FREE COMPETITION from www.woodwatches.com

We’re very excited to collaborate with the fantastic guys at www.woodwatches.com in bringing you the opportunity to win one of their fantastic Jord products.  We have ours already and they really are beautifully made pieces.  In order to win one of these little beauties all you have to do is answer a few simple questions from our Book Visual Merchandising for Fashion.  Copies are available via the link here on Amazon and you could also win one of these gorgeous watches worth $129..!

So get thinking and send your answers to us no later than Friday 11th April 12.00pm GMT.

Ok, the questions:

1.       Which two famous actresses appear in our book Visual Merchandising for Fashion?

2.       Name one of the 25 Visual themes mentioned in our book.

3.       Which main product do Proportion>London design and produce?

Please send your answers to london@hotmail.com with the headline Watch Competition.  The first entry randomly picked from all of the winning answers will receive their fabulous new watch.  

In the meantime, just check out their site..!

Terms and Conditions

• Closing Date for entries is 12.00 GMT 11th April 2014.
• Only one (1) entry per person.
• www.retailstorewindows.com  reserves the right, in its sole discretion and without prior notice, to withdraw, cancel, suspend or modify the terms of the offer.
• By entering this competition, personal information of registrants will not be sold to a third party.
• Anonymous registrants will not be eligible for the offer.
• The winner will be selected at random within fourteen (14) days of the competition closing date and contacted via the email address provided at the time of entry by a member of the retailstorewindows team to redeem their code.
• Prize must be claimed within ninety (90) days of issue or will become invalid.
• No purchase necessary.
• The prize is non-transferable and no cash alternative is available. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Ralph Lauren, London

We have a feeling that the guys at Ralph Lauren like a bit of drama in their schemes and just look at this little gem.  Huge panels of White flowers (repetition of radiating forms etc.) and mannequins with long White wigs set against a glossy Black background.  Whats not to love about the effortless simplicity of this dramatic scheme.

Check out our fantastic sponsors below for incredible Visual Merchandising solutions or click on the banners on the side of the main page at www.retailstorewindows.com

Fenwick. London

Well thankfully the clocks have gone forward here in the UK so now the evenings are a lot lighter and Spring is well and truly here.  Fenwick, as we have seen over the last year have sky rocketed back onto the VM scene with their super cool schemes in their enormous windows and how thankful we are to them too.  Right now, giant flowers, butterflies and picket fences support their gorgeous products.

Check out our fantastic sponsors below for incredible Visual Merchandising solutions or click on the banners on the side of the main page at www.retailstorewindows.com

Liberty, London

Word-up?  Someone here obviously remembers the 80's and a certain shiny Red jockstrap we reckon?  We cant help but smile to ourselves when we see these windows at Liberty with their puzzle games and luxury fashion.  You've got to love the humour that these guys put into their schemes which has sadly been missing from so many retailers windows for so long.  Brilliant bit of 'old skool' Liberty..!

Check out our fantastic sponsors below for incredible Visual Merchandising solutions or click on the banners on the side of the main page at www.retailstorewindows.com

Hermes, London

We've been trying for some time to work out how we are going to describe this scene here at Hermes.  Its a kind of miniature fantasy land wouldn't you say?  We love what this brand do of course and the props here are so superbly manufactured but we are just not sure what the narrative is?  Can anyone help?

Check out our fantastic sponsors below for incredible Visual Merchandising solutions or click on the banners on the side of the main page at www.retailstorewindows.com.  Don't forget to register for the VM & Display show.

JD Sports, London

WTF, JD Sports on retailstorewindows.com we hear you scream?  Well, yes, and we wouldn't have believed it either not so long ago as there was never a reason to include them, well not a good reason at least and no time anyway in between book launches, trips to Paris, having our legs waxed by Asad at Bushwackers aka House of Pain and Torture, but that's another story.  Well, just look at them now (JD not our legs).  We did actually happen to see the clearly talented Sam Cox produce this installation although we were quite far away so it was difficult to capture them at the time and cheer him on.  However, the information on the window reads that Cox's Art is psychedelic and playful and that he has progressed from drawing on his parents furniture and walls and onto large scale commissions....such as this we guess.  Anyway, maybe if the guys from JD had 'bigged' this up a little more then we all could have ooohd and arred at  the work of this clearly talented young man a lot sooner.

Check out our fantastic sponsors below for incredible Visual Merchandising solutions or click on the banners on the side of the main page at www.retailstorewindows.com

Esprit, London

We're loving the innovative use of graphics here at Esprit right now.  Graphics usually of course they are an easy way of producing anything or nothing innovative but these guys have gripped that little puppy by the throat and looks like shredding and mood boards are in (remember the fantastic ones at Hackett we showed you recently?)  And how cool does the above image look?  We adore it of course but maybe it could have been much bigger and screamed at us rather more as these windows are huge spaces but it is a pleasure to view nonetheless.  Naturally we captured this at night time when all is still and quiet but we must swing by when the store is open to see the movement that must be happening with this installation.  Does it move?

Check out our fantastic sponsors below for incredible Visual Merchandising solutions or click on the banners on the side of the main page at www.retailstorewindows.com

Lagerfeld, London

While we've been away the fantastic new Lagerfeld store has opened here in sunny and warm London.  Unfortunately we missed the grand opening (not that we were invited of course) but would have gone along to take a peak sooner if we had known.  Anyway, we do love this scheme created from hundreds of perfume bottles behind which is a video screen creating a wonderful sense of movement.  The outline of the man himself of course has been produced using Black versions of the bottles.  All beautifully produced as one would expect. 

Check out our fantastic sponsors below for incredible Visual Merchandising solutions or click on the banners on the side of the main page at www.retailstorewindows.com

Miu Miu, Paris

Looking ever so slightly like the Prada stores with their mirrored horizontal lines Miu Miu are rocking these wonderful vertical wallpapered backdrops right now.  The pleasure of course is that this scheme is very different from its sister store back in London.  It was difficult to capture these as we were in a rush to catch the Eurostar back to London but you can at least get the gist of it.

Check out our fantastic sponsors below for incredible Visual Merchandising solutions or click on the banners on the side of the main page at www.retailstorewindows.com

Printemps, Paris

In our penultimate entry on Paris before we head back to good old Blighty, naturally we have to include the monolithic Printemps before we go.  This isn't the most revolutionary scheme we've seen here although it has been superbly produced.  There is a very large run of windows so not the easiest place to manage although our feeling is, well, how many giant pages can we possibly look at?  That said of course, this has been beautifully produced and does what it does very well.

Check out our fantastic sponsors below for incredible Visual Merchandising solutions or click on the banners on the side of the main page at www.retailstorewindows.com

Cosmoparis, Paris

This isn't our favourite scheme here in Paris but we felt it was worthy of inclusion nonetheless as we do like the use of the Gold and the neon lighting.  OK, well the product looks like its all fallen out with each other and clearly never going to speak again but Gold does communicate that feminine 'feel' when displaying product, don't you think?

Check out our fantastic sponsors below for incredible Visual Merchandising solutions or click on the banners on the side of the main page at www.retailstorewindows.com

Louise Della, Paris

We didn't know this store at all here in St. Germain until now.  What is so refreshing about these independent boutiques is their wonderful seemingly carefree creativity.  Just look at these fantastic figures used as props to show the product.  Now you wouldn't see this down at your local Zara, Guess, Massimo....oh the list goes on really,  invariably no.

Check out our fantastic sponsors below for incredible Visual Merchandising solutions or click on the banners on the side of the main page at www.retailstorewindows.com

Jean-Paul Lespagnard Installation, Galleries Lafayette, Paris

If you didn't have the opportunity to see this Jean-Paul Lespagnard installation recently, here's a snapshot for you.  Unfortunately we only have room to show you a tiny snippet of it but to give you an overview but if you experienced Gaga's workshop at Barneys a little while ago then this is very similar.  We are not sure that we are going to be enormous fans of this work, well scenic photographs of a middle aged looking man in a swimming costume with fake bee wings doesn't really float our boat but the journey that was presented was actually fascinating.  Below are these funfair-style cutouts, you know the ones where you poke your face through?  Not really revolutionary but good fun nonetheless.      

Check out our fantastic sponsors below for incredible Visual Merchandising solutions or click on the banners on the side of the main page at www.retailstorewindows.com