Betts and Windows of the City

An event called Windows of the City, takes place in and around Perth’s CBD in the weeks leading up to the Perth Fashion Festival. The competition is set to run from August 9 until September 15, involving 50 retailers.

An existing client Betts shoes has asked me to decorate their windows to the theme of spring for their Hay St Mall store.

Members of the public vote for their favourite window design (by voting they go into the draw to win a shopping spree). A panel of industry experts will be invited to judge the artist designed windows once they’re installed, and they’ll choose one artist to win $1000 cash for their efforts. The winner will also be offered the opportunity to have an installation or exhibition at Raine Square in 2014. The media partners for the event are Channel 9 and Sunday Times.

Using my trademark style of watercolour backgrounds and an illustrated girl, I transferred this to large scale windows, a men and womens version.

The process took a few weeks as once the concept was visualised and backdrop ordered to be printed, I experimented to make flowers, grass, leaves and clouds.

I didnt want to over clutter the window as the girl would remain transparent and wanted her to be the main focus. The models I chose to draw were Fabienne Vanderhaeghen and Josh Meeuwissen who are the current models of the Betts Spring/Summer campaign.

I set up the store with my organised props over the course of one day, and painted the window.

The final result can be seen at 644 Hay St Perth.

Betts Windows of the City PFF

Unfortunately the night before the competition started (and the photoshoot day), storms hit the store!
The old building suffered a leaking roof and there was un intented water feature in the store.
My window was flooded with water and there was hundreds of shoes damaged!
Not what I was expecting on my first window display. Luckily the paper dried well, the illustration on needed small areas redoing most people wouldn’t notice!
I did at one stage consider putting my flowers in pots to collect the new ‘rain’ feature, almost disappointed that the dripping finally did stop 🙂