The golden shopfront

Last week saw gongs being handed out at the Toy Industry Awards in the grandiose surroundings of London’s Banqueting House.

And apart from the curious phenomenon of awards for “Feature Plush Toy” and best Boys Toy (which did conjure up a number of largely inappropriate images), it was the “Golden Teddy” honour that really stood out. This turned out to be an industry long-service award, but it did rather beg the question, in this writer’s mind at least, which retailers might scoop a prize were there to be a ‘golden shopfront’?

The obvious candidate at the moment would probably be Selfridges on Oxford Street, which continues to dominate its neighbours with window displays that demand to be viewed – exactly as should be the case. But then there are those that manage to take the window into the shop with Harvey Nichols being a prime example.

Selfridges’ Knightsbridge rival has used the bent and laminated wood window display that it used in its London flagship last summer and taken it north to its Edinburgh store. The difference in the Scottish Capital is that it has also taken the bentwood theme indoors and put similar installations inside glass boxes that extend upwards within the confines of the escalator atrium. A contender therefore not just for the golden shopfront, but perhaps for a golden interior as well.

Things are not straightforward however. Forgetting for a moment the blandishments of the big department stores, perhaps it might be worth considering smaller, but perfectly formed, high street stores for this prestigious mark of recognition. You might, for example, think of Uniqlo in this context, which constantly rings the changes in terms of colour and originality or, on current form, fashion brand Firetrap, with its edgy use of, er, black-lacquered chainsaws.

Or, moving away from fashion for a moment, general merchandise retailer Clas Ohlson would surely stake its claim for the ability to make every male, weary of being dragged round the shops on a Saturday, stop and stare.

Ultimately, what becomes apparent is that the retail sector is such a broad church and in terms of windows there are so many different variations on what can be done, that awarding this prize would not only be highly subjective, but might prove impossible. Nice Willy Wonkersque idea though, the golden shopfront, and the idea of stumbling upon it remains beguiling.

Oh, and if you’re interested in such things, the toy of the last decade was … wait for it … Lego.