window dressing

noun3

1. •
   The decorative display of retail merchandise in store windows; the goods and trimmings used in such a display.

   • On Sundays when the Red Light District is closed until 6 P.M., many Dutch families use the window dressings as the textbook for their children’s sex education. — 1991
2. •
   (figurative) A means of creating a deceptively favourable impression of something or someone; something for appearance only.

   • These latest modifications are mere window dressing; the same problems remain.
3. •
   The process, skill or task of creating such a display.

   • Such days as there was no window-dressing there was a mighty carrying and lifting of blocks and bales of goods into piles and stacks. — 1905