Burberry, Beijing

Wow, how cool is this Burberry store?  We came across this one, which is adjacent to the Sun Long Place Mall.  You can get an idea of how hot it is here as even our image appears bleached by the Sun.  The Chinese seem to love the presence of the Lux brands although there appear to be very few of them (the Chinese) wearing any of it.  Luxury brand stores are just about everywhere here and in virtually every mall but who's buying this stuff?   

Converse, Beijing

Its been proving a little tricky to take images here at the Joy Mall, but we've managed to take some quickies to share with you in between the thousands of shoppers.  At Converse, we love these paint rollers being used as display stands for their trainers (or sneakers if you're stateside), although they are clearly proving difficult to remain balanced as the rogue trainers would indicate.  The presentation isn't particularly well done, but the concept is here so they still get a few brownie points.

Kiton, Beijing

There are so many brands here in Beijing that we have never heard of that we are in shopping heaven.  OK, well they are not all the most innovative but surprisingly the Vietnamese brands that we are finding are looking particularly good and are very well presented.  We're not sure where this brand is from although we did like the out sized pencils and bizarrely a chair.  What's the connection between the props we hear you ask?  We have no idea.

H & M, London

Images Courtesy and Copyright Matt Banks

As we're doing the grand tour of China right now we aren't able to view these windows for ourselves, but thankfully the guys at H&M have kindly shared these with us.  How cool is this brand looking right now?  These are some of the best Olympic windows we've seen so far and clearly rocking London retail.  Mannequins on asymmetric bars is no easy task to produce but these guys have absolutely got it so right without the mannequins looking as if they have been hybridised, i.e. placed in positions that they aren't meant to be in which always looks so odd.  Do swing by and have a look at this brand right now as the installation was probably as tough as any Olympic sport itself; bring on the Gold medal for these guys.

Joy City, Beijing, China

We're not big fans of shopping malls, however, as it is so incredibly hot here in the heart of Beijing, we are rather thankful that shopping is actually in doors.  Here at Joy City, we're perusing the brands both international ones and lots that we have never heard of to hunt out the best bits.  Filled to the brim with the usual luxury stores and the global brands the malls here seem to get it right - well nearly.  We've also spotted some duff ones also.  Anyway, we will share the best bits shortly with you.

Beijing, China

Got an ugly hoarding to decorate?  Why not cover it in fake grass.  We spotted this on our way to the Joy Mall; naturally while in search of lots of Joy.  Beijing is proving to be a shopping mecca far too large to cover in the limited time that we have, however we are going to share some of the highlights of the incredible city with you.

Beijing, China

We are currently touring and viewing the sites and delights of China right now in order to bring you the latest and greatest from this incredible country.  We've realised news travels super fast here.....what an amazing welcome, eh?  We spotted this in the lift lobby at one of the malls.

Pull & Bear, London

If you happen to be along Oxford street then do cast a glance at Pull & Bear and their store towards the Oxford Circus part of the street.  This store underwent a 'enhancement' recently and we have been looking forward to popping by to take a closer look inside this store.  In the meantime, with no merchandise in this window scheme, this screams out and communicates the confidence of this brand.

 

H & M, London

........and...if one scheme wasn't enough, these guys have gone the extra mile and produced another scheme.  We are really warming to this brand and how they are working so hard to entertain, engage and produce yet another scheme based on the Olympics. We're wondering if their other stores have additional Olympic based schemes around town right now?

H & M, London

How cool are H&M looking right now?  This is such a clean and well reproduced scheme and once again absolutely on trend in celebrating the London Olympics.  We were wondering what these guys are doing wherever you are?  Is anyone else around the world implementing Olympic schemes or is it a 'party for one' here in London?

Gant, London

Picking up on the Olympic theme quite beautifully is Gant along Regent Street.  Strangely they do seem to produce a lot of locker room based themes, although they do do what they do actually very well.  With their repetition of these multicoloured oars (clearly references to rowing) we could help but want to share this one with you.

DKNY, London

The newly revamped DKNY store along Bond street here in London is looking pretty hot again, don't you think?  Whatever happened to this brand anyway?  They seemed to be so cool at the beginning of the noughties and then appeared to slip away and quietly died a slow and painful retail death.  But, anyway, here we have the newly refreshed store and great windows too.  We love the London skyline here and lets hope that these guys are able to claw their way back up the ladder to gain the status that they once had.  Else its 'sayonara bitches'. 

Church's, London

Wow, patriotic to the end...!  We're loving Church's shoes right now.