Jäger Marky Aren: Window Shopping [signed]

Reflections on retail culture From Sigrid Arén's essay: Although more than a half-century has passed since Plath wrote about what, in her day, was still an emerging and fast-evolving fashion industry, in some ways not much has changed. Today, when I pass the windows of Nordiska Kompaniet – one of the few classic department stores that is still in business, and still tries to captivate shoppers with elaborate window displays – it feels like experiencing a piece of the past. (The NK windows are, incidentally, the windows that Karin Boye watched at night while writing her debut novel Astarte, which also engages with the nature and influence of the mannequin). I found it surprisingly difficult to get “under the skin” of the mannequin. An assignment I thought would be straightforward only grew thornier the longer I worked. The more angles I tested, the further I drifted from my real topic. It was not until late in the writing process that I finally realized what was making it so hard to find the right register, the right words: for me, the mannequin was an object apart. I had never paid her much attention, except for the momentary attention we all give a window display when it caches our eye in passing. But we take no time to reflect on it, and soon we forget it again. Now I reflected on the mannequin. Was this an angle I could write about?