For this year’s window we wanted to express a juxtaposition of wilderness and refinement by creating an enchanted palace where all is not as it seems. In the midst of winter peonies in bloom, beetles and fairies have crept indoors to hide amongst the finery. The stage is set, is this a fairytale or a play?
The key pieces for this season come from the Baroque Collection which encapsulates the dichotomy between light and dark, feminine and strong, wild and tame with items ranging from the heavy oxidised cuffs to bright gold vermeil. The focal item to set the tone, is the pair of the Baroque Black Pearl Studs which are infinitely feminine, but hold a dark and complex mood.
Intermingled with the flowing lines of the Baroque Collection creep beetles and insects, creatures that burrow into the crisp brown autumn leaves and spiders that scuttle into the corners of our houses at this time of year. They join the interplay of light and dark with some blackly oxidised and others with thoraxes and wing cases gleaming in vermeil and diamonds. As Christmas approaches you may notice that once the cobwebs have been brushed away the window will grow magical as tiny silver fairies flutter in replacing the crawling insects!
Both Baroque and beetle trends have been a recurring appearance on the catwalk in recent years and are becoming a pervading trend. Dolce & Gabbana stormed the catwalk AW12/13 with an army of models in heavily embellished black and gold designs which has set the tone for their fashion week shows since bringing a similar palette and opulence to AW14/15. Alexander McQueen SS13 wrapped the models in golden bees followed by Lanvin and Roberto Cavalli followed suit in their AW13/14 shows. Valentino Couture 13 had gilded beetles embroidered on the garments. Vera Wang joined with oversized beetle necklaces in AW14/15 and Burberry celebrated the Birds and the Bees in SS15.
The window becomes a little theatre of ideas and so we were influenced by baroque stage sets for our display. We began to research the town of Český Krumlov in the South of Bohemia which is almost wonderfully preserved in Renaissance style including a toy-box perfect theatre which is designed in ornate two dimensional layers staggered back along the boards to create depth and many entrances for the actors to appear and disappear. We have mimicked this by framing the window with a gilded floral motif and created the layers of the set with illustrations by Natalka Stephenson rippling back to the Joy Everley Lady, the emblem of our independent designs.
With the relaunch of the Joy Everley website, Natalka has revisited our Lady and given her a graceful restyle to step into the online world. She dances over a cloud of peonies, simultaneously appearing the epitome of old-world glamour whilst being a thoroughly modern girl who knows what her own mind sporting a choppy crop of black hair and admiring her Joy Everley cocktail ring.
We hope you enjoy our window display and visit soon!