Let's get textual

This could just be seen a shop; but literacy lovers might want to see this textually. They might want to check out the semiotics.



The fact that stuff is set out in a big open window is the convention used to say that these things are for sale. (Another convention is that there are price tags - but these are not always there.) The way in which the gloves are lit, set out on stands and in rows, are conventions which would be funny in a home for example, but here they are normal.

This is the learned grammar of shop display. And we know we can go in, look, maybe touch, and it is hoped by the shop keeper that we will buy. The message in the window is, 'We have a big variety of high class gloves for you to come in and buy.' You can read the text from top shelf to bottom and from right to left.

It all looks upmarket - and I think that is done through lighting and cleanliness. But also shops that sell just one type of thing give the idea that they are specialist shops. It gives the idea that there is an expert inside who knows everthing there is to know about gloves.It also give the idea of exclusivity, care over detail. These are cultural conventions. And we hardly realise we know all this.

In addition, fewer people wear this kind of glove these days; it was much more common before the 1960s for people to habitually wear leather gloves. Nowadays one is making more of a style statement with leather gloves. Leather gloves carry different meanings to woollen knitted gloves.

You can look at the shop as a single text, but set alongside other shops in that area of Venice, it helps commmunicate the notion that this is an upmarket area to shop, for wealthy people.

In an even broader context, you can think about the people who would feel awkward going in there. You can think about how the people who made thee gloves might not have enough money to feed and school their children.

There are many ways of reading texts, including this one.