Louis Vuitton, London

I cant help but love this mecca to retail. The new Louis Vuitton along Bond st. (which seems like we have waited eons to open) is brash, blingy, sparkly and right there in your face. With hand painted mannequins and figures with the signature brand logo who could not love it? It is showy, it is very much excess to requirements, but it is a strange pleasure to view. The building itself is almost bright White in the usual dull London weather and the use of Gold would make the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and the souks of Sharjah pale by comparison. A life sized Giraffe, neon lighting, shoes doing-the-walking and beautiful merchandise in bell jars. The list just goes on and on.....if you happen to be in London this is definitely a must see. My favourite bit? The reflection in their old tiny store opposite, declaring...."it's behind you......" I love the so utterly British reference here.

John Smedley, London

I don't normally photograph John Smedley as they always seem to either be in Sale or just seem to sell samples, however the store here in Central London on this occasion, the team here have produced something which I believe the creative team at Paul Smith would be proud of. Merchandise has been hung as if being blown by the strategically placed fans. These windows are great fun, and while this is not the most original scheme (I have seen this countless times as its recorded in just about every 1st edition window display publication I own covering the 20th Century). However, I am actually pleased that they are producing at least a creative scheme in this store. Please keep them coming team and I will certainly be making a bee line down to the store on a regular basis to record them.

G-Star Raw London

G-star Raw's latest scheme here along Carnaby St. in London is probably one of their most interesting ones that they have produced to date. Gone is the celebrity endorsement (thankfully - did we ever fall for that one anyway?) and here we have a scheme which is both thoughtful and creative. Proof in a way (although I am lamenting a little here as I write this) that we don't always need mannequins to promote fashion. How wonderfully creative is this? I don't have a particular 'penchant' for graphics in store windows particularly, as we have seen just about every possible combination one could possibly imagine in just about every store windows all the way through the 90's to date, however this is a new development which is actually very exciting. Industrial cutting tools wrapped in G-star signature denim is placed next to an image of their 'cut' denim. These do have enormous impact and an Uber cool feel about them. I'm not particularly gripped by their product myself although on seeing this I couldn't resist but take a look - it did its job.

Kurt Geiger, London

While my eyes didn't pop out of my head when seeing the new installation at Kurt Geiger both along Regent st. and South Molten street I did gasp a little at the scary scene. I must admit, for a company that has produced some superb schemes recently, I did find this one rather odd. Odd, in the sense that these mannequins are clearly 'sitters' and not meant to be placed in this position. With their necks straining, wigs on back to front and the awkward position that they lay in, only makes for amusement and I did find myself smiling - and I wont even mention the reflected view one gets. I find it quite difficult to believe that such a high profile company in such high profile places have allowed this happen? To me this looks like some of those dreadful stores at the wrong end of Oxford st. crammed to the rafters with cheap merchandise. Perhaps there is some irony that I am just not seeing (although I doubt it) While this is not an expensive scheme, if I were reading what I am writing I would be worried and get myself straight down to the stores to get this scheme out. I will swing by on the weekend and see if this company does care.

Cartier, London

Have you been down to have a look at Cartier this week? Well, after my last minute invitation to the opening of the new Louis Vuitton store, which , of course I had to decline (yeah right) I popped down to view Cartier at the end of Sloane St. to take a look at their new scheme. This brand do the most incredible stuff whenever I view them at Christmas time in New York, although to see them do such an amazing scheme here in 'tight as a fishes you know what' in London is wonderfully refreshing. These guys have used real flowers for their scheme.......and on the outside too. This is wonderfully refreshing to view here in London, as on the whole one would expect the general public to come along and steal this stuff. And of course they do try. Well we are the thieving west afterall. In fact as I was recording this for you, there were a few people doing just that. What scum we are and I do feel ashamed to be British sometimes. Creative teams are already fighting to get these kind of schemes in place - and this is tough enough. Come on UK..........stealing a few flowers from an amazing scheme is quite honestly, well garbage and we should be ashamed for trying to undermine such forward thinking creativity.

Selfridges, London

"You and I, and a little toy shop, Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got, Set them free at the break of dawn, 'Til one by one they were all gone". Who can ever forget these lyrics from Nena and her 99 Luftballoons from the early 1980's. Selfridges, yet again are leading the way with amazing concepts. The windows here along the Duke St. side of Selfridges present us with a brilliant little teaser. My dear friend Tanya Reynolds, Creative Director of Proportion>London and I shared a wonderful laugh the other evening as neither of us could guess the music represented by these windows apart from the above. OK, we got the Gaga reference but the rest left us rather bemused. I have asked my students to see if they know which song these refer too, but I still don't have the full set. How wonderful that these windows have engaged me enough to talk about them and do exactly what they were meant to do, i.e. keep Selfridges in our conscious. Yes. I fell for it, but then they are fun, fun, fun, so who could resist talking about them?

Selfridges, London

"Some people think I'm Bonkers, But I just think I'm free, Man, I'm just living my life, There's nothing crazy about me". You may not recognise these lyrics, although you will almost certainly recognise the 'song' by the artist Dizzee Rascal. What has this got to do with store windows? I hear you ask. Well if you happen to be along Oxford St. here in London this week, you could do no worse than check out Selfridges new scheme. I had great fun recording these windows as I gasped with excitement at each installation in turn. The concept is based on various musicians creating a three dimensional scheme of one of their songs. So, above we have Dizzee's Bonkers and below Florence and the Machine. This is another superb scheme from the creative's here and another example of pioneering concepts leading us through this decade. I am thoroughly enjoying the collaborations happening here between artists and retailers which we are seeing ever more as we touch the half way mark of 2010. Lets hope the next 6 months will be equally exciting.

Louis Vuitton, London

So close, I can taste it. With the pending opening on Thursday this week, I had to go along yesterday to get another view of the store I have been looking at with hoardings covering the front for months and months. Mannequins wearing luggage is just part of the amazing first hit at the Louis Vuitton store here along Bond St. The whole store from the outside glitters beautifully. I had a sneak preview between the blinds on the ground floor and if LVMH haven't promised it, I can certainly promise an amazing fun and wonderfully produced scheme. Sadly, I have another engagement on Thursday evening (unless I receive an invitation, of course) so I cant cover the event itself, however I will bring to you the latest schemes as they happen. In the mean time, my outfit is ironed ready, just in case the courier turns up with that invitation.

Louis Vuitton, London

I have been waiting months and months for this store along Bond St. here in London to open. However, due to the amount of time these guys have been working on this site I am sure we will see something quite spectacular. I had been thinking that I would dearly love to be a fly on the wall in this site and just by chance the other evening, the large format graphics covering the site were lifted enough to be able to get the tiniest of sneak previews. Well, I'm hardly going to be invited to the launch (although I have hinted enough here several times) in order to bring you the latest, however, this view was free and to say it looked quite delicious is an understatement. I did have to climb onto the barriers a la paparazzi style to take photos, but who cares. It does look incredible and I'm sure LVMH would want to keep it secret (and rightly so) so I wont share too much but go along with the tease. With a store like this which will be in all of the magazines and newspapers for months it was a pleasure to see even a snippet of a view. Anyway, check the store out soon............I feel a launch coming on..!

Liberty, London

One can't help but love what Liberty is doing at the moment. Scheme after scheme they come up with the goods. This one is no exception. Model soldiers and tanks are aimed at a t-shirt with an image of an explosion printed on it - out sized by comparison to its aggressors and displayed in one of the windows in this scheme. Hundreds of ears placed in rows form the backdrop in another with product placed on top of tiny bars of soap. Repetition of newsprint declaring the "Liberated Press 2010" containing images of William Morris (I think it is anyway - I cant quite see the details on the images, but it would make sense and link to the Liberty designs) are overlaid on top of an image of a topless female. Sometimes irreverent yet always wonderfully produced, how could anyone not like what this team are doing right now?

Tiffany, London

I am always quite amazed that this company always produce such amazing windows in such a limited space. Time again Tiffany do produce the most remarkable schemes for such a tiny product which is quite difficult to show well. Here we have a series of windows using balloons and ribbons with the use of three pyramidal structures against a sky background. Our eyes and imaginations fill in the gaps between each of these spaces and that is the genius of what they do. The pyramidal structures appear almost like a futuristic cityscape of some fantasy place somewhere. I even love the shadows that the ribbons create. Beautifully executed.

Moschino, London

I cant help but really like what this brand does. OK, well I hate the use of the heart motif personally, as any of my students will tell you, although their schemes are usually such good fun. I also have an inclination to the out sized land of the giants stuff, and the use of the eye glasses / spectacles (depending where you live) here are wonderful. How simple is this scheme. With a scheme that is so simply produced I do tend to look more at the detail and actually the attention to detail is superb. I felt that this has a kind of retrospective feel to it and for some reason Cindy Sherman came to my mind (don't all shout at me). Of course, not in an erotic or sexual way, but as if these female mannequins had been captured as part of a much greater narrative. Naturally this is open to interpretation and it can mean whatever one wants it to mean, although perhaps these are more of a witty parody of a media image? And I am a male, after all, viewing a female. However I couldn't help feeling that there was some story beyond this scheme that I'm not privy too, although that's possibly because I actually want it to have some meaning, who knows?

Harvey Nichols, London

One of my favourite department stores in the world has to be Harvey Nichols. I thoroughly enjoy what they do and how they present themselves. Here the team have implemented an abstract tube like structure weaving its way through the run of front windows and to which a variety of materials have been attached. This is possibly not my favourite concept / scheme that this team have produced (which are just my thoughts) - I am not quite sure how I feel about it, however with the use of Black sprayed facially stylised mannequins possibly by Patina V? look quite stunning. The product is as always, beautifully presented and I will of course continue to watch what they do and share this with you.

Stella McCartney, London

"Every man a Rembrandt" proclaimed the Craft Master paint-kit following on from Max S. Klein, owner of the Palmer Paint Company and the original inventor of Painting by Numbers in the 1950's. Here the visual team have used the concept to form the back drop to the product displayed with White sprayed headless mannequins. There was quite a resurgence of these kits in the early 1990's although they seemed to have faded into the background again, at least temporarily. This is possibly the best window scheme from this company that I have seen and it is also something I don't remember seeing previously in other commercial spaces before. The concept has also been further developed with the word YES placed at the centre of the image - its not quite clear what the relevance of this is? Anyway, I feel that this concept perhaps would have worked better as a series of visual images, perhaps as used in department stores, but thankfully this brand got there first, so too late now I guess.

Nicole Farhi, London

I do like to follow this teams windows schemes and have done for now for quite some time. After the launch of the Nicole Farhi 2010 spring window partnership with illustrator Esther Coombs earlier this year (you can see images of them on this site), featuring iconic London monuments as over sized graphics; with the BT Tower and Big Ben framed in neon Perspex and the houses of parliament directly onto the glass. May sees Benedetta Mori-Ubaldini's magical animals enter their stores. The Milanese sculptor is well known for her innovative and extraordinarily realistic wire work. Each piece starts life as flat ‘chicken wire’ which is gradually manipulated by hand, the pieces are twisted and joined together to give a seamless appearance with no internal structure. We are seeing more and more of these collaborations happening in London this year and this is certainly a leap forward. Thankfully, the team at Nicole Farhi are pioneering the way and this really is making a huge contribution to the visual industry.