Tiffany, London

I know I ranted a little last week at Diesel's window as so many of you told me so, and quite right too. However, one thing all of your messages had in common was that you all agreed that the scheme had appeared to have been 'lifted' from other brands that I had compared them too. Well, in addition to that previous post we have all seen enormous umbrellas used as props within some of the luxury brand stores over the past few months from Prada to Hermes, following down through the chain of mid-range 'multiples' such as Banana Republic to the bottom of the pile currently at Primark and we understand this process. However, luxury brand to luxury brand is another issue altogether albeit over a longer period of time. I am a huge fan of Tiffany as they do produce the most exceptional presentations although this one installed just prior to Vogue's Fashion's night out, rang alarm bells in me. Having recorded the visual merchandising schemes in New York for the past 15 years at the same time each year and almost daily in London, I did recall seeing something similar and looking through my archives, in 2008, Emilo Pucci, and below at Mui Mui and if I remember correctly Mikimoto had already produced something so incredibly similar to the current global Tiffany scheme that I am a little embarrassed to share this with you. Rather than rant again that no one is looking beyond their own brand to establish what has happened previously 'out there' and that no-one (at least that I am aware of) is doing as I do in constantly collecting this information, I will leave you to decide what you think. I am not of course suggesting in the slightest that the scheme has been plagiarised as these things do happen, however luxury brand to luxury brand - risky stuff. I would have thought that it was someones role within these brands to ensure that this doesn't happen as we have seen the consequences of luxury brands pursuing those who copy their merchandise even though that of course is clearly deliberate, but are they pursuing anyone who has the same / similar scheme two years later? probably not - well at least not yet.