Amouage, London

Amouage's flagship store along Lowndes st. here in London, has recently installed this incredible tree in its windows. I don't walk around this part of town very often (well rarely, if I'm honest with you). The SW1 area of London is not my normal stomping ground which is usually reserved for the Uber wealthy, so it was particularly a great treat to happen upon this store on my journey while flaneuring the city and taking a few welcome detours in order to vary what I present. I would recommend occasionally doing this too in order to find such hidden gems as Amouage. Amouage, "was created over a quarter of a century ago as a niche luxury brand" and "draws inspiration from its birthplace of the Sultanate of Oman". I actually hadn't realised just how big this company are - and so global too. Anyway, its transpires that this installation here was developed between the guys at http://www.ksht.co.uk/ and the clearly creative Director Christopher Chong, based on his collection which had been inspired by the 'tree of life'. The incedibly beautiful illustrations of Aurthur Rackham informed the look or this piece by designers Kathryn Scanlon and Howard Tong and created by Dallas and Angel at DnA factory (you must look at their amazing website). If you don't know KSHT, its OK. I only recently found them too. But now you know them you must take a look at their website and let yourself be amazed at the projects they have worked on. These guys have produced so much for the high street how did I not find them sooner? Anyway, you must check them out here at http://www.ksht.co.uk/ and add them into your book of must have contacts.

London Gay Pride Parade 2010

Some of the best places to find inspiration is on the 'street'. The London Gay Pride march through the heart London's West End and centre of shopping is just one of the events where the flamboyant, the daring, the caring, the carefree, the political, the loud, the proud, the quiet, the sporty, the old, the young (the list goes on) come together in an amazing choreography and spectacle almost too much to capture. Here are just some of the images from the day, many captured from my vantage point on a balcony over looking Oxford st. and some in the heart of Soho. If you were there too, hopefully some of these images will remind you of what you had forgotten although sadly images never really capture the atmosphere. If you are in the images, thank you for your wonderful creativity and inspiration.

Dunhill, London

Dunhill is one of those brands that I remember so well from the 70's growing up in suburbia, well the countryside actually. OK, if I'm honest, an 'interesting' 1960's council estate in the back of beyond which I am assured will one day be cool to admit. Still, this is not to say that it was unhappy growing up there, nothing could be further from the truth and I am actually thankful for that. "Ya know, it helps me keep it real an' all that". However, the reason I mention that context is that it didn't seem to matter where these tiny towns or places and spaces were, there always seemed to be a Dunhill on the high street. And, it was the kind of place my grandfathers would have shopped, it they had ever shopped at all. This I do doubt. These stores always seemed to have 19Th century shop fronts, the top part of the fenestration was always filled with stained glass, the kind that is Uber cool now for the likes of Anthroplogie et al and seemed to be crammed to the rafters with dusty merchandise and odd looking mannequins. Anyway, I was quite stunned to see this little gem adjacent to Fortnum and Mason just off Piccadilly here in London. My, how times have changed. This store actually looks so cool. OK, not cool as in 'cutting edge' but I am really quite wowed at how these guys have turned this brand around. Suitcases (covered in shiny Silver Vinyl) have been hung and opened as if pouring out the flawless merchandise. I really am surprised at this brand and I do hope that they will nudge a little further forward and continue with this creative streak. This is clearly quality menswear and I may just drop by and take a closer look. Am I turning into my grandfathers?

Anthropologie, London

Anthropologie as always, come up with the goods. Here in their windows along the iconic Kings Road in Chelsea is their much celebrated store (celebrated my me at least) is their latest installation. A boat has been suspended as above its moorings around which cardboard ripples have been placed. Such a simple concept, yet cleverly executed. Well done guys, its a pleasure to view.

Mary Portas presents prizes to students from the London College of Fashion

Pierre and Giles, Viktor and Rolf......you know the combination. Over the past several months, I have had the wonderful privilege of working with the VM design stars of tomorrow at the London College of Fashion. These two students pictured above are from Asia, both speak English as a second language, and both are pictured here with the Queen of VM and Retail Mary Portas with their Silver prize for the National VM awards and their avant-guard design. Both Tommy and Zero entered the VM awards and worked on a concept based in 2060 with references to the 1960's using an imaginary product - the dream pillow. They created a character called David (although, I must say, David looks rather spookily like me if I wore Silver make-up and a Silver suit and the guys do laugh a little knowingly at me when I mentioned this - although I would be hugely flattered if it were me of course). However, 'David' dreams of being a Rock star and the Dream pillow helps him to achieve this. Over the past few months it has been really exciting for myself and my colleague Sarah Bailey (pictured below) the Course Director of the Fda Fashion Retail Branding and Visual Merchandising course at the London College of Fashion to work with these guys. As you can see in the image above, there is already much media interest in these two guys, in fact, they have already been spotted and head hunted by a number of big companies. If you didn't meet them - this was your biggest missed opportunity of 2010. All I can say is................watch this space and you had better find out who their agents are.....soon..! Just remember, you saw it here first.

Prada, London

The other evening, with a lovely friend of mine who is very well respected in this industry, we flaneured around the city during a particularly warm evening here in London. As we turned around the corner from viewing the Paul Smith 'home' store and bumping into the American singer Kelis (yeah, I know..! - but forgive me for name dropping here) we happened upon the new concept at the Prada store. I think both of us gasped at this store in wonder and I certainly love this scheme. But then Prada usually do produce such extraordinary schemes and this one certainly looked dramatic during the dusky early London evening. The mannequins have been covered in the same camouflage design as the merchandise and backdrop. Perhaps the floor could have been covered too? But anyway, it looks dramatic and this is another scheme to go and see right now. It looks far better in real life.

Moschino, London

I could just eat this window. In the current melting heat of Central London this window couldn't be more appropriate. After months of a bitterly cold winter here in the city, we now have the other extreme and it really is scorching. I sound like I'm complaining, I'm not. Its just hard to work in this heat. Anyway, Moschino couldn't have got this window more 'right now' than this really is. This is a significant statement and communicates how cutting edge that they really can be. My only gripe, I suppose, is that the quality of the props are not up to their usually high standards. This is something that I would have expected this brand to get absolutely perfect and the 'finish' after all is as crucial as any of the other components that make up these schemes. I have heard quite a few industry leaders here in the UK mention this more and more recently. Still, from an aesthetic angle these props are great fun and worth checking out.

Mulberry, London

I do love these big glittery Cats at Mulberry, here in London. If I am honest I don't do glitter but this somehow works very well. The concept here is very interesting and there is a narrative to a point although I cant help feeling that there is something missing from this window? I feel that the Gold hoops with the handbags work well and perhaps the fact that the hoops for these lions to jump through are rather too small is incidental. Perhaps we need a bit move dynamism here and maybe these big Cats need collars or chains rather than 'roaming freely'? In New York in 2006, Cartier had something similar (although illuminated) crawling up the outside of their store on 5Th Avenue. Although I don't advocate plagiarism perhaps this is another missed opportunity that could have been explored?

Architects build small spaces, V&A, London

Dotted around the Victoria and Albert Museum right now are a series of small spaces, refuges and retreats. I cant help but love these spaces and consider how we could use some of these concepts within a commercial or retail context. "Small spaces such as these can push the boundaries and possibilities of creative practice. A shift in scale towards smaller, bespoke structures encourages a heightened sensitivity to materials, texture and proportion. A renewed clarity emerges allowing architects freedom of expression that often struggles to survive in larger building projects". These spaces are potentially a great starting point from where we can begin thinking about our own commercial spaces. I'm not suggesting of course that we take 'pieces' like this and simply placing them within a commercial environment. This kind of 'pick up and drop' is endemic in retail. However, what I am suggesting is that these beautifully design spaces can be used as inspiration in the development of retail concepts and thus avoid the 'White boxes' that we are expected to accept for most of our retail experiences. What do you think?

Levis, London

Don't you just love this store? OK, well I'm not personally over excited about the brand or in fact the merchandise but this store is simply delicious. This site really does go from strength to strength. It may be that as it is a newly revamped store it perhaps has been given a larger budget and I guess it is a flagship store after all. From my experience, these kind of stores get all of the attention for the first several months in order to launch them and then the focus strays elsewhere, malaise appears to set in and then the marketing budget simply drops away or goes elsewhere. The Marketing budget leaving is fine, the VM budget leaving is not. Still, enjoy it while you can. The repetition of these templates / patterns / slopers or blocks, depending on what you want to call them work particularly well in this warehouse style environment. Ebenezer Butterick and James McCall would be proud.

Fortnum and Mason, London

If anyone can handle merchandise and present a perfect finish ( and I say this globally) it is the team here at Fortnum and Mason, London. They don't change their windows as often I would like personally (but that's only because I am impatient and excited and want to see what they do next). However, when they do change their schemes, they really do, do it exceptionally well. This kind of product is very difficult to handle convincingly but this creative team make it look so effortless. Its not effortless. In discussion with colleagues within this industry I've been looking more and more recently at the finishing around the presentation, as much as the presentation itself and whether it has a narrative, or message of some kind, and whether I understand what and why something has been placed where it has. I do attempt to deconstruct and unravel what has been produced and presented to begin to understand if anything is being communicated. As I travel around the world and friends share their images, I cannot think of a single competitor (from a visual perspective) globally who even come close to these guys with this type of product. OK, well Fortnum's is, I guess, essentially a grocers or supermarket to some degree, but if your grocers looked like this, wouldnt you spend all of your time there? I would. This is the standard we all need to aspire too and the benchmark from where we need to begin with regard to this type of product. Thank you F&M.

Maison Martin Margiela Exhibition, London

Simply delicious is the only way to describe the exhibition of Maison Martin Margiela at Somerset House here in London. If you haven't been yet, its open tonight until 8.00pm so there really is no excuse. This is simply the must see show to see this Summer. The emotional response to this exhibition I can only liken to the Viktor and Rolf exhibition at the Barbican a couple of years ago - extraordinary, cleansing, inspiring, and where we need to be. This exhibition "pays tribute to 20 years [of Margiela] and salutes one of the world's most influential fashion houses". Even from the entrance along the embankment, trees are wrapped in White fabric, a caravan complete with plasma screen showing excerpts from Maison Martin's show play on a loop and images of work are fly posted on the entrance. I could hardly drag myself to leave this exhibition and I am certainly going to make another visit. Simply the hottest thing in London right now, if only life was like this every day. I wont give too much away, just go and see it. I am in awe.

Cos, London

The third scheme as part of the London Festival of Architecture can be seen at Cos, along Regent street. The decal reads "Because we like the same things we thought it would be fun for Spacelab who are great at Architecture to design the window for us". I am not sure 'fun' is the word I would use, 'interesting' perhaps, and there is no doubt that Spacelab do create, actually incredible Architecture. I am, of course pleased to see another interesting collaboration happening here and that retailers are yet again utilising 'localised' creativity. These collaborations of course are incredibly important for several reasons. Localised Architects / Designers have the opportunity to work with retailers on projects that they wouldn't normally work on and this in turn breathes new life and creativity back into the stores and store windows. Companies or individuals who would not normally work in this area are being encouraged to do so and therefore enhance the differentiation of their visual offer rather than retailers continuing along the lines of 'bland branding'. We may, just may then finally see an end to the dreadful corporate look of globalisation and over zealous marketing that plagues and pollutes so many of our cities stores worldwide. I would however suggest that when these projects do happen, and of course they are fantastic, that the Visual Merchandisers / Display crew need to be included too. What is missing here are the nuances that these guys would have 'picked up'........for example there is no product, humour, interest, aspiration, desirability, or combination of any of these or. a real understanding of the lack of them either and therefore what we are left with are simply the Architects concept and we as shoppers also are a little more savvy.