On the Streets, Paris

On the Streets, Paris

Why really?

Fauchon, Paris

We love Fauchon here in Paris.  Wow, wow and wow.  The product here is so incredibly delicious that we could help ourselves and just had to make a few purchases of the absolutely on trend Gold tinned tea and and wonderful chocolates.  With hints of neon Pink giving this store the most welcome glow in the freezing cold, we passed it...reversed and crossed the threshold...made a few delicious purchases.  Job well done Fauchon.  The windows have these suspended chef-like-hat structures with move up and down, revealing the product underneath.....a little bizarre, but it grabbed our attention.

Paule Ka, Paris

Paule Ka is one of those brand we always associate with rich bored wealthy middle aged females, don't you think?  Strangely, the brand seem to make their own links between Parisian design and Hollywood glamour so we guess they are pitched just right.  It is a clearly well established and obviously has a following wealthy enough to keep it producing although visually we would have like to have seen a little more effort employed.  We're not sure about these mannequins hairstyles either though.  What do you think?

Bon Marche, Paris

We haven't always warmed to BonMarche in the past, although we love the food department here.  Anyway, with their slightly bizarre video windows we just had to share this with you.  We've uploaded a video of this scheme on You tube to see what you think?   http://youtu.be/IQwzEoCS6mY

John Galliano, Paris

Isn't John Galliano's work quite brilliant?  Sadly with his recent...ish bad press, we find ourselves being ever more philosophical - we are all human after all.  Ultimately we want to view the work he does and what is presented without bias or kindrance or allegiance to anyone in particular.  We tell it like it is, sometimes to our own detriment, but we have to say how much we love this mans work.  There you go.  We love it.  John Galliano's work is absolutely incredible and we are standing up and saying it loud and clear and while we don't condone his drunken personal views, we are putting them aside and showing you what we see also.  We never cease to be amazed by this mans creativity, which always seems endless - we must never stamp on a creative mind.  

Joseph, Paris

Strips of corrugated cardboard painted in White emulsion, stood on end and gently placed and 'voila' (as they say in these parts) and one has a luxury brand scheme.  We would have expected to see something a bit more luxurious but well, this does actually work incredibly well.  Remember the Margiela schemes of painted stacked suitcases and trunks?  Proof in some way that one doesn't always need huge budgets to produce window schemes (although don't say we said so for goodness sake)  Having said that of course, the product itself and the brand name are synonymous with luxury so maybe they don't need all of the bells and whistles that usually go with it? 

Louis Vuitton, Paris

We drooled over this scheme at Louis Vuitton the other day.  As always, this brand is leading the way visually. The presentation is sharper than a razor the quality second to none.  These guys clearly have their fingers on the pulse of what is about to happen 'out there' (and possibly a crystal ball too?).  Anyway, if you want to see retail store windows at their very best, no expense spared and oozing  the quality that most of us can only ever hope for then look no further than LV.

Rodolphe Menudier, Paris

We don't know much about this brand unfortunately (and their website is all in French) and our 'franglais' is a little rusty so we've only been able to scan across their website to find out a little more.  But anyway, with our poor language translation abilities it appears that the product is worn by the models of Dior, Galliano, Lacroix, Rabanne.....and then something about Postmodernism and Neo-punk.  But anyway, we were drawn to this store as shoes are so incredibly difficult to make interesting through their presentation, however the visual team here have created beautiful stacks of these luxury shoes set against these ink printed backgrounds.  These are reminiscent of child-like projects of yesteryear, however we think you will agree that it just works so well?

Hermes, Paris

We do love the current scheme at Hermes right now.  Its seems from the outside looking in that this brand is following the example of LV across the road from here and injecting huge doses of humour into their schemes - and we love that.  Its freezing cold and wet here and this view is a welcome relief from it all.  Traditionally of course store windows' teams produced these kinds of schemes when all was created under the umbrella of window display.  So many 'old school' techniques appear to be lost with the use of the more contemporary term Visual Merchandising which is an incredible shame although it appears that this brand haven't lost it at all - thank goodness.

Lanvin, Paris

While we're not huge fans of this brand, as back in London the presentation is rather dubious, however,  the Paris store does actually look quite wonderful, don't you think?  With their wonderfully styled and sprayed to within an inch of thier lives wigs (ah well who cares about the ozone layer anyway?) these mannequins look quite superb.  There is clearly an underlying theme here which we haven't yet tuned into (but we will) although we did look on in awe at how well this scheme was produced, even in its simplicity and while the Parisian rain poured down on us in this freezing cold weather.  Anyway, if you're here in Paris do go and take a look at this little gem.

Prada 24 Hours Museum, Paris

If you are in Paris and missed this incredible event, then you really did miss a treat.  Situated in the Palais d'Iena, the 24 hours Museum was broken into three sections and inspired by three types of Museum, 'the historic, the temporary and the forgotten'.  The central space (above) contained the work of Francesco Vezzoli  and 'his personal tribute to femininity through the use of classical sculptures that make reference to contemporary divas placed on marble pedestals'.  This really was a stunning space and if you didn't see it on Tuesday and Wednesday this week then you've missed it.  However, we did make a couple of short videos to share with you which are also now on our YouTube channel.  The link here is a walk through the main neon lit metal cage. 

http://youtu.be/X4WBcTYdAU8

Karl Lagerfeld, Paris

We can hardly believe that we managed to get so close to Karl Lagerfeld, .....bizarre, eh?  Lagerfeld has just 'launched an on line fashion collection in conjunction with the London-based web retailer Net-a-Porter' and we were there.  How incredible.  We didn't expect to see this amazing designer so closely and as you can see from our images, it was quite a scrum but we got the 'money shots' that we wanted to share with you as well as the gorgeous giveaways.  We're in Paris right now to have a look at the latest and greatest in Design, the trends, the journey's and so on.  We have already spotted some amazing 'bits' which we will share over the next week or so.  Tomorrow...........Prada's 24 hour Museum..!  If you're not in Paris right now, you have already missed it.  However don't worry, we made a quick few videos and took lots of shots and will share with you very shortly.