>> london windows: selfridges – october 2008

I know it’s me, it must be just me, but I don’t really get the windows in Selfridges this month.

Don’t get me wrong: they’re as beautiful as ever.

>> london windows: selfridges – august 2008

Japanese mangas meet Nu Rave at Selfridges this month. The windows are a neon feast of structures of fluo tubes and plexiglas cubes in violently bright blues, pinks and yellows. The mannequins are playfully wearing giant-sized cardboard accessories, and amusing plastic animals that seem to have come straight out of a Japanese cartoon share the space with them in the windows.

>> london windows: selfridges – july 2008

Frozen Symphony, an eye-catching installation by Aishleen Lester, is on display this month at Selfridges.  The installation is hosted in The Wonder Windows, the space that since the beginning of the year has been dedicated to showing the work of up-and-coming artists who, in the words of the store’s creative concept manager Rebecca Bateman, “otherwise may not have been able to find such a high-profile space”.

>> london windows: selfridges – may 2008

Very colorful windows in Selfridges this month, with a sports theme.

Or rather, a fantasy sport theme. Mannequins are all donning Vespa helmets for protection, but they don’t actually seem fazed that they are floating about as if in a lunar module. Although they are employing some rather futuristic devices (in the way that Leonardo’s projects were ingeniously futuristic), it all looks like a whole lotta fun, and not a don’t-try-this-at-home advertisement for extreme outdoor activities. Along with windsurf sails and inflatable dinghies (here comes the summer!), it’s all a fabulous jumping and flying with the aid of spring-propelled seats, giant winged turbines, 3-wheeled pods and flying umbrellas.

Always worth a good half-hour stop on the Oxford Street pavement.

>> london windows: harvey nichols – march 2008

The HN windows this month are undoubtedly eye-catching, if a little overwhelming. As usual, it’s all about the installation and very little about the clothes – but this time round one has to look really hard to actually spot the mannequins hanging somewhere in there.

The theme is a “fluo waterworld” full of gigantic neon-shaded starfish and jellyfish, where the mid-air dummies are probably intended to be floating, and the waves are big iridescent strips of cellophane.

>> london windows: selfridges – march 2008

Here are the installations in Selfridges windows for March: long red-haired castaways in designer clothes, who may be stranded among wrecks, rotting buoys and rusting chains, but have certainly not lost their fashion compass!

>> london windows: selfridges, london fashion week a/w 08/09, february 2008

With my job, I am out and about stores a lot, and one of the things I observe is windows display.

In London the department stores always have the most amazing set-ups. Selfridges in particular never fail to impress, especially during Fashion Week. There always is a LFW theme in the windows during the two weeks in February and September.

Have a look at these spectacular paper-cut installations!