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Visualizing Emptiness

Dimitri Mortelmans

How can one create more by showing less? That is the central question in this article.Through a visual approach, we will look at emptiness as a generator of standing,exclusiveness, luxury sign value. One of the guiding cultural mechanisms of creatingexclusiveness is the use of horror vacui, the fear of the empty. Using both psychologicaltheory and civilization theory, the article connects the concept of emptiness and horrorvacui to the creation of exclusiveness, of luxury. This theoretical argumentation is thenconfronted with a visual research on the use of emptiness in show windows. It showsthat luxury boutiques or shops selling predominantly luxury products use emptinessin their shop windows in order to create a luxurious and exclusive atmosphere.

INTRODUCTION

How can one create more by showing less? That is the central question in thisarticle. Through a visual approach, we will look at emptiness as a generator ofstanding, exclusiveness, luxury sign value. Central in the answer to this questionis the principle of horror vacui, the fear of the empty.

First, we will discuss the concept of horror vacui on a theoretical basis. Wheredoes the principle come from and why is it connected to luxury and exclusiveness?Next, we will present the results of research that tries to find the use of theprinciple in shop windows. This research included a combined quantitative andqualitative study on clothing shops in Antwerp and Brussels. With this research,we will try to classify shops on a scale of prestige while trying to link this scale tovisual research data.

EMPTINESS AS A FORM OF DISTINCTION

Background from Philosophy and Arts

The link between the luxury signified and the use of emptiness is not evident. Weneed to dig deeper into the possible explanation that couples emptiness to luxury.The origin of the link can be found in both psychology and sociology. The basicprinciple behind the connection of emptiness and luxury is called horror vacui, thefear of emptiness [Gombrich 1970: 80].

DIMITRI MORTELMANS is a sociologist at Antwerp University, Belgium. He wrote his Ph.D. on thevisualization of luxury based on a sociosemiotic analysis of print advertisements. His currentresearch focuses on gift-giving, shopping behavior and youth, and work-life balance strategies inyoung families. He teaches qualitative and quantitative research methods. E-mail: dimitri.mortelmans@ua.ac.be

19

Visual Anthropology, 18: 19–45, 2005Copyright # Taylor & Francis, Inc.

ISSN: 0894-9468 print=1545-5920 online

DOI:10.1080/08949460590900034

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The concept of horror vacui is derived from art theory. It is the urge to fill allempty space with all kinds of details. However, the term itself is much older thanmodern art theory. Originally, the fear of the void was described by Aristotle whocategorically denied the possibility of a vacuum. He argued that a vacuum couldnot exist because nature always tries to resist its creation. Nature has an inherenthorror vacui. The principle of filling up the void comes from his cosmology. TheAristotelian cosmos is enclosed, finite, and full. The assumption of fullness leads tothe claim that all empty spaces refill automatically [Berryman 1997; Anonymous1991]. Philosophy has followed this line of argument for ages. Nevertheless, theprinciple was heavily debated.1 The debate was silenced after the experiment ofthe Magdeburg hemispheres (1654). This experiment proved that a vacuum couldbe created in two hemispheres.

In the twentieth century, the void was picked up again by artists and art criticsin writing on the emerging of abstract art movements. Wassily Kandinsky, forexample, has written on emptiness and its aesthetic power [Kandinsky 1955; 1982].Others have theorized the aesthetics of abstract and minimal art [Domecq 1995] orcriticized its self-claimed transcendentalism [Hauschildt 1994; Hughes 1997;Kuspit 1998].

Horror Vacui as a Social and Psychological Phenomenon

The principle of horror vacui touches more domains than art theory or philosophy.In psychology, the principle is related to the human instinct to decorate. One of thedifferences between man and animal is our capacity to decorate things: ‘‘When wesee primitives decorate themselves, it occurs to us that they do it mainly toresemble animals, whether they use feathers, colorful paints, or masks. But, nomatter how their behavior may resemble that of animals, the distinction is vastand crucial because it involves the meaning of the word ‘ornamentation’; viz., anintentional emphasis is given to an object, whether it be a man or an inert thing, byenriching addition’’ [Prinzhorn 1995: 20].

One feels an inner urge to cultivate one’s surroundings. Some say this urge ismore prominent in primitive groups or in periods of great decadence. Even in ourtime, where instinct to decorate is largely suppressed, we find some traces of theinstinct in the habit of writing on walls in public toilets or scribbling on writingpads [Read 1964: 22–23]. Psychology gives the principle of horror vacui a ratherartistic color. This meaning of the term has survived in art theory: the urgeto complete a certain decoration with increasing detail. However, it does notgive a satisfying explanation of the link between this horror vacui principle andthe luxury signified in our sample. Therefore, we need a more sociologicalexplanation.

To connect emptiness to luxury, we need to relate horror vacui to a social phe-nomenon. In order to do so, we will use the civilization theory of Norbert Elias[1982]. According to this theory, the increasing differentiation of societal functionsleads to the formation of more stable political organs acquiring the monopoly offorce.2 Connected to this process of state formation is a psychological evolutioncreating diverse mechanisms of self-control:

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Through the interdependence of larger groups of people and the exclusion of physical vio-lence from them, a social apparatus is established in which the constraints between peopleare lastingly transformed into self-constraints. These self-constraints, a function of the per-ceptual hindsight and foresight instilled in the individual from childhood in accordancewith his integration in extensive chains of action, have partly the form of conscious self-control and partly that of automatic habit. [Elias 1982: 242–243]

Elias describes several domains in which the civilizational process changeshuman behavior, all being some restraints on the human instincts or lusts: eating(with knife and fork), sleeping (not naked), spitting, personal hygiene [Elias 1978].One of the most striking results from his study was the stratified division of self-control. New forms of self-control originate first in higher classes and descendslowly into the lower classes. Self-constraints are instruments with which the higherclass confirms its superiority [Elias 1982]. Although quantity remains a sign ofpower and wealth, austerity penetrated on several domains as a sign of distinction.Letting oneself go is no longer tolerated. Slowly this evolution permeates society.Weall use a knife and fork when we eat, we all wash overselves and we are all dressedin public. Nevertheless, the principle of constraining one’s human instincts remainsa distinctive sign. The power to control oneself remains a sign of excellence.3

According to psychological theory, horror vacui is also a human instinct. We showan instinctive reaction towards voids by decorating them, by filling up the gaps. Ifwe follow Elias’ theory, it must be so that the natural urge to fill in empty spaces iscontrolled by the civilizing process. If this is true, the higher classes will developsome sort of amor vacui. The ‘‘empty’’ becomes a sign of cultivation and good taste.The amor vacui in higher classes shows that Elias’ civilization theory goes furtherthan taking note of etiquette. Restraining oneself both physically and mentallymakes the principle of amor vacui into a mark of distinction. Those who have thepower to overcome their own horror vacui instinct can distinguish themselves.

In earlier research, we have found the use of emptiness to be an importantelement in the construction of a luxury sign value in advertisements [e.g.,Mortelmans 1998a; 1998b]. In advertisements, the principle of horror vacui is usedby presentation of empty space. Figure 1 gives an example. The Parker fountain-pen is promoted with an absolute minimum of elements. No models are used, nospecial backgrounds or spectacular catchwords. Only a black rectangle on a whitebackground. Except for the fountain pen itself, the page is nearly empty. The resultis not only an enlarged focus on the product but an additional distinctive atmo-sphere that is created around the fountain pen.

The Void in Shop Windows

The research presented in this article deals with the use of emptiness in shops andmore particularly in shopwindows. There are twomain reasons whywe decided tostudy the shop windows. First, we started from our research results in advertising.If emptiness is used to create a luxury sign value in advertisements, it could be anisolated phenomenon. As we argued earlier, the theory of both Norbert Elias andPierre Bourdieu indicates that the principle of horror vacui is more widespread thana mere promotional technique in advertising. Controlling one’s fear of the void is

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rooted more deeply in our culture. Therefore, we wanted to look at ways in whichluxury companies use emptiness in places other than advertisement campaigns.Several possible subjects of research are evident. First, we could repeat the socio-semiotic content analysis we did on advertisements, on a sample of luxury catalogsand brochures. If emptiness is a visual technique in print advertisements, it couldbe hypothesized that the same results will apply to the catalog from a luxurycompany. Although this first line of research was interesting, we decided to focuson a second alternative. If emptiness is a sign of luxury, it does not only appear insimilar sources of information, like catalog. It could also be applied on the differentselling points of luxury products. According to Jean-Louis Dumas-Hermes, man-ager of Hermes, the luxury boutique needs to be part of the package of a luxuryitem: ‘‘The smell itself of the shop one enters is already a package of the product’’[Dumas-Hermes 1991: 31]. Just as an advertisement or a catalog can communicate asign of distinction, the design of a shop is an integral part of the construction of aluxury signified. The whole interior designmust fit the brand: ‘‘the black, the white,

Figure 1 The use of horror vacui in advertisements. The caption of this advertisement reads:‘‘Parker Top-class’’.

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the beige, the added gold for Chanel; the natural wood for Louis Vuitton; the ‘greyDior’ and the Louis XIV style for the brand-institution’’ [Charrueau 1991: 138,author’s translation]. If emptiness is indeed used to construct a luxury sign value, itshould be visible both in the interior design of a boutique and in the shop window.The interior design of shops is important to create an atmosphere in which theconsumer is invited to buy. The shop window is the exterior face of the boutique. Itis the connection between the private sphere inside the boutique and the publicsphere outside: the shop window links both worlds. It needs to persuade theconsumer to enter the private world of luxury. Therefore, it is hypothesized thatshop windows are an important generator of luxury sign value. Of course, thedressing of a window is not the only element in the creation of the standing of aspecific shop. It might even be of lesser importance than the neighborhood or thebrand names that are solidly in the shop. Nevertheless, shop windows are anexterior-directed form of communication that cannot be neglected.

The second reason for studying shop windows and their relation to the use ofemptiness is a derived one. Both in sociology and in cultural studies, there is agrowing literature on consumer culture and shopping behavior [e.g., Brown andTurley 1997; Featherstone 1991]. Although the research interests are diverse, thereis a substantial interest in ‘‘spheres of consumption in general’’ [Hetherington 1992]and in the shopping mall in particular [e.g., Miller et al. 1998]. The mall is seen asone of the central spaces of consumption [Hetherington 1992] of our late modernconsumer society: ‘‘the shopping mall is symbolic of the global dissemination oflate capitalist economies, [ . . .] the mall endows consumerism with almost reli-gious-like qualities’’ [Miles 1998: 59]. Although the shopping mall receives muchattention in both the theoretical and the empirical domains, little attention goes todesign aspects of the different shops within these malls. Mark Gottdiener, forexample, discusses the design of the mall as a well-structured whole. The centralpoint in his analysis concerns the functionality of the mall:

The purpose of a mall is to sell consumer goods. The function of mall design, therefore is todisguise the instrumental exchange relation between producer and consumer, which isalways more to the former’s benefit in capitalist society, and to present cognitively an inte-grated facade which facilitates consumption acts by the stimulation of consumer fantasies.Thus, the mall, taken as a whole, is a sign in itself, since it connotates something other thanits principal instrumental function. [Gottdiener 1995: 86]

His analysis then concentrates on the different constructions in the mall thatserve this essential functionality. Shop windows and the different techniques ofwindow dressing are only marginally mentioned. Although this article will con-centrate on shopping streets rather than malls, we think that shop windowsdeserve more attention than they have received until now. If malls are presentedas well-constructed environments to promote shopping, the same analysis appliesto window dressing. More importantly, shop windows are thresholds of con-sumption. They are the capitalist sirens, seducing potential consumers to enterthe inner sanctum. Even though we concentrate here on the principle of horrorvacui, our analysis will, at the same time, give a more detailed insight into theconstruction of the seductiveness of shop windows.

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METHODOLOGY

As outlined before, our study aims to look at the connection between the use of thevoid and the prestige of a certain shop. To do so, we have used a combination ofquantitative and qualitative research methods.4

Quantitative Research Method

On the one hand, we want to classify all shops on a scale of prestige. In order torelate window dressing styles to the luxurious character of the shop, we needsome criterion to classify the shops as luxurious. Concerning luxury, consumerprice is an often used but highly debated criterion. When defining luxury, there issome consensus that expensiveness is an important factor. However, the questionis whether or not the price is an inherent quality of a luxury product. In a Frenchstudy on industrial and financial strategies in the luxury industry, the authorsstate that ‘‘luxury is no longer a product that costs six times more than a com-parable product’’ [transl. from Corsani and Giuseppe 1992: 13]. A mere mass-consumption object with a high price is not considered luxury. Several definitionsof luxury have been developed, many of which excluded the expensivecharacteristics. Properties that are considered more crucial include scarcity, addi-tional value or high quality standards [Mortelmans 1997]. All these characteristicsmight give an accurate description of the exclusiveness of a product, but,empirically, they are hard to test. If we take quality as an example this becomesmore apparent. Our research is limited to clothing shops (see further). Conse-quently, we need to assess the quality of the clothes presented in the shop win-dows. It is obvious that this is a nonsensical option: this is why we once more endup with the easiest indicator, of luxury pricing. Although prices are imperfectindicators of the luxurious character of consumer goods, they are not completelyunrelated to the phenomenon. If we look at the different characteristics that arepresented as luxury essentials, we can see that they all lead to a higher price. If aluxury product has a higher quality, it is produced with superior raw materials.These commodities are more expensive or need more sophisticated treatment (e.g.,silk versus cotton). The increase in manufacturing costs leads to a higher consumerprice. The same goes for other characteristics like exclusive distribution channelsor special designs. Although price setting is much more complicated than sum-ming up production costs [Lebas et al. 1990: 48], we can state that luxury productsusually are more expensive than other, comparable products. We decided to basethe classification of the shops in our sample on the prices of the different articlesthat were presented in the shop window.

We used a predefined coding scheme for obtaining our quantitative data. First,we determined which part of the shop window was inventoried. We did notinventory all shop windows completely. One of the significant elements in ourresearch was the comparison of the total number of clothing items presented in ashop window to the type of shop. If a luxury shop uses emptiness as a technique,it could be hypothesized that only a few objects would be shown. If this is the case,we need to compare the number of items shown in all shop windows, assumingthat we actually can compare them. Therefore we have worked with a limiting

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rule. We estimated that the average shop window takes up a length of five to tenmeters, i.e., one or two big windows. However, several big chains store take upmuch more than that. In those cases, we limited the inventory to two or threewindows. The decision about the number of windows was left to the encoder butthe total space inventoried could not surpass ten meters.5

Second, all objects in the shop window were inventoried. A distinction wasmade between decorative elements in the window and the actual products.Decorative elements were merely listed. They do not play an important role in thequantitative analysis. The listed elements are only supportive elements for thequalitative analysis (see further). Three characteristics of the actual products werewritten down: price, type of clothing and place in the shop window. The price wasmeasured in Belgian Francs, even if some shops already presented the price inEuros6 next to the Belgian Francs. All clothes were categorized into 30 raw cate-gories. The encoders categorized the clothes in the shop windows in one of thesecategories. They were instructed to use the 30 predefined codes but when theyobserved clothes that did not perfectly fit the coding scheme they could deviatefrom it. All deviations could be recoded afterwards to the original code book. Thelast quantitative information that was retrieved from the shop window was theplace of the clothes in the window. Three different places were distinguished.Clothes could be worn by window dummies, lie on the ground or hang oncoathooks. This information enabled a more detailed analysis of the number ofclothes in different parts of a shop window.

Qualitative Research Method

The quantitative information we collected was primarily aimed at classifying thedifferent shops using their consumer prices on a prestige scale. Other quantitativeindicators, like the number of clothes in a shop window, could give an indicationof the use of emptiness in shops, but this is a rather raw indicator. It does not tellanything about the general style of the shop window in which the emptinessmight be used. In order to get a more valid impression of the use of emptiness, wesimultaneously gathered qualitative, visual data. Each shop that was inventoriedquantitatively was also photographed. In this way, we could analyze the exteriorimage a shop is presenting, in more detail.

The analysis of the visual data was done with a grounded theory approach[Glaser and Strauss 1967; Strauss and Corbin 1994, 1998]. Suchar described adetailed data collection method for visual sociologists based on the principles ofgrounded theory [Suchar 1997]. Since our quantitative data collecting method wasbound to shops, we did not completely follow his collecting principles. As wehave said, we took only one photograph of each shop. Next, we used the softwareprogram Atlas-ti to code and analyze the data. Atlas-ti is written for both textualand visual data analysis based on grounded theory [Muhr 1991]. During thecategorization process, we ran through the photographs while coding all elementsin the shop windows that appeared as possible aspects of importance. This processof open coding7 was finished by regrouping the codes8 [Strauss and Corbin 1990].Then codes were brought together in a coherent codebook, and we coded the

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whole sample again with these codes. The subsequent analysis tried to identifygroups of shop windows, using the codes as a guideline.

Sample

Since comparability was a central research requisite, a restricted sample wasnecessary. We wanted only one product category in our sample. If we want tocompare luxury shop windows with nonluxury windows, we need to compare thesame category; otherwise, the kind of merchandise might influence the dressing ofthe shop window. Dressing a window of a toy store can be done quite differentlyfrom dressing the window of a shoe shop. We decided to reduce the scope of theresearch to clothes shops. The main reason for choosing clothes as our researchfocus was the wide availability of clothes shops both in the lower and the highermarket segment. They range from exclusive boutiques to bulk sales. Anotherreason for choosing clothes is the way of selling. If we had chosen watches as ourfocus, we would have had enormous problems to find shop windows displayingwatches. The bulk sale watches are found mostly in supermarkets while luxuriouswatches are sold at a jeweler’s. In either case, comparing shop windows for theseproducts would be impossible.

We tried to include the widest possible range of clothes shops in our sample;therefore the sample was drawn in different shopping streets. We preferredresearching shopping streets instead of malls for legal reasons. In Belgium, one isallowed to take photographs on the street. Inside shops and buildings however,the owner needs to give permission. It is unclear whether or not shopping mallsare considered a public space. In order to avoid some prohibitions to photo-graphing, shopping streets were selected as our research area. We selected fivedifferent shopping streets. The first three are known as exclusive shopping streets:Waterloo Avenue and Louisa Avenue in Brussels and Schuttershofstraat inAntwerp. This resulted in 64 shops (50 in Brussels and 14 in Antwerp). The fourthshopping street (the Meir) is also located in Antwerp and is the main shoppingstreet of that city. It is a typical middle-class street with big chain stores and few orno small boutiques. A total of 36 shops was inventoried in this street. The laststreet (Abdijstraat) in the sample is located in one of Antwerp’s poorer districts. Itis a dilapidated street with several so-called one-dollar-shops and a lot of emptyshop-premises. If chain stores are present, they specialize in cheap mass bulk sales.We analyzed 25 shops in this street. In total, our sample consists of 125 shops infive different shopping streets in Antwerp and Brussels. Their shop windowscontained a total of 2845 clothing items.9

RESULTS

We divided our results into two different sections. First, we will give the results ofour quantitative analysis. This analysis will present the classification of all theshops on a continuum of prestige. Second, we will do a qualitative visual analysisof the photographs of all shops. The aim of this research is two-fold. On the one

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hand, we tried to construct a typology of shop windows. On the other hand, wetried to link the use of emptiness in these shop windows to the exclusiveness ofthe shop.

Classifying Shops

As indicated before, the consumer prices of the articles presented in the shopwindows are used as indicators for luxury. This simple starting point generatesseveral derived problems. First, some shops do not use any price tags in their shopwindows. These shops are presenting their clothes without any reference to prices.Strictly speaking, we should not include these shops in our classification. Since wewill elaborate this classification, on the basis of prices, we have no data to use inplacing these shops. Of course, the omission of prices is a sign of exclusiveness initself. The technique has a deterrent function. A shop window with no price tagscommunicates an implicit invitation to enter the shop without any monetarylimits. It is an invitation to judge the presented clothes for their aesthetic value. Ifone likes the clothes, one can enter and buy them without knowing the pricesbeforehand. Of course, such a strategy is useful only if the prices of the presentedarticles are high. Without referring to the principle of horror vacui, we see a newexample of the power of self-constraint. A shop gains in prestige because thosewho enter there have the power10 to suppress their curiosity about the price of acommodity. For this reason, we decided to place all the shops that have no pricetags in their shop windows at the right-hand side of our continuum (i.e., the mostexclusive shops). In total, 17 shops (13.6%) were in this group [Figure 2]. Amongthese shops, there are Belgian haute couture boutiques like Lieve Van Gorp orbrands like Chanel or Boss. Even though the connection between the absence ofprice tags and the exclusiveness of a certain shop is a theoretical one, it seems togive reliable results in our research.11

The second problem we encountered by taking prices as indicators of exclu-siveness was the nonncomparability within shop windows. A naive method ofclassifying shops could take the mean of all consumer prices in a certain shopwindow. This method neglects the inherent qualities of the clothes within theshop windows. A three-piece suit is more expensive than a shirt, no matter whereyou buy it. However, if a certain shop window has several shirts and only onesuit, it could have a lower mean than a shop with several suits; even if this secondshop sells its suits cheap. Therefore, we standardized the prices for each productcategory by calculating z-scores. With a mean of zero, positive z-score pricesindicate more expensive pieces of a certain clothing category. Negative z-scoresare given to the cheaper clothes. In such manner, each price is standardized withina certain clothing category. In order to classify all shops on the basis of theirprices, we averaged the z-scores of all the products in the shop window. Thisresults in the intended purpose. If a shop is expensive compared to others, itsshop window may be supposed to contain clothes that have higher prices for eachof the product categories. If that is the case, the average of the z-scores will behigh. On the contrary, if a shop has a low average of standardized consumerprices, it means that the standardized clothing prices were low compared to

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other shops. Figure 2 gives an overview of the mean z-scores of all the shops inour sample.

The figure shows a gradual increase in consumer prices from the left-hand sideof the curve. This indicates a rather marginal difference between these shops.12 Onthe other hand, the right-hand side shows an exponential-like shape. Prices on thisside increase rapidly. Several luxury houses are located in this segment: GiorgioArmani, Francis Ferent, and Gianni Versace, for example. Figure 2 shows that wehave created a continuous prestige-scale, based on the consumer prices of theclothes presented in the shop windows. We will come back to this scale later.

Classification of Shop Windows

The central research hypothesis of this article was to look at whether or not shopsuse emptiness in their shop windows to create an image of exclusiveness. The useof emptiness, however, is not an isolated sign. A showroom is a composite wholeof both the shop window and the general shop design. The visual researchmaterial allowed us to classify shops according to their shop windows and thedesign techniques used in them.

The qualitative analysis of the visual data revealed five main types of shopsand shop windows. As we were analyzing our data, it became clear that shop

Figure 2 Mean z-scores of all clothing categories for each shop. The x-axis contains all 107 shops inour sample that showed price tags in their shop window. In the graph, they were arranged in theorder of their mean z-score. On the x-axis only a few shop names appear due to the limited spaceavailable in the graph. Since these names give an indication of the classification of the shops, wedecided to keep them in the graph.

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windows are tightly connected to the type of clothes shop. Table 1 gives anoverview of the five main types of shop window we found in our sample.

The first category consists of bulk sales shops. Clothes are sold in large quan-tities, at knock-down prices. Next, we have a group of middle-class clothingshops. In our sample, this group consisted mainly of large chains store with avery typical way of window dressing. If we go to higher middle-class shops andtop-class luxury shops, we enter the world of smaller boutiques. The variation inwindow dressing is much greater here. Consequently, we distinguished betweenthree different types.

Bulk Sales

The first type of shops is termed ‘‘bulk sales.’’ The key characteristics of this typeare abundance and price-oriented design. Everything is oriented towards thecommunication of cheapness. Because several shops are competing in the sameshopping street, the passer-by needs to be convinced that this is the cheapest shopof all. The most often seen technique to achieve this is the hand-written price tag.All clothes have large price tags that are readable from the streets. Figure 3 is alarge bulk sales shop where price tags are predominant in the shop window. Allprice tags were made in a fluorescent yellow color.

A second characteristic that reappears in the bulk sales is the crowdedness of theshops; as if bulk sale shops fight the horror vacui by all means. Emptiness is bannedto the extreme by filling the shop window completely, with dummies and clothes[Figure 3]. There is no room for a special design. Additionally, the threshold of theshop window is bridged by breaking down the classic borders of the shop design.The shop interior is brought to the outside. The window itself loses its commu-nicational function. The consumer is invited to touch and feel the goods. In thisrespect, the bulk sales shops resemble a (Third World) marketplace, whereeverything is brought close to the consumer; vegetables can be tasted, the smell offresh bread is everywhere. The consumer walks and consumes in a private sphereas soon as he enters the market. Western shopping patterns have unlinked thisprivateness with shops and shop windows. Although we will see further thatsome shop windows try to link both spheres again, there exists a separationbetween the public and the private sphere. The shops in Figures 4 and 5 break thisseparation by putting their clothes back on the streets as in marketplaces.

With the entrance of the merchandise right onto the street, the impression ofabundance becomes even more apparent. The impression one tries to give is not onlya picture of cheap goods but also of a multitude of goods. In Figure 4, more than ahundered jeans are piled up. The Boxer shop in Figure 5 surpasses this numberseveral times. The horror vacui is suppressed maximally: all emptiness is banned.

Chain Stores

The second group of shops with a similar design of shop windows are chainstores. By chain stores we mean clothing shops belonging to a larger chain ofstores. The same clothes are distributed widely in similar shops. It is difficult todetermine whether or not a certain shop belongs to a larger group of shops and

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TABLE1.ClassificationofSh

opsan

dSh

opWindows

Bulk

sales

Chainstores

Boutiques

1Boutiques

2Boutiques

3

Nu

mbe

rof

obje

cts

Crowded

Interm

ediate

Lim

ited

Lim

ited

Lim

ited

Ext

erio

rde

sign

Objectsonthe

street;noshop

window

Large

windows

Tallan

dstraight

windows

Du

mm

ies

Human

-like

Crowded

with

dummiesor

other

presented

clothes

Severaldummies

ineach

window

Severaldummies

ineach

window

Lim

ited

number

ofdummies

Lim

ited

number

ofdummies

Sho

pen

tran

ceO

nthestreet

Glass

doors

Realdoors

Realdoors

Realdoors

Bac

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eStylistic=artful

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Nodecoration

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)Visible

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when this group is large enough to be called a real chain. Since this discussion is arather restricted one, it is not quite to the point here. What we call a chain store inour typology does not necessarily correspond to the technical definition of chainstores. Chain stores in this typology are defined as shops giving an impression ofmass production, based on a rather uniform pattern of window design.

The impression of working on a large scale is totally different from bulk salesshops. The impression of cheapness and abundance is suppressed. Large chainshops do not overcrowd their shop windows. On the other hand, they also avoidthe use of too much emptiness (see further). The impression of middle-class pri-cing is created in the shop design itself. The brand name is predominantly presentin front of the shop. Contrary to bulk sales shops where sometimes shops don’teven have a name [Figure 4], the brand name is prominent here. Further, theseshops are big. The biggest chain stores have two or three floors connected withescalators. On the outside, large windows enhance the department store-likefeeling of the shop (Figure 6).

Figure 5 Boxer (Antwerp, Abdijstraat).

Figure 4 Bulk sales shop (Antwerp, Abdijstraat).

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All shop windows of chain stores are very alike, not only within chains but alsobetween different chains. At a certain moment in our data collection, we saw thedressing of a shop window of a particular chain store (Etam in Antwerp). Thestore personnel had emptied the window and were working on a new design,based on a predesigned scheme. One of the employees had a briefing on paper,and she was instructing her colleagues on how the window needed to be dressed.By accident, we came across the same company in Brussels a few days later andthe shop window was designed almost identically.

The main reason, however, we have included the chain store as a separatecategory of window dressing styles is that our data showed a large subgroup ofstores with a similar design. The emphasis on the brand name and the largewindows were only two characteristics of these shops. When we look at the shopwindow itself, it is striking that several aspects recur. One of the recurring ele-ments is the use of large posters. As we have said, large chain stores do notoverload their shop windows. There are several dummies (three or more for eachwindow) in the window, showing the newest collection. Often, additional shelvesare used to present clothes. All this looks well-balanced but it does not give theimpression of emptiness. The main reason for that is the use of large photographsof models in the stores. The photographs give the impression that they are cut outof a fashion catalog [Figure 7]. The shop window of the chain store is designed asan enlarged, real-life advertisement for itself. Therefore, store chains as a groupgive a similar, mass media-like message through their shop windows.

Next to the large posters, the use of seasonal themes in the shop windowenhances the commercial picture we have sketched. Since our data were collectedin June, the main recurring theme was summer and vacation. The metaphors usedmost frequently to express the idea of summer and vacation were palms or sail-boards. To underline the themes, the posters often featured beach scenes withmodels walking along the beach. Also, separate catchwords referred to theupcoming holiday season. Although all shops were selling their summer collec-tions, only chain stores regularly referred to this. As was stated before, bulkpurchase shops merely concentrate on prices and large sales. But smaller bou-tiques or exclusive luxury boutiques also did not predominantly use the seasonaltheme (see further).

Boutiques

As soon as the size of the shop decreases, a clothing shop can be described as aboutique. Boutiques are ground-floor shops with a limited collection of clothesusually restricted to one sex. Large chain stores sell clothes for both men andwomen (often also for children); boutiques are smaller and more specialized.Almost half of our sample (58 of 125 shops, 46%) can be described as a boutique.As a consequence, there is a much larger diversity in this group.

A first group we will not further discuss in detail, consists of boutiques with apattern equivalent to those of chain stores. They belong to a smaller chain or amore specialized chain within the fashion market. These shops are indeed smallerand have a few characteristics of the boutiques we will discuss further. Theirdominant image however is one of a brand-oriented and highly popularized shop.

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This results in the use of large posters or sailboards, only on a smaller surface.Although these shops are both technically and economically boutiques, we classifythem in the chain store category. Besides this group, we can discern three groupsof boutiques: first, boutiques using modern and artful design in their shop win-dow; second, boutiques where the interior of the shop itself becomes part of theshop window, and third, boutiques in which emptiness prevails.

First Type: Art and Modern Design. Some boutiques try to distinguish themselveswith art and design. Although such decor might exist elsewhere, we did not findany modern painting or sculptures in our sample. The most prominent type ofdesign used includes abstract objects and forms. Hardly any figurative objectsare used in this type. The impression of the shop window is one of sobernessand distinction. The amor vacui enters the shop window but it does not prevailas we will see in the last type. Dummies and other window elements still havean important place. Sometimes the dummies as such are the subject of design.

Figure 7 Springfield (Antwerp, Meir).

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In Figure 8 the dummies form a composition in themselves. Here, the shopdesigner went further than merely dressing some dummies. He created an isolatedcomposition with an artistically-minded undertone. In this shop window, we alsosee one of the rare exceptions in the use of person-like dummies. The women inthe composition have a head and a face. In boutiques, dummies are usuallydecapitated. Only torso and legs are used, without a head. The personalizeddummy is used more frequently in bulk purchase shops.

One of the particular elements of the boutique as such is the entrance-way.Chain stores all have large glass entrance doors. Boutiques are more likely to havea regular door with a doorhandle and a doorpost. In addition, about half of theboutiques do not leave their doors open: there is a deliberately created borderbetween the shop and the outside world. An interested consumer can’t just walkin and out; entering a boutique requires an explicit action of the consumer.Moreover, it is not just the act of grabbing the doorhandle and pushing the door.The door closes again behind the consumer, giving the impression that he is morethan a flaneur (Bauman) who passes by.

Second Type: Blurring the Threshold between Public and Private Spheres. The sec-ond type of boutique is the first one where emptiness is used as a technique on itsown. It is characterized by the transparency of the shop window. The windowitself is rather empty; the number of clothing items is limited, as is the numberof dummies. The main characteristic of the second type is transparency. It is a typethat has been described earlier by the French semiotician Ana Claudia Alves deOliveira [1996]. The shop window does not have a background. There are someobjects in the shop window but the shop itself is visible in the background. Theshop window ceases to exist: it becomes integrated with the shop itself. The shopwindow is a bridge between the public sphere outside and the private sphere ofthe shop vanishes. Both spheres make direct contact. The outsider can look andjudge the activities inside the shop.

Most shops without a clearly distinct shop window do not reduce only the shopwindow to a minimum. The interior design of the shop itself also is an utterance of

Figure 8 Olivier Strelli (Antwerp, Keyserlei).

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what we called amor vacui: large rooms with only a few racks. The shop window ofNatan [Figure 9] is reduced to a small platform with two dummies. Further, thewindow gives a vision of the interior design. Inside the shop there are only a fewracks on the right side of the shop and a cash desk in the middle of the room.Further, the shop is nearly empty. There is no decoration on the walls and theheight of the shop combined with a large unused surface inside the shop gives animpression of emptiness.

The sign of amor vacui in this type is not created in the shop window itself.Because of the transparency of the shop window, the empty space inside the shopis brought to the fore. In the last type of boutique, the emptiness is created in theshop window itself.

Third Type: Amor vacui as a Sign of Distinction. The last type of boutique has a lotin common with both types described earlier. This type does not use glass doors orhumanized dummies. It does not have large windows but rather tall and straightones. The crucial difference however is the use of emptiness in the shop windowitself. The interior world of the shop and the exterior world are separated by theshop window. There is no or hardly any direct connection between both sides.Unlike the previous type, the shop window is used as a separation. The interiorof the shop is not visible from the street.

As with the interior design of the Natan shop, backgrounds in this type aremonotonally colored. The most dominant color is white, but some shops use otherlight-colored shades. The prototype of the last type of shop window can be foundin Figure 10. The shop window of Gianni Versace suppresses all superfluousmaterial. Each window contains only one dummy and a white background. Theimpression of emptiness is enhanced by the tall windows. The background behindthe dummies is limited to the height of the dummies. In this way, the profundity ofthe shop is added to the upper side of the window, as becomes visible at the rightside of the photograph. All redundant elements are left out and what remains is awell-balanced equilibrium between showing a collection and leaving the shopwindow completely empty.

Figure 9 Natan (Antwerp, Schuttershofstraat).

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Shop Window Design and Prestige. In this last section, we want to combine thequantitative and the qualitative analysis. The qualitative typology we constructedby analyzing our visual data does not tell us anything about the prestige of a cer-tain shop. It is quite possible that shop design has little or nothing to do with theprestige of a shop. Therefore we need to link the quantitative typology to the pres-tige scale we constructed earlier with consumer prices. In an intuitive way, we canexpect a correlation between the use of emptiness and the prestige of a shop. ThePearson’s correlation of the prestige scale and the total number of objects in theshop window is �.25 (Probability t-test¼ 0.009). Although the number of objectstells nothing about the design of a shop, there is a negative correlationwith prestige.

A more accurate way of looking at the design of a shop and its place on theprestige scale is given in Figure 11. Here we have transposed the qualitativetypology in scores where bulk sales stores have the lowest score and the third typeof boutique has the highest score.13 Important to notice is that we added all shops tothe graph this time. As was explained before, a necessary condition for the con-struction of the prestige scale was the presence of price tags. In Figure 11, we addedthe shops that did not show any price tags at the right side of the graph. They wereadded to the graph in no particular order. It is important to include these shops,since it was hypothesized that the omission of prices was in itself a sign of luxury.

If we look at Figure 11, there are several conclusions to make. First, bulk salesshops are located in the lower parts of the scale. Their trademark is low prices, andtherefore they score very low on the prestige scale. Since we did not include anysecond-hand shops in the sample, it is difficult to judge whether or not these shopsare the absolute lower limit of clothes shops. Next to the bulk sales shops we see alarge group of chain stores clustering together. This is the part where the z-scores

Figure 11 Prestige scale and shop window design.

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are rising very slowly, indicating that the prices of large chain stores are verysimilar. They operate in the same market segment, and therefore they use similarpricing categories. This category is not only coherent in its prices, it is equallycoherent in its window dressing. Most shops here showed the previously descri-bed design of large posters and seasonal themes. Even if each brand uses its ownaccents, the main structure is very much the same.

This uniformity no longer applies once we enter the world of the boutique. Sincethe use of emptiness as a sign of luxury was the starting, point in our research, weexpected to see a reflection of the use of emptiness on the prestige scale. If we takethe last three categories from our typology, there is indeed a correlation with theprestige scale. Window dressing techniques we identified as Boutique 1, 2 or 3 areoccurring at the higher end of the prestige scale. Also shops that are not using pricetags are all using these types of window dressing. However, we cannot clearlydistinguish any of the three types of window dressing along the prestige scale. Onlythe third type with an absolute stress on emptiness seems to occur more regularly atthe higher end of the scale. A possible explanation for this result is the existence ofdifferent signifiers of prestige in window dressing. Here art, design, transparentwindows and emptiness can be used to construct prestigious shop windows.

In conclusion, we want to draw attention to two outliers from Figure 11. Sinceshops are free to dress their window as they like, they can easily adopt styles fromothers. At the left side of the prestige scale there is one shop using the transparencytechnique in its shop window. The shop window (from Mexx) is shown in Figure12. It was a surprise that it appeared so low in the prestige scale. When studying thequantitative data more closely, it appeared that they did not use price tags on theirmodels. The reason they appeared so low was that three t-shirts had prices onthem. Therefore, they appeared in the prestige scale at a rather low level. A second

Figure 12 Mexx (Antwerp, Meir).

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outlier is situated at the right side of the scale where a shop without price tags useschain store techniques in its shop window. The shop was identified as a Boss store,which was an even bigger surprise. If we look at Figure 13, we can see that Boss isindeed using chain store techniques in its shop window. They do not present pricetags, but they do use large posters and several dummies and shelves in their storewindow. Possibly, Boss tried to adapt its store to the general view of the shoppingstreet (Meir in Antwerp). Nevertheless, it is one of the most striking examples of ashop in the higher range of the prestige scale using a deviant design.

CONCLUSION

Shop windows are part of the packaging of a consumer good. They need toconvey the image a brand wants to create for itself. But there is more to shopwindows than a mere commercial function. If we look at the shop windows wehave researched and their connection to the urban network they come from, thereis a connection. Shops group together in neighborhoods or in certain streetsbecause they belong to the same category. This results in a highly similarappearance of shops along the shopping street. Waterloo Avenue in Brussels, withall its boutiques, has a more or less coherent look, which contrasts highly with theAbdijstraat in Antwerp. In this sense, we could also say that the shop window isthe package of a neighborhood. The type of shop and the layout of shop windowsgive much information to visual sociologists about the condition of theneighborhood.

In our research, we concentrated on horror vacui as one of the discriminatingfactors to classify shop windows. The typology we constructed shows that shopsand shop windows can be classified in more or less homogeneous groups. Somegroups are clearly related to the use of or the fight against the principle of horrorvacui. The self-constraint of one’s inherent fear of the void seems to createstanding. However, we need to place the use of emptiness in shop windows in a

Figure 13 Boss (Antwerp, Meir).

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broader perspective. As Stuart Hall argued, the meaning of visual culture ingeneral or images in particular is never fixed [Hall 1997]. Images and artifacts arenot only polysemous, their meaning is often ephemeral [Attfield 2000]. Bour-dieu’s theory clearly showed that this polysemy is class-bound. Moreover, dif-ferent classes not only have different tastes but also different histories ofperception. Classes have specific ways of perceiving their surroundings [Lowe1982]. This observation points to one of the weaknesses in the above presentedanalysis. The visual analysis showed some evidence of the role of horror vacui indistinction processes. However, the analysis that was performed used an eticperspective [Silverman 1994]. The styles of window dressing were constructedwith a visual analysis from the researchers’ perspective. No confrontation ofthese data has been made with the actual viewers of these shop windows, norwith the shop window designers themselves. Such an approach departs from anemic approach. In this way, the visual material of the shop windows can be usedto check whether the fear of the void indeed leads to perceptions of distinc-tiveness as Elias’ theory indicated. It can also reveal more detailed informationabout the rationale behind the process. Is horror vacui indeed an acceptableexplanation of the connection between emptiness and exclusivity, or might therebe other processes at work?

The present results should therefore be seen as sensitizing concepts [Blumer 1969].The use of emptiness, art and modern design or transparency in the creation ofdistinction can serve future research in exploring the relation between visualmaterial (like advertisements) or graphic design (as in shop windows) and stra-tification processes.

NOTES

1. Besides the philosophical debates on the principle of horror vacui, several physicists (e.g.,Pascal) tried to prove experimentally the existence of a void.

2. Elias treats the state formation in the transition from medieval feudalism to the nationstates in the Renaissance.

3. In his Distinction, Bourdieu [1994] gives several examples of differences in aesthetic tasteas well as how differences in uses and habits differ on several courts. He illustrates theworking of the amor vacui principle in several domains.

4. The data collection was done in June 1999 by the author and a colleague on the Facultyof Social and Political Sciences at Antwerp University. The author wants to thank SofieDamen for her help in the data collection of the research. Both the coding and theanalysis were done by the author himself.

5. If a limiting decision needed to be made, the encoder always took the left side of theentrance door. This additional rule was imposed to prevent a content-based decision(e.g., taking only empty windows). The left-criterion followed the reasoning that largestores have their entrance in the middle of the shop. In this fashion, the shop designitself usually suggested which part of the shop window needed to be inventoried.

6. One Euro equals 40.3399 Belgian Francs (1.32 U.S. in 2004).7. In order to reduce bias, it is recommended [Suchar 1997] to use phrases from text as codes

(in vivo coding). Since we worked with visual material it was not possible to code this way.8. Atlas-ti provides a separate tool for organizing the open coding: the Network Editor.

This tool allows the researcher to link and unlink different codes in a graphic network.

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9. All clothes in the shop window were inventoried, independently of the presence of aprice-tag. If three trousers were piled with only one price-tag, for example, the encoderswere instructed to write down three separate trousers with this price. If no price-tagswere shown, they were instructed to inventory the clothes in the shop window.

10. In this case, power refers strongly to monetary power, to the capacity to buy.

11. Of course, the reliability of this connection lies in the fact that we suppose that shopsfrom Boss or Chanel are exclusive ones.

12. Only at the very beginning of the curve is there a little leap. The first two shops (calledJeffry and Boxer) at the very beginning of the curve have extremely low clothing prices.Both shops are located in the shopping street Abdijstraat, which is in a poorer district ofAntwerp.

13. The main purpose of giving scores was to create an easily readable graph. Therefore, thescores for bulk sales shops and large chain stores were low (1 and 1.5) while the scoresfor the three types of boutiques were high (4, 4.5, and 5). The dotted line in the middleof the graph was also added manually for readability.

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