The Romance of Commerce: window shopping at Selfridges

I was almost going to bed yesterday night when I stumbled upon “Shopping for England” on BBC2. The documentary, featuring historian Mica Nava, traced back the story of two seminal department stores in the history of the UK, Selfridges and Woolworths. I almost switched off the TV, and headed straight to bed, as I was too tired and I also happen to have an aversion for huge department stores.

Just a few weeks ago I successfully managed to get lost in Selfridges (in London's Oxford Street) where I had gone to buy some Italian chocolates as a present for a friend. I didn’t want to live again the experience by watching a documentary about it, but the programme managed to capture my attention as  it didn’t really analyse the phenomenon of the department stores as a Mecca for shopaholics, but it was a fascinating history into the lives of Gordon Selfridge and Frank Woolworth. The programme also tried to highlight the significance of shopping in the UK and explored issues of gender in relation to the department store experience (loved the bits about the suffragette movement and Gordon Selfridge).

The foundations for the department store were laid in early 1908 and, in March of the following year, the building was open. The innovative shopping experience offered by the store was the result of the vision of Harry Gordon Selfridge, originally the manager of Marshall Field in Chicago. The US businessman planned to open an American department store in London that could improve the shoppers’ ability to take pleasures in life and that was conceived as a place where people could actually go and socialise.  According to him, entertainment was a huge part of the shopping experience and he even wrote a book about trading and the noble pursuit of retailing, entitled The Romance of Commerce.

Shoppers loved the new experience offered by Selfridges, as here you could virtually find anything you needed or you desired - perfumes, clothes and food, for example - but you could also stop at the library and spend a bit of time in this quiet retreat, go to one of the restaurants or admire the unusual exhibits on display, such as the Blériot XI, the monoplane used to complete the first cross-Channel flight in 1909, or meet Scottish inventor John Logie Baird carrying out his first public demonstration of television from the first floor of the store in 1925.

Selfridges' theatrical shop windows, especially the Christmas displays, became famous all over the world, attracting interest and sparkling controversies. When I was in London the window display showed a series of dummies clad in colourful and summery designer clothes and accessories - from Ralph Lauren to Prada, from Marc Jacobs to Alessandro Dell’Acqua, Balenciaga, vintage Kenzo and Dior – cycling, flying, windsurfing and driving a series of bizarre contraptions made by the White Wall Company.

Gordon Selfridge’s story ended up on a sad note as his fortune declined and, in the '40s, he found himself impoverished, while the store he had founded kept on expanding and offering a wider shopping experience to its customers.
   
It’s a shame that the documentary didn’t explain if there is a cure to what I can only define as my "vast department-store phobia" . Maybe it’s better this way. If I were able to spend time in the more than a million square feet of Selfridges without panicking, I might turn into a shopaholic and then I might need some serious help for addicted spenders.

I guess I’m probably one of the few people on earth who prefers contemplating Selfridges from the outside, rather than the inside. Well, you know what? At least by looking at the shop windows I do not risk to get lost, and I still manage to live that amazing visual experience Gordon Selfridge wanted to give his customers.    

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Comments

[Hels]

I really love many of your historical posts, and created a link with this particular one on Selfridge's. Your trendy, modern posts are probably much more exciting for younger, trendier eyes than mine :)

Great stuff!
Hels
Art and Architecture, mainly