T.M. Lewin, London

Images Courtesy and Copyright T.M.Lewin

With an enviable history dating back to 1898, T.M. Lewin opened his first store here along the famous Jermyn Street with such innovative products as the coat shirt.  The brand has traded continuously ever since and now even has stores across Australia.  Its often so difficult to make this type of menswear look interesting (and yet masculine) however with beautiful bust forms with their dark wooden articulated arms / hands and with the addition of animal heads this brand demonstrates that they don't take themselves too seriously and that with a bit of tongue in cheek humour (often so missing on the high street) that you can have great quality products and make them just a bit more interesting too.  

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Hackett, London

If you know the Capri Hotel on the Italian island of Capri (just off the coast from Naples) then you will recognise the references here at Hackett.  With its beautifully tiled floors, lush plants and of course the obligatory shutters this scheme captures the very essence of this stunning place so incredibly well.  The island itself naturally has a wonderfully long and chequered history with notable residents including Gracie Fields and Graham Greene.  The scheme here communicates perfectly the essence of a fading history with a hint of romanticism and gentlemanliness from a bygone time surmised in a stunning contemporary context. 

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Dover Street, Market, London

Being this confident as a retailer naturally takes a lot of, well, balls we guess, or in this case just rather large ones.  If you haven't yet seen the new Dover Street Market store then do go along and check it out as it really is magnificent.  Housed in the former Burberry headquarters along the Haymarket we can only wonder what influence this brand will have (as it did around its original home along Dover street) on this slightly dogeared end of town given that there are so few other retail spaces around it ready to be snapped up by brands who wish to associate with this phenomenal concept.  Sayonara then Angus Steak House and Fancy That of London.

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Fenwick, London

We just cant help but continue to be amazed at how this brand looks compared to just a few years ago.  With references to, we guess April showers (clearly a UK phenomenon or at least a northern hemisphere one) mannequins topped with coloured umbrellas in a gravitational format beam from their Bond street store.   

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Laura Ashley, London

Images Courtesy and Copyright www.helloflamingo.co.uk

Recycling and reuse is one area we often neglect in Visual Merchandising, or at least it appears to be swept under the metaphorical carpet rather a lot.  Of course its not always easy to find a new use for the old 'stuff' with an ever demanding and lets face it, fickle customer base, and we are all guilty of hiding or carefully 'disposing' of stuff, aren't we?  At Laura Ashley in conjunction with www.helloflamingo.co.uk their latest scheme has rolled out to  over 65 stores across the UK and Paris and incorporates existing props from their previous scheme to generate a far more cost effective and environmentally friendly scheme.  This store's scheme at London's Westfield was produced using enormous panels covered in artificial wild flowers, greenery and moss to create a Wild Meadow for SS16.

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Hermes, London

We are not absolutely sure of the brands 'theme' for 2016 although so we are guessing that it is 'Interior Landscapes' (we are just making the connection rather than absolutely sure).  Natural phenomena fill the windows here along Bond street with its cut logs, piles of Coal and precariously balanced rocks and what appear to be large pebbles.  (Incidentally, its really worth signing up to this brands site as they are doing some incredibly exciting digital stuff)   As always superbly produced with perfection in its installation.

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Clarks, London

Images Courtesy and Copyright www.harlequin-design.com

Wow, this brand has never looked so cool and so incredibly confident.  Gone are the mountains of shoes which allows us to focus on a few really great products.  Yes. we know this brand has a wide range of products to select from but do they need to show every single one, no.  Soles in a repetition format of their latest Trigenic footwear concept forms the background here with just a few selected products on which the eyes of the viewer can focus.  Crisp, new age-like and fantastic to see this store along Regent street having its Renaissance moment.  

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Ted Baker, London

Images Courtesy and Copyright www.elemental.co.uk

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a collaboration come to life.  At Ted Baker, the in house design team worked with the fantastic guys at www.elemental.co.uk who developed the art work for the printed elements and produced the focal points of the campaign for this SS16 scheme entitled 'Spring Cleaning'; with large prop hands, cloches & dusters.  Great to see huge doses of much lacking humour in retail store windows out there on the high street.

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Aishti, Beruit

Images Courtesy and Copyright www.artevetrinaproject.it

With references to surrealism, Aishti's latest scheme with its reverse staircase, mannequins weaving in and out of picture frames and gravity defying birds really does highlight the amount of creativity developing around the world and very much worth checking this brands' schemes out for yourself if you can.  Created by the team at www.artevetrinaproject.it and shot by Sagmeister and Walsh this brand is clearly rocking the Middle East right now.

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Tandem, Barcelona

Images Courtesy and Copyright www.mateofumero.com

We had thought that travel agents on the high street were a bygone concept although it seems that if you happen to be in the luxury market it is clearly thriving, upping the ante and looking so cool too.  Gone are those dodgy independents on a forgotten high street with multiple stickers of random associations on their doors (which to be honest did any of us ever check for their authenticity?) filled with shelves of curly well thumbed brochures with random people frolicking on the beach in some sunny destination.  Here at Tandem in Barcelona, the brand have implemented beautifully constructed 'skeleton' suitcases promoting a range of exotic destinations and suspended against a curved graphic in a gravitational format.  Perhaps if more travel agents had made such an effort they wouldn't have been relegated to the 'round filing cabinet on the floor' of places we used to shop? 

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Nike, London

Images Courtesy and Copyright www.millingtonassociates.com

Including Wembley here is a new one for us and if you love football then this is one for you.  In collaboration with Nike, www.millingtonassociates.com have recently designed a one-day press space to launch the latest kit for the England football team.  The incorporation of Nike's flyknit technology also makes this the most advanced kit to date.  The team at www.millingtonassociates.com created the visual effect of speed with shooting lines, chasing lights and thread patterns to unite the garments and installation.  Stunning stuff.

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Wolford, London

Images Courtesy and Copyright www.sfd.co.uk

We dont often include lingerie in our entries, in fact this is possibly the first one, however it was worth noting for the mannequn used here created by www.sfd.co.uk from their Seven range with a unique metal infused paint finish for this Austrian based global retailer.

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River Island, London

Images Courtesy and Copyright www.sfd.co.uk

In the age of the 'selfie' what better to way to reflect your core customer than selfie mannequins?  At River Island right now, linking perfectly into the vibe on the high street (and just about everywhere else), the 'Nude' range of figures created by www.sfd.co.uk absolutely captures the current global mood. Great to see this brand at the forefront and clearly understanding their customer base.  

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