Christmas 2012: jewellery and accessories

Various, Sloane Street area, London

I don’t often do this but I wanted to draw your attention to jewellery and accessory windows as they can often very elaborate or miniature schemes to make such small products stand out. So here are a collection of high-end accessory windows mainly from the Sloane street area in London.

Smythson.

Swarovski

Tiffany’s.

Another Tiffany’s minuature windows. What a small-scale miracle!

Boodles.

Cartier.

Links of London.

MCM.

Harvey Nichols Oriental Christmas 2012

Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge , London

Christmas windows around London have now arrived and we will start our journey with  the oriental inspired Harvey Nics. The windows are a continuity of their oriental inspired A/W assortment, and the trend is set to carry on for next spring. Oriental influence has been apparent in fashion and homewares all of autumn, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see other retailers tapping into this trend with their seasonal windows.

(Images, courtesy of Harvey Nichols)

A series of Oriental inspired props such as chinese lanterns, oriental flowers and  fans are repeated in these impactful designs. The Harvey Nichols’ pretty and modern attitude is created using these luminescent brightly coloured metallic finishes, mixed with more traditional Oriental materials with splashes of fluorescent colour added on top. Everything is embellished with sparkle, glitter, jewels and Christmas lights.

The windows are framed in these round and hexicon shapes (to name a few) to concentrate on the displays, but I also like the way the frames extend to the exterior of the windows, something Harvey Nichols have done in the past to a very successful effect.

 

 

 

Maid in Louis Vuitton

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!

 

 

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.

Autumn/Winter 2010 Trend Report: Mirrors as Display Props

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.

Designer Spring Previews

Sloane Street, London

Luxury brands are promoting their spring/summer lines already and hurrah the sales are almost over, so there will be plenty of interesting windows to report on.  Here is a preview of what I have found on my travels.

Paint splattered trend still going strong at McQueen, Bond Street. I like the paint in the mannequins’ faces and the skeleton mannequin in pretty cool. McQueen has the most creative fashion shows with almost creepy models, music and quirky stage sets. Love it!

Chanel, Sloane Street. Chanel’s nautical collection with a Venice backdrop. I want the  shoe boots! Seems like this trend comes back every summer.

D&G, Bond Street. Animal print anyone?

Giorgio Armani, Bond Street. Pastels are going to be big again this summer.

Louis Vuitton, Bond Street. I think these windows are really cool, they’re dark with spotlights on these birdcages, that have LV accessories in them. Check out the little birds as well.

Fendi, Sloane Street. I had to show you this ladybird range because the bag is not just on my wish list, but also seems to inspire the idea behind the spots theme running through the windows.

Paul & Joe, Sloane Street

Matthew Williamson, Bruton Street. I love this window, it’s very transitional between winter and summer seasons with all the snow, the summer dresses and the beautiful birds and butterflies. I am expecting very, very beautiful things to come from Williamson this summer so stay tuned.

4 Stars Sales

Knightsbridge, London

It was snowing last night and to me London looked great. It’s funny how people have digged out their Hunter wellies. Now there are two occasions when they can be used as a fashion statement:  summer festivals and January snow. Some shops are still in sale, but a few are already showing spring collections. Here are some more examples of the sale windows.

I wonder why they didn’t give themselves five stars? The mannequins are like showgirls, so I understand the styling. Sometimes if you accessorize lingerie too much it can look a little dodgy.. I wonder what colour they’re going for Valentines Day as they’re already doing pink?

Thomas Pink.

Marie Chantal had sale written across four shopping bags, but it really wasn’t that effective because the letters are very small, and the bags kept spinning around so that you wouldn’t even see them that well.

Harrods sale message is always: ‘There is only one sale’.  Some of their windows were still in Christmas mode, but all the main ones covered with vinyl. The sale ends the 23rd, so can’t wait to see their first Spring scheme.

Designers at Sloane Street Part 2

Various shops, Sloane Street, London

More Christmas windows from the fashion street in London. Enjoy the beauty while it’s still there. Soon it’s all change to sale windows, somebody please surprise me with something good…

It’s gorgeous red heads at Chanel! I love the cardboard head pieces, that have all sorts of Chanel products on them: sun glasses, perfume bottles, shoes, jewellery, etc.  I have a thing about chairs in windows, especially if they’re piled up high. Pile ’em up Chanel! The only thing I would fault is the gold fabric. It looks a little tacky, and you see this sort of thing in charity shop windows. If I would have done something else with the floor at least.

Paule Ka and a preview of their spring lines. Maybe that explains then unusual yellow background for Christmas. I like the graphic trees.

Neon lights at Gucci in animal shapes.

More excellent paper art this time at Tiffany’s. It’s in such a small-scale for jewellery and so well done.

Luxury and sumptuous at Dolce and Gabbana. Nothing is too much for them.

Designers at Sloane Street Part 1

Various shops, Sloane Street, London

Sloane Street is London’s high fashion shopping street boasting lots of world best designer shops. It is also one of those streets where wearing oversized sunglasses is a must.. So put your shades on and do some window shopping!

Simplicity and a rather beautiful backdrop at Alberta Ferretti.

Very sleek mirrored props and black mannequins again at Roberto Cavalli.

The above four windows are from Hermes. I happen to be a big fan a paper art , so I very much like these musical instruments and curtains made out of paper. The creative director of Hermes windows is Rebecca Cocks, and she does produce some creative windows that are also relevant to the places where the stores are.

By the way, check out this artist who did some other paper windows for Hermes Sydney stores. http://paperform.wordpress.com/

Nothing amazingly exciting at Missoni, but the knitted balls lookingbaubles are very recognisable for the knitwear brand.

Another example of a window that is very loyal to the brand image. Louis Vuitton.

Stay tunes as I have more to post shortly. Hope you’re not ill like me..