We've got a lot of office and conference room renovations going on at Zappos HQ and I was literally stopped in my tracks by this brilliant decorative display in the Fashion area. I asked Jonathan how he decided to do this and he said it all started with the concept of “Sowing the Seeds of Fashion.” The next step was to visit many of the local thrift stores for materials. That’s where the neckties and the love seat (below) came from. Gardening sticks were inserted into the neckties to hold them up and then placed into clay pots stuffed with excelsior.
When Jonathan used the word “excelsior” I was like “isn’t that the name of a ship in the Royal Navy?”
He explained that it was also a filler material and is often used in gift baskets. Now I wasn’t questioning, but I was curious about this and besides being “curly wood shavings used as filler”, excelsior is also the motto of the State of New York with the meaning “still higher.” It is derived from the Latin “excelsus” which means “high.” It seems there also were a couple of HMS Excelsiors in the British Royal Navy and it is also a starship class name in Star Trek. Here’s another picture.
From left to right we have Anthony, Jonathan and Jason standing behind the mannequin. Anthony did most of the wall painting and Jason helped with the material selection and picture framing. Normally, the love seat is actually against the wall and would just be out of sight in the righthand foreground of this picture, ditto for the framed pictures of several fashion legends, including Jonathan’s favorite designer, Vivienne Westwood.
Great job lads!
