WINDOW DRESSING

His hands move quickly and effortlessly, from lapel to vent, pressing and smoothing the fabric of a tailored sport coat but not missing a beat in explaining the importance of his current task: updating the window of his Mission Street boutique.
P.M. Jacoy has been a San Marino standard for 32 years, 25 at its current location, and Tony Jacoy has been climbing in and out of the front window for all of them.
“Every three to four weeks,” he says as he hops back down onto the showroom floor.
Jacoy seems to be pointing towards the fall season as richly colored jackets are selected to replace summery sport shirts.
“The more frequently you change, the more people will come into the store,” said Jacoy. “They might see something and they don’t want to miss out. The window has a lot of draw to get people to come in and take a look.”
Jacoy recounted several instances where he has received a phone call from someone who has just driven by the store.
“’That blue sport coat in the left side of the window,’” Jacoy pantomimes, an invisible phone to his ear. “’Put a 42 regular aside for me.’”
Jacoy calls himself “a neophyte” in the craft, explaining how he has learned from the best merchandisers how to engage with the public through the storefront.
“It’s about creating ideas and concepts for the customer,” he explained. “Creating movement. Making the coat look like the model has his arms behind him. The customer might have seen the coat in a magazine and has in his mind an image of movement. That is what I am trying to build upon.”
The window display is one of Jacoy’s most effective sales tools.
“A good percentage of my clientele see something in the window and they just buy it,” he said. I can’t really put a number to it. A lot of my new clientele is based on the window as well as referrals. In 30 days I can get as many as 80 new clients, and a lot of that is based on the windows.”
Jacoy mentioned one or two occasions where he didn’t like the finished product “and we just ripped it down and started over” as well as several times when customers have bought an item right off the mannequin when it was the last of its size. On a similar note, Jacoy told The Tribune he has sold ties to customers that he happened to be wearing at the time.
“That’s the most fun,” he said with a chuckle.
It’s clear that Jacoy enjoys his labor of love.
“Each window is always better and more interesting,” he said. “I make sure I’m having fun and the clients and guests are having fun with you. I get a lot of compliments and my mouth drops when people say nice things about a window I have done. It’s nice to look out and see people stopping and looking. The shoppers, the cyclists, the joggers. It’s nice.”