H and M, London

There was a huge amount of excitement in London's West end with the launch of Versace for Ebay this week.....oops, for H and M this week.  The queues were literally around the block waiting to buy this stuff.  We saw customers with literally bags full of this hideous 'bling' at the Tube stations throughout the day.  It seems H and M have cracked a fantastic promotional angle the likes of which we tend to only see outside Apple stores before the launch of yet another I-something.  Anyway,  we hope this week that you managed to get your one-of-each-size purchases to sell on Ebay too.

Hennes, London

I'm really enjoying what Hennes is doing right now.  Each store seems to have its own personality and this store in Knightsbridge is particularly great fun.  The suspended structures they have placed in this store (not shown here) are very much like the kind of thing one would could view at the Science museum just down the road.  OK, well maybe the feathered eyelashes are not quite right? Although for their target market it is probably just right, and the beehives a la Patsy (as in Edina and Patsy) are superb.  This brand clearly know their target audience and this line up of figures is particularly X-factor-esque rather than the usual perfectly polished groupings one can view at more expensive stores.  I have no doubt this will draw in the young females, and entertain their bored boyfriends with a flash of (albeit fibreglass) mannequin boob.  Job well done guys.

H&M, London

H&M re-launched in the UK, something like 15 years ago.  Prior to this they seemed quite a sleepy brand known more locally as Hennes and Mauritz and the store in Brighton seemed to be the only store in the UK (well the only one I could find) that sold menswear.  Anyway, once they had relaunched they spread like wild fire, and globally too.  With their initial enthusiasm some of the central stores were changing their schemes virtually daily, until, I guess there were just too many stores to keep up with.  Of course with so many to manage, out rolled the generic schemes of which we have seen a considerable amount of recently.  The site along Regent st. here in London has installed its latest scheme which must be the best I have seen from this brand in a long time.  Wooden model aeroplanes have been suspended in mid flight throughout this space and at various heights.  This is such an incredibly simple scheme which works so well, at least for me. It made me stop and look and record this for you and as a subsequence so did many other viewers.  There are a few bits here that do need tweaking however although I do feel that this was a job well done and a refreshing new direction.  Thanks guys.