Desigual, London

We absolutely love the Jubilee scheme at Desigual right now.  Superb.  It is a tricky one to capture because the vinyl completely covers the fenestration and therefore blurs the image.  Anyway, it doesn't really matter as the guys here have produced a wonderful scheme which is absolutely suited to the current occasion.  Even though its raining here in London right now this scheme really does lift our spirits and makes us feel all British.  Fantastic guys..!

Selfridges, London

If you want to bring a smile to your face and see retail store windows at their very best, then look no further than Selfridges here in London.  The current scheme celebrates the best, and pokes fun at the worst bits of British culture in the most hilarious way.  If you cant view all of these windows for yourself, this is such a shame as we are only able to share a glimpse with you here. 

Theatrical and fun, this scheme is pure brilliance and everyone is talking about them.  Happy Jubilee...!

Guess, London

We had no idea that 'Guess' were 30 years old already.  We're not massive believers in global branding ourselves (in case you hadn't 'Guess'ed') and so are not this brands' No.1 fan, nor fans of brands like it.  Large format graphics prevail, mediocre merchandise presented badly and VM teams who just don't understand how to group mannequins who incidently are in Rootstein's Body Gossip Collection stance (unless these are very clever references to the pending Olympics - or Miss. World, but we doubt it); but then how could one from a manual sent from a far away place?  Need we suffer bad retail much longer or will brands like this become part of our now quite extensive archives of the ways we used to shop?  Discuss....

French Connection, London

Well, hands up, how cool is French Connection looking?  We're still a little nervous about commenting on the 'Fashion' delivered by this brand as so many of you say to us that this brand produces the same 'ole stuff year after year.  However, while the brand campaign remains a little dubious and quite honestly a bit of an 'in joke' that no-one gets.......and no-one does?  do they?  The campaign is a little bit like Fine Art paintings of the 18th Century, i.e. only understood by the privileged few; No-one got it but it looked quite good and was so expensive so it must be good, right?  No.  In the meantime, these guys are clawing their way back to the high street yet home ware is looking actually very cool.  This is absolutely on trend, it looks hot and if we were working with this brand we would really push this rather than position this off the high street.  As we don't work for French Connection we can only stand from a wide perspective and watch with clenched buttocks at how these guys are paddling their way back to the surface to keep afloat.  We've really lost confidence in this brand unfortunately.  Home ware looks amazing;  can someone apply the same approach to the Fashion and get rid of this awful campaign?   We know you read these entries French Connection; We are the Bloggers, we are telling it like it is.

Graduate Fashion Shows, 2012

If you weren't at this graduate fashion show last night, where were you?  Students from Southampton Solent University (yeah, how amazing are these guys..!) showed their latest offering as part of 'Free Range' in this Uber cool area of Brick lane.  Presenting collections and utilising a range of fabric types (we particularly loved the laser cut wood accessories) they incorporated diverse themes from 'Immortality of Sentiment' to collections wonderfully named 'East meets West'. With a stunning show, it really does communicate how exciting things are outside of London. We only seem to leave London on a plane these days, probably just like so many other Londoners; so, it is refreshing to see Southampton firmly stamp their place on the Fashion scene.  These guys clearly worked incredibly hard to put this show together and it looks like Southampton grads. are truly rocking. 

You must also try and get yourself a copy of the publication 'Third Floor' too.  With contributions from the likes of David Downtown, Alex Knox, Rob Templeman, Terry Mansfield, Nikita Karizma......and well....ahem......Jonathan Baker. You simply must have a copy as part of your personal collection. Contact www.3rdfloorpublication.co.uk and order yourself a copy....do it right now.

Gant, London

With the Queen's Jubilee just a few days away, stores around town are nearly all sporting the Union flag (apart from a luxury brands who are clearly above all this malarkey).  Anyway, it all looks very patriotic and actually quite moving.  We don't remember an occasion that looked this involved.  Anyway, Gant has joined the celebrations also and looking very cool.  We love the Red, White and Blue street scene and the small showcase windows of course apply the usual dynamics.  Job well done we thought.

Anthropologie, London

We love the giant sunflowers at Anthropologie in their Regent St.'s store right now.  These guys are so incredibly creative and produce schemes which are just delicious, reusing, recycling and injecting masses of fun.  We could happily live in this store as it oozes the creativity we would love to see everywhere else on the high street, however the philosophy is quite unique with this brand and they always get it so wonderfully 'right'.  We are amazed that the brand is celebrating 60 years however as it is so vibrant and young but we know that they have the best people in place in order to maintain this.

Louis Vuitton, London

Louis Vuitton's new London scheme has arrived.....hurrah...!  Wow, well here you go, here's a snapshot from the amazing Maison along Bond st., and we have a scheme of levitating mannequins, spinning hoops and rabbits galore.  We love the gorgeous new colours of the luggage too;  we must have one.  We've been dying to see what the guys here would do next, trying on occasion to peer behind the blinds and here we have it,  Retail Store Windows at their very best. 

Asprey, London

New scheme coming from Asprey.......looking very exciting.  We cant wait to see the end result.

Market Day, London

This weekend we're searching and scouring for clients at the markets and looking for the latest finds and particularly the latest trends.  We've seen the chairs above at the coolest Cafes already in London and there are lots of these, so we're tempted to purchase a few of these ourselves.  We have also found tonnes of stuff that we will see on the high street over the next year from the reflective, shanty and just about every other trend.  If you want be at the forefront of it all, just get in contact.

Tods, London

Wow, we're loving Tods scheme right now.  These guys are going hell for leather with their recent schemes (no pun intended) and producing such wonderful quality installations which are also thoughtful, make sense, entertaining and still sell the product.  If you want to see 'how to do it' look at these guys right now.  All of the components of excellent Visual Merchandising are here together with the-massively-lacking-everywhere-else, a sense of humour.  Job well done we think.

Milan Trends 2012, SFD

Milan Trends 2012

 Current trends from Milan, 2012 courtesy of SFD.

Bombay High, Mumbai

Images Courtesy and Copyright Alokita Biswas

We have so few very good examples of store windows from India in our now enormous archive of images from the around the world so it was such a pleasure to see these little gems sent to us.  Clearly India is catching up to the rest of the world in visual presentation and actually this is a fantastic example of the theatre of Visual Merchandising which is better than most other places around the world that we have seen.  How exciting is this?  This beautifully produced scheme by Surreal Brand Solutions based in India is a clear indication that this country is rising rapidly within this area of design and that they really do understand the value of excellent quality presentation and how important it is to draw the customer in.  Anyway, if you want to see more of their work maybe check out their website at  www.letsgetsurreal.com