Marina Rinaldi, London

Apparently, 'Colour Blocking will be the major trend for SS12'.  According to Marina Rinaldi's site, 'a rainbow of colours, chromatic contrasts and unique combinations of shades will overwhelm us making this season even funnier and brighter'.  Yep, we're laughing as we type.  Anyway, that said, we do actually like the dynamic strength of this scheme as the monochromatic tones do create a powerful image.  We could do without the marketing malarkey however although we are following her instructions and working on becoming 'the woman who adores playing with contrasts which become distinguishing traits of her personality'.   Heheheheheh, you really couldn't make this stuff up, eh?

Alexander McQueen, London

We had to start the week with this incredible scheme at McQueen (apologies for the dreadful and unintentional rhyming).  Anyway, how wonderful is the merchandise here?  Just delicious.  We would possibly have had a scheme with a lot more detail and possibly some kind of narrative if Laurent was still here (please come back to London?) but still, the merchandise is amazing at least and we will just have to accept the large format graphic images that support it.

Banana Republic, London

One week later............clocks still there then.........

Miu Miu, London

We are really trying to love what this brand do, but, unfortunately big bling just doesnt float our boat and therefore we only just quite like it.  However, does that matter?  Well, no, it doesnt.  Anyway, with their big bling attitude these guys are bringing and blinging their way from the high street.  Go and take a look and see what you think?

Jack Wills, London

We haven't always said kind things about this brand, and well, they did appear, at least from the out side looking in to have no clear direction - fair enough?  However, we are gradually warming to what they are doing and they clearly have their fingers on the pulse of the latest trends.  Here we have the 'Art' trend that we have seen from some of the luxury brands in New York, such as Fendi, filtering further down the high street to the multiples.  We still prefer Anthropologie's version, however these guys are looking rather cool, don't you think?

Moschino, London

It was a genuinely wonderful surprise to see this scheme at Moschino recently.  This brand, at least at its London store, tend to use a lot of out-sized props in this gorgeous space.  We're not always fans of what they do, however, hands up, the props here are superbly produced.....the detail is fantastic and our mouths watered at this sight.  How cool do these guys look, hey?

Oasis, London

How cool is Oasis looking right now?  We've been following their recent schemes as they really are doing some fun stuff.  In conjunction with our gorgeous friends at SFD, the team here have produced this incredible London Fashion week scheme.  These rotating mannequins dressed in their latest cool merchandise move as if appearing from a giant cuckoo clock, complete with winding keys.  The colours and tones, the movement and the various layers, from vinyl graphics to the life-sized cuckoo clock structure create a really fun scheme and we are so incredibly excited that this brand are rocketting from the retail background once again.  Watch this space we guess......

Jaegar, London

We rarely include Jaegar on this site, however their London Fashion week scheme is so incredibly on trend that it is wonderfully painful.  We love the 'wired' look that we've seen around the world recently both in product, in windows and interiors.  Anyway, we thought we would share out delight that this brand have done something so delicious that we had to include them again.

Banana Republic, London

Oh VM gawd help us....not the repetition of clocks......again?????  How may times do we need to see this on the high street...like we've-never-seen-that-one-before?  Strangely we really do like what this brand do and the team are clearly more than able to produce quality schemes, so we suspect this is one of those global-head-office-completely-out-of-touch-with-what-is-happening-anywhere-else kinda schemes?  The out-sized angle poise lamps look great (although Harvey Niks did the cut out malarkey a few years ago).  Cu'mon guys....your implementation is superb but the concepts are dated, done before countless times and we're bored, bored, bored with the same stuff dredged up time and time again.  If we say nothing, then we accept everything as it is...and that's just not right, is it?  Follow your own strap line.....'work different'??

Cheap Monday, London

We havent received our invitation to the opening of this store yet......we expect its in the mail, although we already have one of their cloth bags that they tied to the tree surrounds on Carnaby street and had a sneaky view inside of their 'wired' interior.  It does look cool so we are quite excited to see the finished product anyway.  Subtle?

Selfridges, London

Have you seen Selfridges latest scheme yet?  We saw it a while ago but have only now had the chance to  show you here.  Anyway, do take a look.  The night we checked it out some of the windows were in darkness so quite hard to record, however, this is abstraction at its best.  With its Bright Young Things installations this brand continues to support the latest and greatest - pure benevolence or marketing malarkey? who knows?  Anyway, someone is doing it and that has to be applauded, right?

Pink, London

With their out sized illuminated lettering, we could agree more with Pink's statement.  This is another trend that we've seen appearing on the high street across the world, so clearly these guys have their fingers on the pulse of it all. Debenhams and House of Fraser have recently used out sized lettering and / print blocks as have a number of other brands such as Upla in Paris and we also saw this at Pret-a-porter.  Well done guys.....this looks really cool.

Zara, London

We've included the new scheme at Zara for a few reasons.  Firstly it is of course enormous fun, but also as we've seen an increasing trend to using Clouds in schemes - yes clouds.  Anyway, from the current scheme at Harvey Niks in Dubai, the Apple store along Regent st. here in London, J.P Metal America and Le Bon Marche in Paris we've seen this trend bubbling up around the world.  It may only be an emerging trend and completely coincidental although interesting that very unconnected brands around the world are picking up on this nonetheless.