Zara, London

We adore the current scheme at Zara right now at their Bond St. store.  Its such a pleasure to see global brands going 'local' and supporting this creativity.  Mannequins sporting part 'hair' and part 'hundreds and thousands' (or sprinkles if you're reading stateside) and bowler style hats fashioned also from synthetic 'hair' styled to perfection.  Thanks guys at Zara; a great pleasure to view.

Puma, London

With a sea of Red placed everywhere around town right now it was refreshing to see something Red that isn't Sale.  OK, well, Puma are in Sale but look at the fascia here.  Using images of the old iconic London Red Telephone box in a repetition format, parts of the telephone boxes are in relief.  It really is great to see brands coming out of their window spaces and doing something albeit on a very small scale that we are so used to seeing in NYC and to a certain extent in Paris.

 

Accessorize, London

We are just about managing to squeeze out a little bit of Sunshine here in London in between the miserable rain showers, however, in the meantime these giant / out sized lollipops at Accessorize brought a huge smile to our faces.  Normally this brand have product stacked to the rafters so this is quite a refreshing change and as the stores are never large and therefore neither are the window spaces, the schemes are normally composed of something in cardboard technology.  While this is not necessarily a bad strategy, viewing these props is a very refreshing change

Fenwicks, London

We've been waiting for the new Victoria's Secret store to open along Bond street just to see what they will do with the old Pringle site.  We're sure it will be quite spectacular.  In the meantime, opposite Fenwicks drew us in; not because of the scheme - they don't do anything sadly - but the merchandise is quite incredible indeed.  Giant fruit and out sized exotic flowers are just some of the spectacle to be seen here.  For a series of windows that have no scheme, this proved to be quite a draw......well until Victoria's Secret opens opposite and then we'll just keep passing Fenwicks until they do something interesting again.

Selfridges, London

Wow, have been up to the new roof experience at Selfridges yet?  Crazy golf on the roof......bonkers..!   The roof top, Big top, afternoon tea party with London landmarks; the Gherkin, Tower Bridge and of course Big Ben in pastel hue's really do make this an incredibly fun scheme.  If you want to stay a little longer and have lunch, the food here is just incredible too.

Esprit, London

Well Hello Esprit..!  Have you seen the incredible new look store recently?  We've only just noticed that they have re-opened as we weren't included by their PR dept. announcing the re-opening; but that's another story.  In the meantime we are rather wowed with their first scheme here at their Regent street store and what a transformation.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that the schemes at this brand will continue to entertain us and draw us in, but in the meantime, fantastic.

Topshop, London

This scheme at Topshop's flagship store in Oxford Circus nearly escaped our VM radar and we probably just managed to capture this in time.  Everyone has suddenly jumped into Sale, right after the Jubilee week and we guess cashing in before the next launch; the Olympics.  This period is a little like that post Christmas but Pre-New Year feel about it, but anyway, the international flags are up on Regent st. with promotions galore gathering at a furious pace.

Cos, London

The schemes at Cos just get better and better, don't you think?  For such a big brand we love that they are tapping into references to the Bauhaus Exhibition at the Barbican in their recent installation.  This is an interesting move toward localised creativity and delivering to a local  market (OK, well this store is on Regent st. and so the market is, we guess, the tourist one) however as we become more and more visually fatigued looking at the same schemes at the same brands in countless cities across the world, surly this can only be a good thing?

Loft, London

Unfortunately we don't know anything about 'Loft' on Great Dover street, but we were drawn in to take a closer look by the Meccano Eiffel tower in the window.  The overall scheme is not the most inspiring but we do like this bit.

Asprey, London

We saw the guys (well the company they employed) installing this concept and we are loving this scheme.  This scheme crosses the boundaries between the Jubilee and beyond with references to royalty through the colour being projected and yet being generic enough to give this scheme longevity.  Now that's clever and we do like this thinking.

Tiffany, London

We're not entirely sure what to make of the new scheme at Tiffany right now.  Its not that we don't like it (and does that matter anyway?....no not at all).  However, what we do have is a very abstract concept in very reflective materials; actually a very architectural-looking scheme.  In fact it was very difficult not to capture ourselves in the reflection of this installation with its highly glossy and reflective surfaces.  We are guessing that this has gone global so it would be interesting to hear what you guys 'out there', 'elsewhere' or at least 'somewhere' think also?

Diesel, London

Further to the 'shanty' trend happening around town right now, we've recently spotted this great scheme at Diesel.  A little reminiscent of Amy Winehouse tattoos we thought and we rather like this look.  We were never huge fans of Winehouse ourselves however and actually left one of her first concerts in 2004 after just one song as it was so dreadful and never really understood the attraction to her music, however the scheme here just looks so good and we love it.

 

Smythson, London

The guys at Smythson are getting it all so right, right now.  We are quite critical of this brand as  we have seen some dreadful schemes, particularly for a brand that sells very expensive, and we are sure worth every penny, merchandise.  But, to entice us in?  Well, it really wasn't happening.  However, someone here has clearly now got their finger on the pulse and tapping into some of the key trends.  We adored the Jubilee scheme and this one with their links to jellyfishlamp.com just looks so good.  We're seeing references to the 'shanty' trend all around town right now; these things are so exciting to follow and to see how everyone is interpreting them is wonderful.  Fantastic guys, another little winner for the high street.