Anthropologie, London

As usual Anthroplogie, who continue to be one of favourites visually and we guess as part of the recent Campaign for Wool have installed this incredible scheme at their Regent st. store.  We're not quite sure that the bust forms that this brand use are actually right for this brand (ones with articulated arms would give this scheme added dynamism - although we have mentioned this before and it seems to fall on deaf ears.  Well, what do we know hey?)  Anyway, we will continue to share the love of the visuals we view here.

Desigual, London

How can just one window bring such viewing pleasure?  Desigual along Regent st. are rocking London right now with their tiny space - an oasis in a mass of mass produced schemes.  We weren't so sure of the graffiti strap line a the back of the scheme 'find your dream'.  If we were dreaming of a Giraffe with its head  through a wall...we really wouldn't want to dream any longer or look for it.  However, great fun as always.  We are seeing more and more abstract schemes happening at the moment.  COS in particular look incredible and we'll show you what they are doing sometime this week.  In the meantime we love what these guys are doing at this Desigual store.

Markets, Berlin

We're busy scouring for more delicious finds in the Berlin markets for clients right now.  We cant reveal exactly where we are, but rest assured more Silver, Pewter, ceramics, badges and brooches, and strangely, toys are some of the pieces we are seeing more and more of.  Gorgeous furniture, including these Chesterfields and library chairs, and bits of crystal chandeliers.  We're also seeing a lot of fur coats.  Not our thing but so interesting to see them in the markets, and it seems not everyone else's either.  That cant be a bad thing. 

Smythson, London

This seemed quite an odd scheme initially, particularly as the umbrellas rotate.  It has a Mary Poppins feel about this scheme, which they probably wont thank us for saying and while the coloured background is a gorgeous Purple, we love the lights, it seems to be missing something?  Ah yes, product.  Anyway, we are unable to say anything else about it as this is it.

Vogue Fashion's Night out, London

If you weren't in town last night then you missed the best night of the year here in London.  Naturally we cant be everywhere, however we made our way around town from Agent Provocateur and their gorgeous 'papped' lingerie wearing model, the latest and greatest from the students at the London College of Fashion and the amazing flexible factory at the Plaza.  You must go and visit this.  On to Louis Vuitton and, well wow.  Having jumped the queue we had photographs taken in their seaside 'like' photo-facades.  We continue to be huge fans and thank you to our contacts (you know who you are - you are fantastic).  DKNY had a NY taxi parked outside their store, Hermes had the most incredibly fun  Bangle Bowling.  We were very tempted to join in, but the queue was far to long, and Dior had a Dior clad London taxi stationed outside the store.  Mcqueen looked as incredible as ever and if we worked the floor hard enough we think we may have secured a significant amount of discount of Nicole Farhi.  Thank you so much to the lovely assistant in the new store at Nicole Farhi store along Conduit St. who is an absolute gem and we really enjoyed chatting to you in the menswear department.  If you could remember to destroy all the other completed applications for this massive discount we will of course be very grateful.  No pressure of course, but we know where you live and you have to sleep some time.  Just kidding, a wonderful evening.

Hackett, London

If you happen to be along Regent St. this week, do go and check out Hackett.  The use of cameras, lighting and these kinds of scenes are hot on trend right now around town.  These guys always hit it so right and clearly have their fingers on the pulse of the trends happening around town even while still at the subtle stage.  The dressing and presentation as always is beautifully produced and works so well with this brand.  The lights from the stores across the road unfortunately were so bright that our images just don't this scheme justice.

Bally, London

Through the magic of the Internet we are reporting both from London and Berlin.  Incredible, hey?  In the meantime checking out the latest scheme from Bally along Bond st.,.....where did that Summer go?  We are already, it seems, stocking up for an icy Winter and Bally are leading us there.  Of course, here we have these gorgeous bust forms from Proportion>London's Raw collection and these very convincing icy boxes within which the product is contained.  We are loving what these guys are doing here right now. Incredible quality, incredible luxury and seemingly effortlessly produced (we know these things take a huge amount of work to make these things look so effortless) store windows. 
We are not happy about the use of fur however.  Just telling it like it is.

Markets, Berlin

Further scouring of the markets here in Berlin revealed a huge amount of gramophones and music boxes.  This flea market situated next to the Berlin Ostbahnhof subway station was one we came across simply by travelling around.  How these trends may or may not filter through to retail environments we don't know.  However, there do seem to be rather a lot of them around being sold by individual stalls.  We also can across this replica Moaning Lisa.  A dreadful and very kitsch copy, however there is a concept here ready to explore.

Gant, London

We really like what the guys at Gant are doing based on their last several schemes.  These micro environments or tableaux create a whole new feel to the space within which they are contained.  If one steps back from these spaces which are actually placed within original Regency buildings, the schemes here so take us on a journey to a time and place beyond a Grey London.  We mentioned the tiny trophy skulls with horns in our earlier entry and here we can see a brilliant example of identifying trends in places such as the Berlin markets to implementation on the London and global high street. 

Markets, Berlin

We've been scouring the markets in Berlin this weekend in search of some of the latest trends and looking for inspiration for new concepts.  We're seeing a lot of toys, cameras, tiny mounted skulls with horns and tonnes of Silver and particularly Pewter.  There are of course the most delicious finds of original 1940's and 50's pieces of Bauhaus influenced tubular style furniture.  We only wish we could bring it all back, but part of the pleasure is just in the viewing.

Hugo Boss and Evelyn Brandt, Berlin

We mentioned about a week ago this scheme at Hugo Boss in London and that we are rather weary of seeing clocks used in window schemes displaying various time zones.  Here in Berlin we have the German version (as well as the stock Hugo Boss version that's gone global but not shown here).  It is interesting to see the localised version of this scheme, although it doesn't make it that more interesting.  Not 100m away from this scheme along the Friedrichstrasse is the Evelyn Brandt version.  OK, well Hugo Boss clearly have the massive budgets and this is probably a local brand, but what a copy hey?  Can you now understand why we are so tired of seeing the repetition of clocks in window schemes?  Everyone else is doing it too.

On the Streets, Berlin

We came across this in the foyer of a building here in Berlin..... don't know what this is..........but it looks interesting..!

On the Streets, Berlin

As in Rome, Berlin and to a certain extent in London we are seeing these padlocks appear attached to our famous bridges.  Where has this trend come from?   We found the below explanation at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/24/novel-lovers-padlocks-bridges-moccia

 'Federico Moccia's bestseller Ho Voglia di Te (I Want You) features a young couple attaching a lock to Rome's Milvian Bridge as a sign of eternal love.'

'The thousands of sweethearts who have decided to imitate this touching gesture are among the 2.5 million readers of the book, which charts the romantic entanglements of brooding young Romans who hang out in the upmarket streets of the Parioli district'.

'The 2006 book was a follow-up to Moccia's first blockbuster romance Tre Metri Sopra il Cielo (Three Metres Above the Sky), which bombed on its release in 1992, only to become a cult hit with Roman students 12 years later.'

'Tapping into the kind of tortured adolescent passion that has made the Twilight series so successful in the US and beyond, Moccia's career went stratospheric when Italian teen heartthrob Riccardo Scamarcio was cast to play the lead in the books' big- screen adaptations.'

'But not everyone is happy about this new fad, with Italian officials claiming that the love padlocks are damaging stonework, and daily newspaper La Repubblica calling the locks on the Rialto bridge in Venice "vulgar".'

"That seems really excessive," said Moccia. "If you go to Venice, you'll find that they have bigger things to worry about."