Prada, London

While flaneuring the city recently I happened upon these windows within the Bond St. site of Prada. Now, I did find myself questioning what was happening here? The simplicity of the scheme could be forgiven and I wasn't quite sure if something else was about to be unveiled behind these curtains. Unfortunately, time and the the appalling weather here in London have not enabled me to get back and have another look. However, what struck me here was that for such a premium brand I was quite stunned that they would use such a shabby looking material, whether this was temporary, or not. The material has not been ironed, in places it is rouched and the seams are very uneven. Maybe the concept has been unveiled since I took these images, but I would have thought that with the high cost of this product, surely one would use a beautiful and equally expensive material? Anyway, I guess stranger things happen.

Asprey, London

While meandering along Bond St. here in London on my way to Dover st. market, the scheme at Asprey caught my eye. Well, OK the truth of it is actually, I got a glimpse of the tree below. I managed to just about capture it through the glass and as you are able to see it really is quite magical. I was therefore just a little disappointed with the trees in the store windows which, well, dull by comparison. Now, I will be careful here as Big Brother informs me that Asprey have been reading my previous thoughts, although I wouldn't say anything mean anyway. However, of course, the scheme is produced to their usual exceptional standards and I do love the silver birch (?) logs in the windows, (which Hermes did last year and Anthropologie are also doing) but the trees just don't do anything for me. I think I was spoiled by seeing the interior installation first, who knows? Ultimately, the workmanship is superb, the ideas are there and they are always a pleasure to view.

Calvin Klein, London

Swinging by Regent St. the other day, (no pun or reference to the above image intended here) I came across this scheme from Calvin Klein. I seem to remember being rather bemused at the previous scheme (I think because of the very, very heterosexual overtones) and this really doesn't make things any clearer or defined. I am not sure where to go with this scheme as it is rather perhaps chaotic? For me at least it is reminiscent of my childhood and swinging on ropes around some place called 'scenic drive' and ultimately falling (I have the miserable photos to prove it too) Anyway, this scheme, at least to me is one of those buttock clenching 'gap fillers' produced when someone doesn't know where else to go. I am actually not sure if there is a creative team for this brand beyond the product? Anyway, this is a generic scheme and one can imagine the marketing office in their boardroom thinking, OK, well does anyone have any ideas what to do next. No. OK then lets just have a load of figures hanging from ropes. OK, that sounds good, lets do it. And here we have it. Perhaps another meddling marketing team non-concept? I will let you decide while I unfurl my toes. In the mean time, I am taking refuge and cleansing myself at Anthropologie just a few doors away seeing what delicious new ideas the team are working on.

Alexander McQueen, London

I've been following the schemes at McQueens for a long time now, and over the past several months the schemes have become ever more exciting. With experimentation, of course comes the danger of things falling apart. This is the excitement and why we do this stuff. Anyway, while meandering around town a couple of weeks ago in my Flaneur capacity I happened upon this latest scheme (well latest a few weeks ago). Now, I think I have mentioned before that it is quite incredibly difficult to work within the confines of this space, however the creative team have recently developed some rather exciting schemes which I have been gradually including. Anyway, I did gasp a little in finding this scheme and the site of the Fall of a Silent Seller. I always feel for the teams who install these schemes as this is always one of the worst things that can happen and I did feel a tinge a guilt photographing it although this is reality and no one is exempt, in fact this has happened to me too. Anyway, I think the reason I did record it was because of the quite surreal visual that was left. A Mannequin had fallen almost out of site leaving just her Designer hat and Designer two fingers. Thankfully there was no awful white price sticker on the bottom of her shoes - naturally. There is message in here somewhere.

Nicole Farhi, London

I do like land of the Giants 'stuff' in window schemes that dwarfs everything around it. I thought these rather outsized but perfectly formed snowballs here at Nicole Farhi along Bond street in London work very well indeed. The windows to this store are really quite small and therefore it is always quite surptising the type of schemes that the team here creates. There is very little to say about this scheme other than it contains outsized snowballs. However, its a simple concept, which allows the viewer to focus on the product and yet set a context in which the product is placed without fighting with it. Its fun, simple, and worth a view if you happen to be this part of town any time before the dreaded sale windows kick in.

Guess, London

When I come across these types of schemes on my travels I do tend to struggle to sometimes even describe them. Perhaps, this is because there simply is so little personality to these generic schemes, or perhaps my anti-globalisation hormones just kick in and simply prevent me from even wanting too, I just don't know. Anyway, as with so many of these 'types' of stores, while they provide a product for a certain and clearly defined target audience (and clearly not me) I do find myself sighing with boredom. Young figures dressed in as much product as possible placed in front of old style record sleeves and stood or sat on old style record cases with 'Holiday with Guess' written along the sides.

Now, Big Brother once again does inform me that the Guess team around the world have been checking me out so I shouldn't be too harsh. However, as I mentioned in another blog recently, all this stuff-out-of-the-manual is so incredibly flat and I am so bored with seeing it. Please can someone inject a bit of creativity into these schemes and give us something to be excited about. In the meantime, with regard to Holidaying with Guess.......I know where I will be....and .....well, I'm on my way to Anthropologie to be inspired and cleansed of the visual pollution on this High street.

Fortnum and Mason, London

I don't normally photograph these types of windows which can also be seen annually at Saks on 5th Avenue in New York only with moving figures. I do tend to give them a very wide berth. However, what I do like here is the fact that the team have taken a rather unconventional approach in using Mathew Bourne's Swan lake ballet as their inspiration. Now, I did mention in my last blog about this brand before this installation was complete that I suspected that that was the initial starting point. Ok, it is a little literal, however if you have seen Mathew Bourne's version which is pure brilliance, then I feel perhaps you also would also find a connection with this scheme. In Bourne's version all of the Swan's are played by males, the sets are superbly produced, lighting is dramatic and the spectacle is thrilling. As I said before this must be on your list of things to see before you die. Anyway, in the meantime while you are waiting for the production to hit town, go and see the windows at Fortnum's - beautiful.

Stella McCartney, London

A colleague of mine laughed recently when she read my previous entry about this brand. She did mention that I was ranting a little at the scheme that had been installed here. She was probably right, although it was not intentional but I did struggle to find anything constructive to say about it. Anyway, what I have noticed about the installations here is that they are all pitched at precisely the same level. This interests me. I am guessing that the same company or person is coming up with these 'ideas'. I am finding that I am padding out this entry as I don't wish to be derogatory as this is not what this blog is about, so hang on with me here. As I turned around the corner to see this installation, which incidentally covers the whole of the building and I did gasp a little and OMFG popped into my mind. You can view a short video of it on my YouTube site channel:Jhvefun. Having been, at least initially a little stunned at this spectacle as it reminded me of staying with friends in the Bronx in New York in the Winter of 1999 and someone had something similar, albeit on a smaller scale hanging outside their apartment. And theirs played Christmas carols too. Anyway, as the days got colder and the longer the lights were on the flatter the tunes that came from these lights became. Naturally this amused us enormously. Well, this scheme does what it does I suppose and I cant really say any more about it. You either love it or hate it. I know how I feel about it, and I bet it cost a fortune too.

Ralph Lauren, London

I am really struggling to be enthusiastic about this scheme. Now, please don't get me wrong, it is beautifully presented, it represents what this brand is about, but if you have just done a google search for Ralph Lauren window schemes or visual merchandising which I know a lot of you do, then the previous scheme will also come up. I mentioned in my last entry about these schemes that the multi-Yasmins do make me feel so uninspired. And here they are again. OK, so there are a few headless male figures in some of the windows which break up the monotony but do we really have to see her in every single scheme? Yasmin is a beautiful figure, but to use her in the same skin tone for every scheme really does upset me when there are countless figures that could be used. Figures can be rotated, so that one collection is being used in a current promotion while the other is being renovated with new wigs, skin tones and make-up - simple. Anyway, in the mean time I think I must put together a list or 10 Commandments of what not to do in installations for 2010. Of course the next scheme will be sale, however how much shall we bet that these will appear in the scheme after that....eh? If they dont...well......I guess I will have to eat my words.....but I bet you they wont change.......just watch this space.

Louis Vuitton, London

I am not quite sure what is going on with some of these designer brands this season with regard to their promotional schemes. I mentioned earlier this week the current scheme at Hermes which was similar to Valentino's in the Summer and Miu Miu using almost exactly the same scheme that Dior had used in its NYC windows in December 2008. Looking back through my archives the image above is the Sloane st. branch of this brand and below is the NYC scheme from December 2008. I am quite disappointed as I absolutely adore what this brand does visually and find them so inspirational but its beginning to feel like ground hog day, and that drives me to distraction. I did actually find this scheme exciting, but I found it exciting last year. The Bond st. branch of the brand does have a celebratory neon red cross on the typical brand logo leather type background celebrating 150 years of the British Red cross. A worthy cause I know but, although I am tired of all these anniversaries schemes we have seen this year. Anyway, back to my point. I don't know why these enormously expensive brands are repeating the same schemes? Maybe this global recession is hitting them hard too, although I would have thought that the type of clientele are usually immune to recessions, who knows. Anyway, I will let you draw your own conclusions.

Levi's, London

This another one of those brands that I rarely take notice of while out meandering through the city. The brand, at least for me, seems to go through peaks and troughs of being the place to be, have the stuff to wear and supported with an incredibly cutting edge brand campaign to fading away to nothing at all - yet still always there. Currently, I don't think I hear anything from this brand at all? I may be wrong and just anaesthetised. Anyway, Big Brother informs me that the boys and girls from Levi's San Fran head office have been dropping by and silently checking out the blog, so I must be nice here. I did actually record the previous scheme to this a few weeks ago which had a series of card board cut out figures and using the bust forms to carry the merchandise but I just got carried away with so many other fantastic schemes happening. Anyway, from time to time Levi's do install some interesting concepts even if it is out of a manual of 'how to'. This is a shame. If perhaps, and this is only a suggestion boys and girls in San Fran head office, if you have a look at the concepts that Diesel are doing or how they are working, i.e. stores seem to vary quite considerably in London as the creativity is rather more localised, then maybe, just maybe it will put the cool back into the brand again. I promise to feel inspired and excited too if you like, and be the first to tell everyone in here, out there, or at least somewhere about your new approach. So....go on...please....just give it a whirl.

Miu Miu, London

The Miu Miu store here in London is one of the places and brands that I don't have a huge amount of information about and although I photograph it quite frequently, there are few schemes that really draw my interest. I was drawn to this one, in particular as with the Hermes current scheme I had seen this or something like it before. In December 2008 I photographed a similar mannequin, again covered with mirrored mosaics and an angled backdrop at Dior in New York as part of their Christmas scheme (Image below) Of course the position of the figure is different although the basic concept is the same. Are these fabulously expensive brands recycling? Possibly not, and I doubt that they are sharing props either. This kind of thing does happen quite frequently as I do look and record images very regularly so I do make a point of remembering if I have seen something before. This does bother me as it is an example or proof that new ideas and concepts are just not being generated, nothing is being recorded (perhaps as it should) or people who create these schemes are just not aware of what anyone else is doing? Anyway, while I am not against the concept here (above), of course it is as usual produced so incredibly well. It is, however, the same old stuff presented to us as if we didn't know that it had all been done before, and that upsets me.

Hermes, London

Swinging by Bond st. here in London this week I came across the new scheme from Hermes. This is quite a difficult scheme to describe as a static image, however, to watch this scheme is incredibly mesmerising. Pieces of merchandise appear and disappear from behind an obscured, (possibly) perspex screen contained within illuminated boxes. One has to flick between the two images here to appreciate what I mean, however I have put a video of this on my YouTube channel: Jhvefun for you to fully understand what I mean. Of course, while this works incredibly well I did feel that I had seen this before? On further investigation through my archives I found that Valentino had already used somwthing very similar for a scheme in their store along Sloane st. just a few months ago in August this year. The spectacle here certainly has the tourists captivated but while I do think the execution is superb I am cynical when I see the same thing twice in two different brands. This is, I suppose the equivalent of turning up at a party wearing the same dress as someone else. Whether this is by default or by design I do feel, as I say quite often, that time spent looking at what every one else is doing is very much time well spent.