Harrods, Brompton Road, London
Kaisa, your window blogger, bright colours and spring are back (at least if you look into these Harrods windows). Walking past Harrods windows right now doesn’t disappoint. They’re full of contrasting bright colour and high fashion.
Enjoy this kick-start to spring windows. More to come…
Posted in Autumn/Winter
Louis Vuitton, Sloane Street, London
I was seriously excited to find these, dare I say kinky, maids- windows. Miniature maid figures stand by loyally next to a LV classic bag, and life-size mannequin stands still holding a feather duster. These windows are visually fascinating, and are guaranteed to create a desire to buy!
Posted in Autumn/Winter
Tagged Fashion, fashion accessories, Louis Vuitton, Sloane Street
Harvey Nichols,Knightsbridge, London
Harvey Nichols never fail to surprise me with their imaginative displays. I couldn’t get my camera out quicker to capture these Dali-esque surreal windows. I find them hard to describe, they’re just plain crazy. So what I will do – I will let my photos do the talking.
Various, Sloane Street, London
This post looks at two things that I love: photography and visual display. I’ve always loved the 3 dimensional play between the backdrop, the oversized props, the mannequins, the text on the glass.. I find windows are often artistic and playful, where as a fashion photograph with a model gazing into the viewer’s eyes, can can stimulate a much more subtle yet a strong emotional message about the brand.
The advertising shots are usually the epitome of the marketing campaign so no wonder brands are using them in their windows. Large-scale photographs are most often used as backdrops, whether to set the scene with a location image or as a pure advertising shot. During my window walks I discovered innovative uses of merchandise and other elements in the windows that make the photographs seem a lot more three-dimensional.
I love the backlight behind the woman in the photo it really makes the photo come alive. Although I am not sure if the mannequin display is strong enough to compete with the background.
The advertising shots take centre stage in these two windows from Prada. The accessories featured in the shots are merchandised on the display bench. Very effective and commercial way to concentrate on the branding and ‘the’ -items.
The oversize lifestyle shot seems unrelated, but creates a mood for this window at Browns.
Alberta Ferretti.
The beauty industry is all about branding and this window is very effective with a large black and white photo. The product itself is a minor detail.
In this Gucci-window you get a perfect illusion of a real staircase with part photograph and part build set.
Perla printed their campaign photos on boxes, it makes the backdrop more interesting and three- dimensional.
Harvey Nichols are known to be creative with their windows, here they’re also using an image printed on different dimensions. The photo is then dressed with jeans and accessories. Result is a fresh and funky window.
Billionare are exhibiting their shoe range in classic frames, which almost says their products are art.
Posted in Autumn/Winter, Display Trends, Spring/Summer
H&M, Oxford St, London
Yesterday saw the lauch of Lanvin’s collection for H&M in London. It echoed Parisian glamour and attitude. ‘The collection was about trying to translate the dream of luxury to the masses’ says Alber Elbaz, the artistic director of Lanvin. The queues were long, but they were cleverly not in front of the windows! They showcased amongst others the extravagant red tulle dress for women and black tuxedo with jogging style bottoms for men. Special playful mannequins with drawn on faces were designed just for this lauch.
I really like the TV advert as well. Here is the longer video version. Enjoy:
Posted in Autumn/Winter, Product Promotion
Tagged Fashion, H&M, Lanvin, Lanvin for H&M, launch
Various, Bond Street, London
Mirrors are a popular way to create interesting design effects in window displays. They can reflect the product so that the customer sees it multiple times and from different angles. They can make the windows look bigger and create illusions of different space. They will also reflect images of the customer and the outside world.
Chanel, Bond Street. I really like the way the mirrored walls create an illusion of a street corner as well as reflecting the coloured lights.
Chloe, Bond Street. Different angles of mirror create an interesting puzzle of reflections.
Emilio Pucci, Bond Street. Parts of the back panel have mirrors of different sizes, colours and shapes. Some pieces are also on the floor creating a shattered mirror effect. The use of mannequins adds to the tension here: they seem to be having an argument with each other.
Hermes, Bond Street. Fluorescent light is used together with mirrors to create repeated reflections.
Kurt Geiger, Piccadilly. This winter window used mirrored pedestals and props that look like icicles.
Posted in Autumn/Winter, Display Trends
Tagged Chanel, display props, Emilio Pucci, Fashion, fashion accessories, Hermes, Kurt Geiger, mirrors, Sloane Street
Zara, Oxford St, London
Look out for these daring fashion choices at Zara, they will make your heads turn.. The Zara Oxford Street stores are known for quirky styling and these hair and accessory styling experiments are no exception. There are bandages around mannequins heads, cookies on their glasses and generally the hair trend is ‘the higher the better’. These images will make you wonder why headless mannequins even exist.
The extreme up-do: I like the way it brings the group together.
Protection: The bandages and the forks make a helmet.
The mohawks give the otherwise soft knitwear an edgy feel.
Pile ‘em high and tie ‘em around.
Cookie glasses yam.. this is really cool. The hair is excellent too.
Liberty of London, Great Marlborough St, London
The arrival of The World of Manolo Blahnik is introduced with these windows done in collaboration with the communications agency JustSo. The windows feature provocative japanese style backlit drawings. Manolo Blahnik shoes are then hung to interact with the Art Nouveau inspired drawings, as well as placed on some of the black frames.
In addition to shoes the collection also includes umbrellas, scarves, notebooks and handkerchiefs. A lot of the items feature his signature style drawings of shoes made into prints. The World of Manolo Blahnik is a shop-in-shop at Liberty for a limited period of 3 ½ months.
The idea for the window run came from Manolo Blahnik who then briefed Just So who the developed interpretation and realisation of the concept further.
”After the initial concept briefing from the client had been received we then further develop this in-house through a series of creative meetings where all materials were chosen and art-working was executed. Each element was discussed in detail and the concept was then pieced together to realise the clients vision,” explains Stuart Henry from Just So. An in-depth interview with the company coming soon.
All images by JustSo.
Posted in Autumn/Winter
Tagged fashion accessories, Just So, Liberty, Manolo Blahnik, womens shoes
Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge, London
A pen and some books make great prop making tools when you use them a lot and to make something large-scale. Nails become hammers and books turn into sofas in these clever Harvey Nichols windows. The colour palette uses black, white and autumn like orange throughout the scheme.
They’ve really nailed this window! 
This tree must haven taken FOREVER to put together..
I love it; a man made out of books is reading a book, genius.
A new use for old cassettes, I suppose which no-one uses anymore.
These two are really cool as well, and gathered a crowd at Knightsbridge.
Posted in Autumn/Winter
Bentalls, Kingston, Greater London
Thomas Aitchison, the Head of Visual for Bentalls department store group talks to us about the visual language of the Kingston store windows. I love the way the current scheme uses word association to bring different products (such as tea cups and umbrellas) together around the store.
Kaisa Leinonen: I like the way this scheme uses phrases to bring different products together. How did the concept come about?
Thomas Aitchison: Last year we did a scheme called ‘Colour My World’ which merged fashion and home in a quirky way. The mannequins were all renovated in an eighties style. Some were draped over washing machines or leaning on Smeg fridges but the main idea was to show as many departments within the window run. The challenge this year was to try to find another way of anniversarising this. The ‘Play On Words’- scheme started with the “Let’s raise a toast!” mixing champagne and toasters. From there I walked around the store visiting every department trying to find another phrase that worked with the product.
Combining winter wear and fridges together.
KL: What is the structure of the Bentalls design and visual team?
TA: We are a small team of 6. I have 2 people working on Signage & Graphics and 3 people focus on Display. The display assistants are split between Home, Fashion & Window dressing, whilst the signage team produce all the in-store collateral along with any graphic elements used within the windows. We are very lucky to have a great in-store maintenance team who assist with joinery and electrical work. I look after both of the Bentalls’ stores, Kingston & Bracknell, responsible for all visual merchandising and display from design through to installation.
KL: Bentalls windows often have repetitions of icons etc, is that a conscious visual decision?
TA: The main window run is on the Kingston one-way system so we class these as drive-by windows. I guess I use the repetition so that the main focus becomes the merchandise, and the scheme is just a backdrop.
KL: What other elements are part of Bentalls visual language?
TA: I don’t have any strict guidelines that i have to follow when coming up with schemes however I do try to make every installation completely different to the previous one. In doing this I try to rotate different mannequins and props. When selecting merchandise for the windows we try to choose brands which are new, exclusive to Bentalls or simply complimentary to the theme.
KL: How do you approach a new window design?
TA: A lot of the time the ideas will come from the merchandise. Following a promotional calendar we know what type of stock we will be displaying, it’s just about finding a new and exciting way of doing it. I find inspiration from shows and competitive shopping around the world. Another key factor to the window design is balancing the workload and the budget. We work to tight budgets so most of our installations are produced in-house.
KL: How far ahead do you plan your seasonal window calendar?
TA: The windows are planned six months ahead, working alongside our marketing department ensuring all promotional activity coincides.
KL: What would you never compromise in a window?
TA: It’s hard to say that you would never compromise on anything. As well as achieving the look you have to be commercial. Sometimes using more support from brands, ie letting them do their own schemes could be seen as a compromise but it does enable you to spread your budget a bit further.
 | Emanuel I. on Harvey Nics Resort |
 | olenamiss on Harvey Nics Resort |
 | Anna Perena (@annape… on Harrods windows are a bright s… |
