Jubilee window gets Shrewsbury Mayor’s seal of approval
Red, white and blue were the colours as stores in Shrewsbury three busy shopping centres decked their windows out for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
And the tough job of picking a winner went to Shrewsbury Mayor and Mayoress Keith and Catherine Roberts who toured the Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside Centres to run the rule over the entries.
Ex-policeman Keith, from Bayston Hill, who took office in May and who is also a Shropshire Councillor, and Catherine, were given a tour of the centres by Shrewsbury Shopping Manager Kevin Lockwood before they picked out Claire’s Accessories as the winner.
They had decked out a window in the former Evolution store in the Darwin Centre in a colourful display that captured the mood of the Jubilee.
Catherine said: “They had really gone the extra mile and made a big effort. They didn’t just use some pictures or posters but they had good use of colour and products to make a real display.”
Keith added: “It’s good to see the stores make an effort. We have a lovely town and it really brightens it up and I’m sure it’s good for business too.”
Lisa Irving, Manager of Claire’s Accessories, was responsible for the design of the window along with her supervisor, Nicole Morgan.
Lisa, 25, from Worthen, near Shrewsbury, who is due to marry her fiancé Ben Andrew in Jamaica this year, said: “I enjoy doing window displays and Nicole and I actually help out with the window designs for Claire’s Accessories stores.
“We wanted to do something a bit different and feature fancy dress with feather boas and things and use our products and it certainly worked fort us because the town was busy that day and we doubled our takings.
“We had lots of people coming in to buy the things they had seen in thew window which was great so we’d like to do it more often.
“We haven’t got a lot of room in our store so it was great to be able to use one of the other windows and we’d love to have that opportunity more often.”
Lisa hasn’t had any formal training in window dressing and added: “I am self-taught but you just have tio have a bit of artistic flair but this showed what we can do and so many people have come up to us to ask for the products.
“It created a lot of interest which has been brilliant for the store which is usually very busy with a lot of young people calling in and it’s great fun to work here.”
Kevin Lockwood added: “It was great that the stores made the effort and I’m sure that those who did saw the reward just as Lisa did at Claire’s Accessories.
“It’s something we’d like to encourage more of and hopefully we will see even more stores taking part next time or even doing things themselves because it certainly catches the eye of shoppers and brightens the centre and the town.”
