Fendi, Dubai

How do you feel about this scheme?  We felt that the product is sort of enclosed within a kind of three dimensional parentheses which highlights its importance.  Of course we also have the vertical lines which lead the eye up and down through the space.  Or, have these guys run out of ideas?  Who knows?  Anyway, a simple scheme either way and pleasantly produced.

Lanvin, Dubai

Bizarre is the only word to describe this scheme?  It is fun of course and one of the better schemes we have seen from this brand in a long time.  Half human, half packaging.  You really couldn't make this stuff up.   Great colours though and good to see some thought has gone into their presentation.

Laboutin, Dubai

A slightly odd scheme for a shoe brand although great fun nonetheless.  At Laboutin we were rather drawn to this little gem of bicycle, tricycles and tandem.  Simple stuff really and kind of Circus-like.  We weren't so sure about the shoes on the peddles though?  What you do think? 

Hermes, Dubai

We do love these big window spaces here in the Dubai Mall, although no doubt these are really hard work to manage and tonnes of time spent on implementation.  Here at Hermes, skiers appear to be flying through clouds rather than snow right in among these Silver birches.  OK, its a little unrealistic if we think too hard about it although it does actually work incredibly we we thought from a visual perspective?  

John Lobb, Dubai

Wow, what a great scheme here at John Lobb.  Men's shoes sadly are usually the poor relation of the products when it comes to presentation, but clearly not for much longer.  There is a John Lobb store in London although we have never seen such a great installation there as we have here.  Of course what is difficult to appreciate in a still image is that there is movement here as the hands emulate the craftsmanship and attention to detail that this product obviously has.  It is a little reminiscent of the 'Elves and the Shoemaker', but what the hell, it looks fantastic.

Scotch and Soda, Dubai

We have seen this scheme back in London on our travels and do love this kind of colour swatch effect that the guys have created here.  A very simple scheme and so easy to transport around the world yet has quite a lot of impact, don't you think?  A good example of the gravitational and radiation format of product handling dynamics.

Harvey Nichols, Dubai

Oh we don't know either and yes we love it too.  OK, well large format lettering is a cheap option to fill a massive space but, yes it does look great.  With such enormous window spaces we know how hard it is to fill these but if you happen to be here in the Mall of the Emirates do look at them from a distance as they do have enormous impact.  What more can we say about it?

Bloomingdales, Dubai

After a marathon flight courtesy of Emirates airlines, which incidentally is really very good if you have never flown with them before, we have finally landed in the gorgeous and welcomed warmth of Dubai.  Ahhhhh.  Well, first stop is the Dubai Mall which is still (we think) the worlds largest shopping mall?  It really is exhausting walking around here as it is so enormous but you know how much we suffer for our Art.  Here at Bloomingdale's they are asking us which side are you on?  No, not in the same way as 'Which side of the church are sat on?' or 'Which team do you play for?' if you get our drift, but 'Are you up town or down town?' (maybe that has slightly worse connotations?)  Here we have a largely stripey space separated by a 'glass' screen and in some places creating this faux perspective.  It does look great of course but then these guys clearly invest in their teams to produce such a quality output.

Carsch Haus, Dusseldorf

This is another department store which we could only skim passed as time hasn't allowed us to hang out here for very long but we did want to capture the zeitgeist of this city somehow.  OK, well we've seen the Butterflies glued to wall countless times before but we felt that at least they had made some effort here to create some interest.  What do you think?  Its quite cold here at the moment so tomorrow we are off to the warmer climate of the middle east.  It is winter there also but we have a feeling we will be like those lizards warming up on a rock somewhere trying to get some heat into our bones.

Golden Eyes. Dusseldorf

We thought that we would include this tiny little retailer called Golden Eyes Opticians as we really quite liked the repetition of these heads in so many different colours.  It is of course slightly creepy and perhaps a little 'Total Recall' but it is nonetheless great to see that even this store makes so much effort to show their wares. 

Jades, Dusseldorf

We were quite drawn to these windows as we saw them from a distance.  A very simple scheme using neon lighting in various hand gestures in front of which the product has been placed.  Sadly this is another one that we didn't have time to view in more detail but at least you get the giste of what they are about.

Apropos, Dusseldorf

On our very brief travels around Dusselfdorf we did manage to find this Uber cool boutique; Apropos.  Don't you just love these windows?  Rather similar in style to Bergdorfs we thought?  Anyway, showcasing there super new mannequin collection 'aloof' by Bonaveri, these ones have been covered in a mountain of different coloured birds.  Great collection and fantastic presentation here.

Peek and Cloppenburg, Dusseldorf

We included this brands store a while ago on a visit to Berlin.  We have to say that the windows actually always look great but the interiors are quite dull by comparison really and appear like large airline hangers.  Anyway, celebrating Berlin Fashion week Peek and Cloppenburg look cool, although the merchandise could have been rather more interesting, don't you think?