G Star Raw, London

Wow, this is an interesting scheme at G-Star.  There appears to be a bit of a space theme going on around town right now, but this could be the Neil Armstrong legacy from a few months ago.  Anyway, how cool is G-star looking and we love it.  Do we really need to describe it?

American Apparel, London

We received quite a pleading e-mail message from this company quite a while ago requesting that we remove our comments on a previous installation as they found it so critical.  We duly did of course out of the kindness of our lil 'ole 'earts, although we didn't think it was that harsh.  However........ we were drawn into this store again because of the hilarity of its awfulness.  WTF is going on here?  We were rather compelled to unleash the Visual Merchandising beast;  while we know that the shop fit is dreadfully cheap anyway and that their standards are worse than any 'value' retailer surely for a global brand there would be some standards in place?  So come on guys, shape up, this undermines the integrity of our industry.

Desigual, London

Desigual just keep on amusing and entertaining us and we love it.  We're beginning to see more and more sophisticated technology being introduced into store windows and this is clearly the future and where things are headed.  Here we not only have movement but also sound being pumped from this scheme.  It wont be long before everything becomes virtual but in the meantime we can enjoy the visual merchandising skills being employed, not only to sell to us (which of course is the point) but entertain along the way.  Great stuff.

Topshop, London

The guys at Topshop always do such brilliant windows, don't you think?  Here we have a couple of images, one celebrating Wool Week in conjunction with the various other retailers around town but also their main Oxford Street windows (which we used to call window 9 back in the days that we spent in scorching heat dressing these ourselves - yes, just like a whole range of industry visual merchandisers, we worked here too, once).  But anyway, you've gotta love what these guys do and its no wonder there are queues out at the door almost daily.  Its fun, young and the envy of retailers around the globe.

Fenwicks, London

Wow, isn't Fenwicks looking incredibly cool....!  We pass this  store along Bond street almost daily and usually exhale a sigh of 'we-really-wish-this-prime-location-store-would-do-something-interesting'.  But wow, we love their current look and please, please, please keep this coming guys,  You look amazing, dynamic and we will keep coming back to see what you do next.  Fantastic.

Tory Burch, London

The brand Tory Burch sadly don't really do anything revolutionary although what they do produce is of excellent quality of course.  The only thing that drew us in here was their interesting background.  We do like a bit of laser cutting.

Burberry, London

With the new Burberry store opening just a few 100 metres away from this Bond street site, its been interesting to watch what this store are doing.  We've honed in on a tiny detail here; the watches on these tripod stands.  We love this spinning merchandise with their magnifying glasses which add an interesting movement to this installation.  It would be great to see more though, beyond the Black and Beige?

Hobbs, London

 

We rarely include the brand Hobbs on this site and this is a shame.  We really  want this brand to look good but we always struggle to say something nice about them.  The lighting here is cheap, yet expensive to run and bleaches everything; the scheme we've also already seen at Prada, Banana and Primark approximately two years ago.   Sigh.  Clearly the brand are spending the least possible on their Visual Merchandising even on their flagship store along Regent Street.  Some re-alignment of funds would do this brand a massive favour.

  

Hackett, London

 

We do love what Hackett produce as there is a certain quality here that we don't often see in menswear presentations.  The tiniest details are always considered, beautiful product presentation and all round good fun.  Menswear is so difficult to get right.  Borderline camp and flamboyant and it alienates a majority of customers, too straight-laced and we're all bored to tears.  Striking just in between takes a lot of thought and these guys just do it so well, don't you think?

 

Kangan Institute, Australia

Its not often that we include entries from our friends in Australia.  We want to celebrate what our fantastic colleagues and in particular, their students are doing on the other side of the world from us and we are enormously grateful to our wonderful friend Ron Watkins for sharing this. 

Just to set the scene.......and Ron wont thank me for saying this.......but both he and I have waxed lyrical for many hours over far too many beverages (possibly tea and coffee) in countries alien to us both while putting the Visual Merchandising world to rights........and then forgetting the whole thing until the next time (but we know you wont tell anyone....will you?).  What is important here is the friendship, the networks being knitted together and the connections being made and this is proving life long; these have stretched across the globe and the years and made it ever smaller and the network ever better.  Why is this kind of journey always frowned upon?  Isn't it so interesting that we in our industry, wherever we are in the world seem to gravitate towards each other and just make things work against all the odds?  Our fantastic and sadly missed friend Professor Knoth from LIM in NYC and us used to laugh, banter and mind storm so many ideas  on a daily basis via e-mail and skype even with the enormous time delay between London and New York that we could never resist saying no to a new idea or concept that he threw our way; we were compelled; it is just a terrible shame that he is no longer with us.  Part of his legacy was giving us the manuscript of his book about the legendary (display artist) Visual Merchandiser Lester Gaba and his constant companion the plaster mannequin Cynthia (who he took to the cinema and theatre and on bus rides around New York, then at the end of the evening wrapped her up in a velvet bag until she......well, the first bit is funny and then it becomes a smidgen bit creepy....however our lips are sealed) 
 

 

 

Anyway, the realisation has just struck us that we may now have to make a fly-on-the-wall documentary about how we came to have the manuscript and then complete it. Possibly narrated by Sue Johnston or Kathy's Burke or Tyson? Or, whats-her-face who used to be in Neighbours? Of course we wouldn't possibly want to put that 'out there' would we? And suggest a lucrative TV contract? Possibly Hollywood?

But, anyway, we need to celebrate the here and now, and in particular the future, so....how cool are these guys? These amazing students from the Kangan Institute in Australia have created this fantastic installation. The time-lapse video is brilliant.......just watch and be amazed at the future Visual Merchandisers from the other side of the world (from us at least) who may be closer to you than you realise very soon......just watch this space.........Australian Visual Merchandising is clearly rocking and we love it...!  Well done guys and thank you for sharing this.  One day we will swing by your institute and share the London Love.....;o) 

Cos, London

We've been following Cos for a while now and we are rather impressed with their gradual creative development.  The reason for this is that this is such a difficult brand to work with as it really didn't have a personality at all.  We don't think that the brand will mind us saying this but if there was a personality going, they would have had it.  Its been like one of those distant cousins from Zara or Desigual.  The cousins have been trawling the West End theatres and poor old Cos has been treading the boards in Suburbia.  However, bit by bit this brand is glowing bigger and brighter and we love where they are coming from.  The big stars have had their day and this one is polishing itself for bigger and better things.  In the meantime.....un-subscribe it you want to because we're just telling it like it is and it costs you nothing - value indeed.

Tods, London

Wow, we love the luxury of the latest Tods scheme.  We don't often find mannequins in their schemes so this is quite unusual and this kind of 'bar' scheme oozes quality, don't you think?  The use of the copper leaf wall and copper finished stools are also just delicious. 

Moschino, London

There is a certain talent in being able to produce such unashamedly vulgar work, don't you think?  We are always stunned by what the team at Moschino produces and while we love the out sized stuff, the quality is not always here and more often than not we are left quite staggered that a brand would do this to itself.  Still, it clearly works for this brand and they're obviously not going to change any day soon, but we are always left with the feeling of wtf?

http://www.retailstorewindows.com