Max Mara, London

One of my favourite paintings in the world must be Jan Van Eycks, The Arnolfini Portrait, where the use of a convex mirror reflection in the background of the portrait reveal his (the painter) own presence. I do find mirrors within schemes a fascinating concept which have been enormously unexplored within retail design and visual merchandising. We, as viewers, are simultaneously captured elsewhere within the scheme in the mirrors reflection while the product acts as an instrument of imitation capturing the reality (at least in part). Our reflection ensures our participation within the scheme while being able to view the front and back of the fashion merchandise. This is the commercial angle. The perpetual image captured here at Max Mara with its intelligent use of tube lighting absolutely fascinates me. While figures are used as a reflection of oneself, here we have the addition of a mirror which also reflects us and thus ensures that we feel part of this scheme or at least a little more than we would have otherwise. If we feel included we are more likely to make a purchase. Interesting stuff. And we thought we were just looking at a box with a mirror in it.

Diesel, London

Steel Chains, paper chains, steel wigs. Diesel is probably one of the coolest multiples right now on the high street. Interesting and entertaining this scheme is their latest treat for us. Using the currently fashionable monochromatic tones with just a hint of colour in the form of accessories and / or props these figures look incredible. Their slightly disheveled Renaissance wigs placed on the heads of these Gray sprayed featureless mannequins are perfectly unkempt and work exceptionally well. How incredible that in this tiny space the creative have delivered so much. Testament that you don't need lavish schemes to have impact. Great.

KSHT, London

Images courtesy and copyright KSHT

While perusing one of my early 20th century copies of ‘Display’, from my archives recently, it is particularly interesting to see how this industry has developed from tiny product showrooms such as Siegal & Stockman, the Pilot sign Co. Ltd telling us to “scrap our old Fascia’s and modernise our fronts” to Super-tools’ adverts selling us “Super Aids to Super Display” (meanings of words clearly change over time) all based in places such as Newman St., Grays in Road and Berners St. How times have changed – almost unrecognisable from this industry’s origins with consultancies such as KSHT providing all of these things and a lot more. All of these original companies are long gone (at least in London) and 21st Century living and working demand that we perform in ever more sophisticated and ultimately faster ways. As demands from ever more digitally savvy customers or consumers (depending on the product) also becomes ever more difficult to satisfy, retailers are continuing to look outside of their own in house, often energy sapped teams for inspiration, information, and a little bit of hand holding. Companies often dictated to by over zealous marketing and penny pinching accountants are often afraid to cross the line into what, in contemporary society seems out of their realm of expertise, that of creativity.
With clients ranging from Mulberry, Fred Perry, Harvey Nichols, Jimmy Choo to Ben Sherman, KSHT based in South London know how to inspire you, inform you and I think will hold your hand if you ask them nicely. KSHT led by Kathryn Scanlan and Howard Tong have a least forty years experience between them in this industry having worked with a lot of big names prior to starting their own company. From taking an initial brief, development of the concept and helping you navigate your way though the process with boundless confidence, this incredible team are informed, clearly talented and have a wealth of intelligent experience with which to guide any client. Concepts are thoroughly researched, developed, tested and produced on time and on budget. Their current projects are particularly exciting (I’ll have to pop the cyanide pill if I reveal too much) however, check out their site here and be assured that if you are one of those countless companies with demanding customers and you are in need of inspiration, information or may be some reassurance, you must check these guys out. As your customers are becoming more sophisticated don’t you need to be too? www.ksht.co.uk

Images courtesy and copyright KSHT.

Fred Perry, London

I've never included Fred Perry before on this site. Possibly because they are quite low key these days and perhaps their merchandise tends to form collections within larger stores rather than being contained within a solus site? I don't know. May be they have lost their cool? Who knows? Anyway, it was quite a treat to find this store further along Newburgh street while meandering around town and recorded this for you as it is quite a simple yet fun scheme. Launching their new clocktion (their words not mine, so please don't groan at me) Fred Perry have used these analogue clocks in a repetition format on the base of this scheme with additional clocks placed in the neck of the bust forms. Someone has obviously been ebaying or cleared out their attic or garage and used one of those retro embossed label makers to announce the launch of their new collection. These have been adhered to the outside of the fenestration (I quite like that). Anyway, I could be picky and say that if one looks at advertisements for clocks and watches the hands are always placed at 10.10, 1.50, 7.20 or 4.40 (I bet you never noticed before hey?) in order to frame the brand logo. However, I am glad that these guys have broken the rules as the clock brands in this case are not important and it is perhaps the timeless quality of the brand that this is more representative of? Ultimately, its fun and simple, so lets just enjoy.

Beyond the Valley, London

Throughout 2010, we have seen the growing trend of the 'handmade' with increasing frequency - although this seems to be dying a little as the economy has picked up. With the launch of Anthropologie a year ago along Regent st. and subsequently on the Kings Rd. here in London, I do hope that this has encouraged smaller retail spaces and places to use localised creativity in the presentation of their product. Here along Newburgh St. teetering along the edge of Soho is Beyond the Valley. I know nothing about this brand / independent retailer other than I was drawn in by their incredible installation. OK their product presentation needs attention although I find it interesting that these guys have created such an interesting environment in which to sell their product, so I guess they're half way there. Anyway, the creative here has used these pieces of perforated plastic in a schoal of fish-like format suspended with the display persons old faithful piece of kit - invisible thread. On closer inspection, they have of course used plastic knives which seem to have been drilled with a plethora of small holes. Ultimately the underlying message is a very personal one, although of course we are not excluded but in fact very much included and therefore this is a great leap forward. We just need to sort out this product and its presentation and then we're done.

G-Star, London

I've really grown to liking this brand. They have produced some really fascinating and creative product presentations which continue to impress and surprise me. For such an enormous global brand this is a remarkable achievement which I feel indicates how well they are run and by people who are clearly passionate about what they do. Their website too is quite visually mesmerising which oozes the coolness indicative of denim brands. Here the brand have produced these three dimensional look books "re-introducing [their] raw essentials, elevating everyday denim to a highly refined mix of vintage and modern". Product encapsulated within these 'books' have been been over laid with cut outs in black which suggests this fusion. The backdrop has been produced in bright yellow hanging banner. This is such a good example of how something quite simple can be thought through and communicated to have impact. I was drawn in to take a closer look, job done. I'd work with these guys.

Louis Vuitton, London

In response to all of your wonderful and overwhelming messages.....here are larger and some additional images further to today's post as you all requested.

Louis Vuitton, London

Can fun scream any louder? Louis Vuitton have quite literally just installed their new scheme at their monolithic luxury space along Bond st. here in London. I am in awe. I adored the previous scheme which I recorded previously for this site (and I do miss it at least a little) but things change and move on. On move on they have. How incredible are these windows? Life sized Ostriches with wonderfully elongated necks fill this huge space (some across two floors) and carry the latest gorgeous Ostrich skin merchandise in jewelled tones. Ostrich eggs, some massively out sized 'hatch' the most desirable shoes in a repetition format (below are the watches). Humour is lacking here in London right now in product presentation, with the exception of some of the department stores. This concept has given me renewed hope (and thankfully no large format graphic in site) particularly after viewing so many bland 'multiples' recently. You must go and see this new concept for yourself. Even if you don't buy this product, looking is free. I guarantee that you will love it.

Guess, London

Its very difficult to be positive about brands like this and I am sighing in despair at this installation. Having shown some incredible places and sites to seek inspiration this week, I just cannot comprehend how such an enormous company can allow this to happen? I do however fully comprehend why this is happening. So, why therefore are these brands still using the old format of 'headquarters' in a completely different country and culture dictating what happens in another? This is how it works right? The Saturday / part-time person receives the manual that was probably sent by e-mail, the store manager who downloaded it and printed it and thought to themselves 'who shall I get to to this job?' So there's the manual with the images of the mock up produced somewhere 'out there' and the formula is followed to get the look. Bonkers. Truly bonkers. But hey, how much money did that save? And sadly this is what this is all about. While I understand this brands positioning, perhaps they need to realise how much they are actually undermining themselves? In the meantime the usual old format of coloured angled fluorescent's have been used (contrary to my advice re. 10 commandments for 2010 launched in January), with the usual large format monochromatic graphic and mannequins positioned incorrectly on their bases correctly. I shudder.

Fendi, London

I frequently view the Fendi store on Sloane st., here in London, although unlike its enormous sister store in New York, the brand don't often seem to do anything very creative - that I have noticed at least. However, the handbags previously lined up in every colour imaginable have been swept out of their normally hermetically sealed horizontal presentation window and fresh air has been breathed in with this great little installation. Phew. And what an interesting installation this is. Small television monitors have been installed (and actually switched on), surrounded by cinema reels and old film itself winding its way throughout the scheme, tying the whole thing together. I shall be paying more attention to these guys to see what they come up with next. Onwards and upwards, hey?

The DnA Factory, London

Image Courtesy and Copyright DnA Factory

There's something quite cleansing about being in creative environments. Several months after first discovering DnA Factory from seeing their incredible 'Tree of Life' at Amouage here in London which led me to their website, I finally managed to meet the guys behind this incredible work. Hidden away underneath the arches of one of the main railway links out of the city in South London, Dallas and Angel, the guys behind DnA Factory work tirelessly to produce the most incredible work. Crammed to the rafters of their studio I found countless ephemera and object d'arts used as inspiration for their work further surrounded by their signature drawings, paintings and incredible high gloss sculptures. DnA met while students at Goldsmiths College in the early 1990's and have shared this studio space for several years. Their clients read like a who's who - in a global context. It is refreshing to see that these guys begin with initial drawings to work through their concepts, generating collage constructions from found materials before creating their three dimensional pieces. Lolita (DnA's fictitious character) crops up quite frequently across their work in a variety of guises, forms and outputs and surrounds the studio space. DnA's work is loaded with passion, anxiety, character and love and possibly any other emotional response you care to mention which gives their work the kind of depth that can, as high art does, appear elusive and exclusive to the general viewer. However, these guys communicate their thoughts so eloquently and thoughtfully that there clearly is no hidden agenda or sly means of revenge that we need to be afraid of (their work simply has depth) and they are so wonderfully nice too that I cant help but want to be a part of it all. These guys are inspiring and passionate about their work and I can visualise all types of contexts using DnA's work within a commercial environment without wishing to undermine their clearly thoughtful concepts. Dallas and Angel have worked with some of the major retail players developing and executing the most incredible concepts, so, if you haven't met or seen the work of these guys, what are you doing? If you happen to be in New Orleans (USA), swing by the Good Children Gallery or very soon at the Multi-Species Salon (also in New Orleans) to get your fix from this amazing work. In the meantime these guys have to be on your speed dial and at the front of your contacts list. Dallas and Angel can be contacted via info@thednafactory.com or check them out through their website at www.thednafactory.com .In the mean time, like me drool over these images and feel cleansed too.

Image Courtesy and Copyright DnA Factory

Tiffany, London

Well Summer is virtually over here in London after just a few weeks of warm weather, but that's living in the UK for you. Tiffany's windows along Bond St. here in London, always seem to create these wonderful narratives wrapped up in a game of hunt the jewellery. Tiffany's product presentation of course oozes the quality one would expect from such a luxury brand (although I do wish they would do something with their dated interior). I haven't quite worked out the narrative here yet, as the wooden articulated hands hold postcards with images of exotic places (well exotic from a London perspective) together with the pieces of jewellery that one would have expected would have been contained within a letter? Maybe the jewellery in this context is being used as a reminder, a kind of personal romantic reminiscence of wonderful experiences from places visited and experiences shared, who knows. However, one of the elements that I do particularly find fascinating is what I call postcard 'realities' and how the images of places presented are not always as they actually are. The lighting is altered, dramatic clouds digitally enhanced behind the image of the Taj Mahal, the deserted palm tree edged beaches which in reality are crammed full of lobster coloured tourists baking themselves until they resemble old saddles or worn out leather handbags (we don't see that in the 'idealised' image do we?) Anyway, whatever the brief given here and how the outcome has been achieved, one thing we can always be assured of is the quality of the product.

Harrods, Buenos Aires

Image copyright La Nacion

Further to my post earlier this week, my Buenos Aires contact very kindly translated the newspaper article that she sent to me announcing that Harrods Buenos Aires was due to re-open. It is a considerable article so I can only offer a synopsis of it here. However, this store first opened on 31st March 1914 and was in fact the only branch of the store we know so well here in Knightsbridge, London. This store has been closed over a decade (since 1998) and the worked planned renovating it back to its former glory will cost, it is estimated, more than £25m. The new store will "conserve the model of retail store by departments" distributed across five floors. "The upper four floors are planned to be used for hotel services and offices." In a frozen scene from when the store was last open "black and White barbers chairs are still subtly leaned". "The ceilings and floors will be conserved...as well as the marbles, bevelled glass, and the covering of the impressive columns" . Within the article it also mentions how two doormen, one very tall and one very short would receive customers with an umbrella on rainy days and even the managers offices still have pictures hung on the walls of the celebrities of the time. This is such a fascinating insight to times long gone. With Internet shopping so prevalent this is perhaps indicative of an interesting cultural shift towards shopping habits -albeit locally - and maybe what customers actually want after all? Time will tell. However, as creatures of habit, and our love of nostalgia, perhaps (depending on which sources you read) 'Internet shopping only' customers may still not be in the majority for a little longer?

Images Copyright La Nacion