In the Window: YSL Subtly Suggests Accessories

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Yves Saint Laurent's 57th Street shop is keeping things subtle and promoting its giftable accessories this holiday season. Each window contains a single large gift box open to reveal a selection of items that could make good gifts. The left window—left if you're facing the store, not if you are the store—is for women, with red and pink handbags and jewelry wrapped up in a gold box with an enormous, cascading red bow. The men's bow is dark green, and that one suggests buying leathergoods for the men in your life, especially gloves, shoes, or a messenger bag, or even a good-looking pair of sunglasses.

Promoting accessories is not a bad tactic to take, because people are more likely to buy things like that as gifts than they are to go for clothing, which is pretty hard to select for a person, and handbags don't have to be tried on. So it's logically sound, if a bit unexciting.
· In the Window: Henri Bendel Holiday Windows Sparkle [Racked]