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ones display winter-garments, while the middle one is wearing a red<br />
pullover with a white inscription on the front: “SALE !” The backdrop<br />
of the window is bare and white, but then we discern tiny red arrows<br />
attached to the individual items. The arrows are pointing to the<br />
scarf, to the pullover, to the tie and to the striped shirt and they are<br />
attached to the items with pins so that they seem to be floating<br />
with only their points touching the fashion pieces. On coming closer<br />
we found that the little red arrows bear the word “sale!”<br />
Lucius Burckhardt claimed that “design is invisible”. With this<br />
notion, Burckhardt wanted to describe those achievements of design,<br />
which do not remodel material but our social life and environment. 519<br />
And our show window does not show invisible design. It is hidden<br />
somewhere between the fashion items and the little red arrows. This<br />
“invisible design” in the seasonal sale is beyond what we see. It is<br />
not the red painted backdrop or the packing paper dress of the<br />
mannequin, it is the periodical redesign of social interaction based<br />
on changing fashions. The ritual is the perfect “material” for “invisible<br />
design” because rituals shape social practices. We stop in astonishment<br />
before a huge storefront. It is nearly empty, invisible design quite<br />
obviously needs little materiality:<br />
The show window is very long. There are only two elements inside<br />
it: a sales poster and a clothes rack with just a few items. Both<br />
elements are supported by two scaffolding rods. The backdrop is<br />
white. The show window is unusually empty; its army of mannequins<br />
has been removed.<br />
This is very functional and cheap show window dressing; it is<br />
a window chock-full of emptiness. We have the feeling that we have<br />
come too late. Everything has been sold out. The battle against the<br />
irrational was fought by the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm in Germany<br />
after the Second World War:<br />
“In Ulm the dominance of the rational is rooted in many things. Firstly,<br />
we all remember fascism as an experiment that robbed people<br />
of their rationality and consciously enslaved them with the help of<br />
symbols and irrationality.” 520<br />
Belief in the rational ignored all design issues that dealt with<br />
519 Burckhardt (1995:31).<br />
520 Lindinger (1987:83)*.<br />
Mönckeberg Straße<br />
204
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