Monthly Archives: December 2010

White Christmas on the High Street

Various, Oxford St, Regent St, London

First of all: Merry Christmas everyone! The reoccurring themes this Christmas have been the colour white and snowy scenery, as well as using the colour red. Perhaps the snow we had last year inspired the look of the festive windows this year. And how appropriate it was with all the snow again this winter. Here I look at what the high street retailers created for their shoppers, I say created because most of these windows don’t appear on the streets no more as it is, once again, sale time.

TopShop, Oxford street Christmas windows have a lovely colour scheme of whites, silvers and camels. Brilliantly styled fashion window! Loving the mannequins inside the bauble..

Debenhams, Oxford street would like you to dream of perfect presents. Snow on the ground and large lit snowflakes are the key features in these fashion windows.

Gap, Oxford Street. The white snowy look is contrasted with red glittery presents.

Guess, Regent street.

Miss Selfridge, Oxford Street.

New Look, Oxford Street.

Next, Oxford Street. I like the use of paper snowflakes here. They remind me of my childhood :) !

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Happy Happy Toy-Joy at Selfridges

Selfridges, Oxford St, London

Selfridges windows centre around Christmas top sellers: toys. They delight adults and children alike featuring Barbie and Ken, The Sylvannian families and other top toys. The colourful theme is ‘PLAY’ : the look of the windows is cartoon like pop style with simple line drawing cutouts. Characters Claudius, Rudie and  Twinkle Kid appear in them, I shall point them out in the pictures to come. They also make good Christmas baubles so check them out in the Selfridges Christmas shop if you’re feeling playful!


The Oxford Street windows present different takes on Christmas Day. Here we have Barbie and Ken’s Christmas.

Here they are: Claudius on the left and Twinkle Kid on the right. I don’t know who the middle one is. Here is something you might want to know: Claudius is into Tango and speaks many languages, whereas Twinkle Kid is a bit of a fashionista who was once in a band with Miles Davis.

The Orchard Street windows have been designed by artist Pete Fowler who has created a modern family Christmas with characters we all know and love, including the Shoreditch Trendy Dad, the PR Queen Mum and the Brainbox Daughter.



Winter Festival at John Lewis

John Lewis, Oxford Street, Sloane Square, London

John Lewis welcomes you to attend a winters festival: the scheme is colourful and inspired by Christmas markets. Most of the windows feature colourful disks on the back wall, snow on the ground and colourful stacks of presents. The toy window (below) has a gift unit with present inserts and a revolving skater girl.

Marks and Spencer: The Making of a Christmas Window

Marks and Spencer, Oxford Street, London

I was delighted to find a video by SFD of a making of an animated window for M&S. UK-based SFD prides itself as a key international supplier of inspired retail environments. They were commissioned to design a toy window around the idea of a workshop inspired by Wallace and Grommit and Willy Wonka. With over 50 moving parts they have more than answered the brief.

Read the full story by Paul Brooks from SFD of the making of these windows here.