Ralph Lauren, London

OK, here you go, Ralph Lauren.  I know the guys here get anxious when I mention their schemes so I'll leave it up to you, the reader, to decide what you think.  For me, its homely, its Christmas (at least somewhere), love the product, love the way its been placed, what more could we ask?  Strangely, each scenario produced here contains just females or just males......quite a loaded narrative/concept although albeit possibly inadvertently and rather by default than by design?  But hey, what better way for a glamorous female to spend her special Christmas day at her special Scottish country lodge than with her....ahem....special glamorous female friend?  Getting my drift?  Just teasing guys.......love what you have done (but do you see what I see?.......there'll be a lotta lipstick going on of course.) 

Gucci, London

Swinging by Bond st. and Knightsbridge this week, I happened upon the Gucci Christmas concept. Now, neon outlined out sized 'products' are nothing new as we can see from Geigers stiletto windows along Regent St. and previously at Moschino, although these do work very well. What I do particularly like here is that the Gucci team have brought the concept out of the window and applied it also to the above outside space of the store (above image is the Knightsbridge store). This is quite unusual for this brand. I don't recall them ever doing such things, but of course this is a most welcome move. However, as my students will tell you, one of my pet hates are motifs and this is motif overload. With the installation of such an expensive concept I would have thought that a brand like this would have been far more experimental? I guess not. I do love neon and there are tonnes of examples of artists using it in increasingly experimental ways which could have possibly been tapped in to. Still, this scheme does what it does and it is as always produced to perfection.

Fortnum and Mason, London

Have you been to Fortnum's recently? I just so happened to drop by this week. You know the scenario, what do you buy someone who has everything and you don't want to clutter their homes or impose your personal preferences on friends who have a particular...well preference. If you go along to Fortnum and Mason on Piccadilly you can pick up the most wonderful consumables that you know at least your friends can enjoy either with or without you. Anyway, during my visit this week I came across this amazing installation. Now, to me it has the fingerprints of DZD based on Tottenham Court road. I have seen the in house team implementing the scheme with a few Swans in the windows, so I am guessing that there is a connection with Swan Lake - possibly Mathew Bourne thrown in - if I am reading between the lines correctly. If you havent seen Mathew Bourne's Swan Lake this must be on your list of 100 things to do before you die - incredible. Anyway, in the mean time do go along and have a look if only to see the tourists mesmerised by this enormous cascading installation and insisting on having their photographs taken within it. I think from a VM perspective it has done its job and doing it very well indeed. As for my shopping, well I did manage to buy a few consumables while simultanously consuming as many crackers with sample bits of cheese when the assistant turned around, but I know you wont tell anyone.