

Good displays draw customers in. I am a typical consumer, drawn to a shop by a great window display, intrigued to investigate more deeply what else the store has to offer me as a consumer; as an industry professional, I try to take note of great ideas to share with our readers. And there were some retail displays that caught my eye, and I snapped a few pictures. Some of the ideas are simple and could be adapted by other retailers, others are just too complex, but certainly are traffic-stoppers.

Playful Monkey Medallion draws the eye to simple dinnerware display. This was one of three coordinated displays along the front of the shop.	Plush monsters romp over childrens’ clothing and accessories. Their bright colors and unusual designs play off the limited palette of other items.				Store’s interior stairway is an electronic timepiece that draws the eye and shifts when customers walk up or down. Foreground display in mimics steps.

Exotic architectural elements float over fashion accessories. Rounded forms of domes contrast the squared linear elements of the bag, belt and other display items as well as the foundation trims.

Window display was one of several in a row showcasing Chicken Art, a theme similar to Cow Parade.  Humor played a large role in the treatment and display of the chickens. Various artistic interpretations of the bowling ball-like hens were presented along with eggs and egglets as shown here.