It’s a shoe story baby, just say yes September saw the opening of Selfridges’ new shoe department -the largest in Europe. How will this transform Harry Gordon Selfridges’ flagship store? By Emily Bonner.
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elfridges has long been famed for its window displays and they’ve lived up to that reputation. Each window contains a fantastic exhibit to showcase the veritable feast of footwear. A pink dishwasher has been turned in to the shoe of the moment -the clog- pale blue Dust busters (?) masquerading as a pair of vertigo inducing Alexander McQueen’s. The remaining windows have a fairytale feel to them; the Wicked Witch trapped under a house, flailing legs with ruby red slippers on the end. Exploding out of the back wall is the hand of the Yeti grabbing mannequins in furry boots through a snowy terrain. The shoe galleries (located on the 2nd floor) is a 35,000 sq ft area of shoe pleasure, designed by architect Jamie Fobert. The shoe concessions begin at high-street and go to high-end. Topshop, Dune and All Saints are at the front of the floor which then leads off on to rooms containing Chanel, Louboution, Vivienne Westwood and Jimmy Choo (to name just a few.) To promote the opening, a temporary booth complete with a velvet curtain for privacy has been erected. On entering the booth you are given the option of pressing two buttons. The right is a button to press for a set of four photos with your desired shoe(s) and on the left, an option to tell your own shoe story which is what a host of designers, bloggers and celebrities alike have also done (although they didn’t have to sit in the somewhat cramped booth to do so.) I chose to take the Guissepe Zanotti Comet shoes-which cost a whopping £750- in to the booth. The court shoes are adorned with scarlet crystals. Very Dorothy. As the shots were taken, I had one thought; I don’t think
rooms for French, German and American customers, a First Aid Room, and a Silence Room, with soft lights, deep chairs, and double-glazing, all intended to keep customers in the store as long as possible. In an interview with The Milwaukee Journal in 1932 Selfridge described himself as “pretty much the wild and untamed man from the wild and untamed west when I came to London from Chicago more than a quarter of a century ago. And for me to introduce American business methods to Londoners was regarded as no less than an intrusion.” Although he had amassed a considerable personal fortune, he felt that it was London that made him from a man in to a gentleman and not even he could predict how substantial his impact would be on British retailing, even to this day.
The ‘shoe galleries’ is a 35,000 sq ft area of shoe pleasure
we’re in Kansas anymore Toto. The photo’s look great as they beautifully lit, plus they’re yours to keep as a souvenir. The shoe department even has its own mascot- the Shoeperhero. His costume was designed by Philip Treacy for the campaign shot by Bruce Weber. His ‘about-me’ section on the website notes that ‘in any shoe crisis he’ll come to your rescue when you don’t know who else to turn to.’ This kind of inventive marketing ploy dates back to the opening of Selfridges in 1909. The man behind the store was astute marketing mogul, Harry Gordon Selfridge
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who encouraged the concept of shopping for pleasure rather than utility.
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n 1906, Selfridge- who hailed from a wealthy family in the USA- took a trip to London. He left feeling somewhat unimpressed with the quality of the established British department stores and made the decision to spend around £400,000 of his own money in building his own shop in Oxford Street. The new store, Selfridges, opened to the public on March 15, 1909. It set new standards for the retailing business, which it still does. Promotion through paid
advertising was almost unheard of in England before this and the window displays were and still are a great talking point as well as a way of free advertising. The layouts of the shop floors were arranged so that the merchandise could be made more accessible to customers, giving them the chance to touch and peruse at leisure. The staff in the store were trained to always be on hand to assist customers, but not too forcefully- ‘can I help you?.’ In the shop there were also chic restaurants with modest prices, a library, reading and writing rooms, special reception
The story of Selfridge however, does not end happily. He lost almost all of his money after the great depression and died alone in Putney. The only record of the man behind the legend is a small blue plaque on his former residence in Berkeley Square as a small but respectful commemoration of the great man. Yet his legacy lives on in the Flagship Selfridges department store in Oxford st which is still going strong after all these years, so much so that it has now expanded to Manchester and Birmingham. For the man who is famed for supposedly coining the phrase ‘the customer is always right’, the stores continued success shows that his legacy lives on. Pictures; (main photgraph) a cross dressing Dorothy complete with ruby red slippers, (top right) the stiletto with flashing lights, (middle right) the pink dishwasher clog, (bottom right) A giant trainer covered in lightbulbs, (bottom left) the ‘dustbuster’ McQueen style shoes.
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