As seasons change, so too do stores. John Ryan looks at how retailers mix up their visual merchandising, although some themes unite all.
One of the things about windows is that not only do they tell you a fair bit about the relative wellbeing of a retail organisation, but they also serve as a pretty good indicator of what’s deemed to be popular at the moment.
On this basis, several things are apparent about retail in London at the moment. Autumn is no longer autumn, it has become the Fall, courtesy of our retail cousins across the pond.
Pre-season previews are all the rage (probably meaning that not enough summer has been sold) and retro schemes seek to evoke the nostalgic in all of us: a time when things were better.
“Expect parkas, heavy coats and signs enjoining us to wrap up warm for winter any day”
Capitalising on the fleeting
From Levis on Regent Street – busy touting 1970s-style jeans with the help of The Ramones – to J Crew’s middle-America signage for kids clothing, retailers are using visual merchandising to turn the clock. Also worth noting are pop-ups that are in fact just a temporary version of what is to come and indeed what has already been there – rather than stores that appear and then disappear.
Autumn begins officially next week, yet whether by design or happy accident, many retailers in 2016 still have summer-related merchandise in their stores as the sun outside cracks the flags.
Expect parkas, heavy coats and signs enjoining us to wrap up warm for winter any day.
Levi’s, Regent Street
The Levis flagship has long been as much of a marketing exercise as it is a shop, and the promotion for a range of jeans that seeks to bring back the spirit of the 1970s is a case in point.
The semi-arcade-style windows set the scene with mannequins posed in front of a graphic showing the US stars and stripes.
This is topped by a mock Marshall-style amplifier of the kind that was de rigeur for 70s rock outfits, except that the word Marshall has been replaced with Levi’s.
Another window bears the strapline for the promotion: ‘Wear Them. Tear Them. Thrash Them’ and just in case the point is missed there is a picture of The Ramones as part of the backdrop.
Inside, the initial part of the shop is a gallery for installations and events that support the promotion. In this instance the promise of the windows is fulfilled by a tower of Marshall amps, on which jeans-touting mannequins have been perched.
This is a very simple retro display with just a nod paid to the current century in the shape of a large digital screen that fills part of the back wall of this semi-discrete area of the shop.
“The idea of what constitutes a pop-up store continues to evolve”
With raw concrete pillars and floor, this is about rock’s rough and ready roots – of which denim is a part – and is in keeping with the nostalgia trend that is being deployed by any retailers.
J Crew, Regent Street
There is an almost Sesame Street feel to the windows showing the childrensear offer at J Crew at the moment.
A simplified school bus forms the centrepiece of this window, fronted by a headless mannequin sporting a T-shirt that has a monster face appearing out of its breast pocket.
These are graphics that have been stripped down to the point where they are almost like computer desktop icons and as well as the bus, there are a series of signs that create an instant pang of pop culture recognition.
Two of these stand out in particular, and both are styled as road signs of the kind that can be found near schools.
One has the word ‘WHOA!’ as its alert followed by ‘Cool Clothes Crossing’, and the other states ‘(BACK TO) SCHOOL’. This is not the sort of thing that you might normally expect of either J Crew or a back-to-school promotion.
It’s about shifting kidswear under a back-to-school banner. That said, in terms of turning heads, the children’s window is far more arresting than the adult versions in the adjacent windows of this store, largely owing to its simplicity and bright colours.
Club Monaco, Monmouth Street
The main window of Club Monaco near Seven Dials is one of the few windows in London’s West End that is ostentatiously about autumn.
This is achieved through the quite astonishingly unassuming and effective use of sheaves of corn, used to fill a window so that just the tops of the cream and brown women’s garments are visible as the shopper stares into the interior.
This marries well with the cream shop frontage and the feeling is one of harvest at home with the idea of high summer left behind.
Like both J Crew and Levi’s, this window scheme promotes nostalgia, eschewing gadgetry and digital flash in favour of single element displays.
And although this may not be top of mind for a distinctly aspirational retailer like Club Monaco, this display has the obvious merit of being relatively inexpensive and easy to install, while also being evocative.
Like many interesting window schemes, this one does not force merchandise in front of the onlooker’s face in order to say come and buy, but instead rather encouraged reflection.
Coach, Regent Street
Coach is on the move on Regent Street. But before the new store opens in the former Jaeger flagship further north along the thoroughfare, it has created a window scheme that says nothing other than merchandise, but does so in a manner makes the passing shopper stop and stare.
This is principally due to simply taking the tags that are attached to a Coach bag when a purchase is made, enlarging them and using the result as the backdrop for a product display.
The most eye-catching of these are the gold Coach swing tags, which add a touch of slick, Fifth Avenue glamour to the display.
Sometimes it is the simplest things that are the most effective and the idea of using what you already have, but making more of it is powerful.
It will be interesting to see what Coach does to promote itself in its new home this autumn.
Google, Tottenham Court Road
Having a presence in a host store and making its existence felt without treading on the host’s toes is a difficult line to tread, but Google manages this admirably in the Currys PC World store on Tottenham Court Road.
Opened in early 2015, Google is in the front of the store, evidence of its high profile and importance to Currys PC World.
And for a company premised on cutting edge tech, Google has opted for a simple window display that features its logo created from the shape of a giant Google Cardboard VR headset.
The idea is not only to make passers-by look, but to convey simply that disposable cardboard framed glasses can create an entire virtual world.
Rather than stopping at the logo however, Google has created a wave of Google Cardboard headsets that sit beneath the logo containing lights that change colour, giving them a constantly-shifting appearance. Simple, but striking.
Larsson & Jennings, Regent Street
Any store that has the message ‘Summer Store’ in its window is going to make the shopper think, “pop-up”. Yet purveyor of upmarket watches, Larsson & Jennings’s store on Regent Street is nothing of the kind.
The store will indeed remain in its current form until October, after which it will stay in place as an L&J outpost, becoming a permanent Larsson & Jennings interior after a refit.
The retailer has been smart by not over-adorning the walls of this store and the fixturing is very simple – both of which add to the idea of a temporary space.
The idea of what constitutes a pop-up store continues to evolve.
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