CHAPTER VI.
MATERIAL FOR BACKGROUNDS.
Not less important than the framework is the background and the decoration of your framework. Indeed, many trimmers regard the subject of backgrounds as the most important in window trimming. There is a distinction between framework and background, although the frame often constitutes the backing of a portion of your window. Thus, a step, a table, or anything that supports the goods, is a part of the framework. An arch, puffed and pleated to make up your picture, is part of your background.
A background may be upholstered in any fabric from cheesecloth to velvet, or it may be a painted scene, or an imitation of nature, or simply covered with wall paper, or panelled to represent a room. It is the frame to your picture, and all pictures cannot be framed alike.
Of fabrics, cheesecloth is most in vogue. It is pretty, easily worked, and cheap. Whatever color or combination is selected, you must use to cover your floor, your framework, and the backing wherever it is visible from the front. It may be simply spread over your woodwork, or pleated, or puffed; and the same material may be used for draperies where they are required. The best effect is obtained by using light color or even plain white, and edging with a darker color that is harmonious, or a darker shade of the same color. White goods require a dark backing as a foil; dark goods of all kinds require a light backing. Of course there are exceptions. Pure white goods are effectively shown on a backing of cream or any other delicate tint.
Some people have said that cheesecloth is not appropriate for backgrounds, and recommended richer fabrics. A few trimmers for large and wealthy concerns have obtained permission to use expensive drapery in the place of cheesecloth, and are covering their backgrounds with plushes, raw silks, satins and upholstery goods. These make the windows appear rich, but not especially attractive. They are stiff and unpliable and must hang loosely in draping. The risk of loss in soiling will not allow of using light colors, and the dark shades and figured goods soon become tame to the spectators. They are not nearly so effective a foil to merchandise as cheesecloth. Only the richest goods can be used with such backgrounds, for ordinary goods would look very cheap by comparison.
It is true cheesecloth is a flimsy, cheap material, looking very coarse upon close inspection, but it is an ideal cloth for decorations. It lends itself to puffing, pleating and all modes of draping with great pliability. It is made in every tint and color. It has a way of rendering itself unobtrusive while serving as a capital foil for almost any grade of merchandise. And it is cheap. Find any other material which has these qualifications, and trimmers will readily adopt it. Many houses cannot afford more expensive material. Cheesecloth has figured prominently in the evolution of show windows. Had merchants been forced to adopt a more expensive material for backgrounds and floor coverings, it is probable that many of them would not be decorating their windows even to-day.
Then, its bright and varied colorings allow of many combinations and perfect harmony. It makes a window attractive enough to stop pedestrians, who, glancing at the display, unconsciously note that the goods on exhibition are thrown prominently into the foreground, while the coloring that made them pause has modestly retired, and serves only as a foil for the articles of merchandise.
Jewelry, bric-a-brac and silverware assuredly need a richer background to display them harmoniously; but cheesecloth is appropriate for nine-tenths of the window trims throughout the country, and there is absolutely nothing to take its place.
FIREPROOF DECORATIONS.
Not infrequently we hear of a bad fire occasioned by draperies or decorations catching from a lighted match or other similar cause, the inflammable nature of the material used causing a rapid spread of flames and consequent damage to property. Whether this occasions great loss of life, as was the case at the great bazaar in Paris, or is a minor blaze, such as often occurs in a window when a lighted gas jet approaches too near the trimmings, such accidents are desirable to avoid.
Quite recently a method has been discovered of treating material used to decorate halls, booths and windows, which absolutely precludes the possibility of a blaze. The material is simply dipped into a solution of tungstate of soda and allowed to dry. Bunting, cheesecloth and other material so treated are slow burning when ignited, and never blaze up. Therefore they are easily extinguished and cannot readily set fire to woodwork or other substances. No hall or booth where people congregate should be decorated without using this simple and effective precaution against fire, and all loss in a show window may be avoided in like manner. The solution does not injure the fabric.