Give him 3 seconds, you’ll be a fan for life

Here’s how it works according to designer and retailer Ito Kish: You get just three seconds to get a person’s attention. If you do get it in those three seconds, then you’ve done a hell of a job; if you don’t…well, you might have just lost a potential loyal and high-spending customer.

Of course, he’s talking about visual merchandising, an art that blends a person’s skill in putting up a really good static show and using all that scientists have learned about how about the brain is wired when it comes to impulse buying and split-second decision making – do you walk on or stop to admire the display and buy it?

"Can you imagine if you designed your house with that philosophy in mind?" says Gary "Ito" Kish. "Every setting, every room will grab the visitor’s attention. That would be so great!"

I first met Ito when he opened his store, the Indonesian-theme Urban Effects in Parañaque, with his friend Joby Belmonte. Both had come home after years of working in Indonesia where Ito was a visual merchandiser for the country’s largest department store. Then they moved Urban Effects to Glorietta 4’s Home Zone, where Ito also opened Kish, which later moved to Greenbelt 3.

Now, on his own for the first time in his retailing career, he recently opened Ito Kish, a store devoted solely to accessories, at the LRI Building in Makati. And here Ito puts his visual merchandising experience to good use. The space is limited – just a wall of shelves really – yet he’s managed to put up a great visual wall of accessories that come from different parts of the world. You cannot not stop and look.

"The current theme, which started before the holidays, is black, white and some green," he says. "The summer collection will be more colorful."

He has black chandeliers and crystal candleholders, acrylic flower vases and shell lamps. The textures are as diverse as ceramic-smooth to rich felt paper; as humble as sea shells to as luxurious as crystals; as whimsical as a curtain fringe to as traditional as wooden photo frames.

Perhaps that’s the gift Ito has as a retailer: Of all the designs, accessories and trends he sees abroad, he takes back only the ones that fit local homes. When we tell him that the vases remind us of the ones we used as a young girl in our grandmother’s house in the province – appliquéd with flowers so white and large they look like toppings of a wedding cake – he laughs and says that’s actually the current theme of his showroom: traditional designs given a modern edge. (So, yes, take all of grandma’s hidden accessories and play them up in your contemporary home.)

"We try to be very selective when it comes to our merchandise. We have a very good relationship with suppliers, despite the fact that we’re a small store and can take only a few number of items. We don’t go beyond three pieces for each product, so that our customers feel that what they are getting is exclusive."

Two trends he sees crossing from Europe to Manila are applications (on just about anything, from vases to boxes) and wallpaper. "Several stores here are actually already using wallpaper. Now you don’t even have to cover the entire wall with paper, but use wallpaper as accent."

Now that would be another show-stopping moment, wouldn’t it?

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Ito Kish is located at the second floor of LRI Building, Nicanor Garcia Ave. (formerly Reposo St.), Makati.