Stella McCartney, London

We really do crave to love this brand, but as always, it remains as dull as ever.  No personality and no 'apparent' effort.  Sadly a reflection of contemporary 'celebrity' name society where 'crap' (allegedly of course) really does always float to the top.  Whats that?.......Does no one ever sweep the floor anymore and earn their stripes?  Clearly no.

Re:So, Southampton, UK

Have you been to see Re:So yet?  This incredible temporary space is the brain child of Southampton Solent University's Fashion Management Programme.  This bespoke boutique is where punk collides with elegance in a unique collection of art, fashion and music.  The enterprising retail outlet has enabled students to explore the commercial side of their creativity and sell their original work at realistic, commercially viable prices.  The Re:So boutique is stocked with an eclectic mix of fashion, accessories, publications, furniture, photography and art created by students and recent graduates from the University.   There is also a space with an Art gallery and an area for educational projects, seminars and guest lectures to take place, and where creative industry professionals can meet and share ideas.  Who says its all happening in London, eh?  Go and check them out if you can or have a look at their fantastic site; Southampton is clearly rocking right now.  http://so-blog.tumblr.com/

Bernard Boutique, UK

Bernard Boutique opened its doors over thirty years ago.  This award winning store is one of Surrey's most important fashion destinations and has grown into three unique and contemporary connecting spaces. Owner- Buyer, Helene Rapaport curates the collection of pieces from some of fashion's most illustrious names such as Maison Martin Margiela, Acne, Givenchy, Carven, Vanessa Bruno, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney bringing stylish urban cool to Surrey. She is both brave and adventurous in her style and has created a sanctuary for directional women’s wear mixing international designer brands with exciting new young talent for a fresh and provocative point of view.  If you dont know them, then do check them out at www.bernardboutique.com  

Mulberry, London

Mulberry have been really rocking the out sized props recently at their  store along Bond Street here in London's Luxe Zone.  This scheme is in support of Tim Walker's new book Story Teller.  We haven't seen it yet, but we're sure if this brand is supporting it, it must be a corker.  Oh, just do a 'google' if you're not sure.

Armani, London

We really want to love these windows at Armani although we only really just quite like them.  We love the colours used here however which aren't really captured particularly well in our images, but they do actually look very good.  The rest of it of course is as dull as dish water but then that's mass globalisation for you.  We're just telling it like it is...........

Zara, London

Wow, have you seen the latest installation at Zara right now?  We love the use of these artists palettes at their Bond Street / Oxford street site. Another great scheme from this incredible brand.

H&M, London

We wouldn't like to say we told you so.........but there ya go......Polaroids are clearly on trend right now.  Here at H&M along Regent street, these guys have amazingly huge windows spaces with wonderfully dressed mannequins surrounded by hundreds (or thousands?) or Polaroids - and therefore in a repetition format.  We do like what H&M are doing at the moment, particularly at the flagships so we're  always swinging by to find out what they are up to.  Anyway, another little winner of a scheme we think.

Jaegar, London

 

We've been seeing an awful lot of Polaroids around town at the moment in all sorts of varieties.  Big one, small ones and some as big as your head (we seemed to have somehow slipped into the lyrics of the song I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts for some reason........?) Anyway, here at Jaegar, known for their Uber quality and historical longevity we have a perfectly produced installation advertising their Boutique.  Here also, incidentally they are celebrating wool week too.

G Star Raw, London

Wow, this is an interesting scheme at G-Star.  There appears to be a bit of a space theme going on around town right now, but this could be the Neil Armstrong legacy from a few months ago.  Anyway, how cool is G-star looking and we love it.  Do we really need to describe it?

American Apparel, London

We received quite a pleading e-mail message from this company quite a while ago requesting that we remove our comments on a previous installation as they found it so critical.  We duly did of course out of the kindness of our lil 'ole 'earts, although we didn't think it was that harsh.  However........ we were drawn into this store again because of the hilarity of its awfulness.  WTF is going on here?  We were rather compelled to unleash the Visual Merchandising beast;  while we know that the shop fit is dreadfully cheap anyway and that their standards are worse than any 'value' retailer surely for a global brand there would be some standards in place?  So come on guys, shape up, this undermines the integrity of our industry.

Desigual, London

Desigual just keep on amusing and entertaining us and we love it.  We're beginning to see more and more sophisticated technology being introduced into store windows and this is clearly the future and where things are headed.  Here we not only have movement but also sound being pumped from this scheme.  It wont be long before everything becomes virtual but in the meantime we can enjoy the visual merchandising skills being employed, not only to sell to us (which of course is the point) but entertain along the way.  Great stuff.

Topshop, London

The guys at Topshop always do such brilliant windows, don't you think?  Here we have a couple of images, one celebrating Wool Week in conjunction with the various other retailers around town but also their main Oxford Street windows (which we used to call window 9 back in the days that we spent in scorching heat dressing these ourselves - yes, just like a whole range of industry visual merchandisers, we worked here too, once).  But anyway, you've gotta love what these guys do and its no wonder there are queues out at the door almost daily.  Its fun, young and the envy of retailers around the globe.

Fenwicks, London

Wow, isn't Fenwicks looking incredibly cool....!  We pass this  store along Bond street almost daily and usually exhale a sigh of 'we-really-wish-this-prime-location-store-would-do-something-interesting'.  But wow, we love their current look and please, please, please keep this coming guys,  You look amazing, dynamic and we will keep coming back to see what you do next.  Fantastic.