Hidden Benefit: Beauty on a Different Level

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Something beautiful happened on the way to Carnaby Street.

 

Benefits abound in this destination cosmetic store which hides its beauty bushel beneath the streets of London. The inviting staircase leads to the hidden delights of the basement bars. From brows to nails, from body waxing and spray tanning to blow drying and champagne sipping no bar is too high.

Whether its bubbles on the lips or fizz on the face this beauty basement promises to be the destination of choice for pampering parties, corporate calming or just some personal preening below the cut and thrust of Carnaby, the sights and sounds of Soho.

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Deichmann Shoe Machine: Running like Brickwork

Saving soles in a sea of shoeboxes, value footwear retailer Deichmann has arrived at a smart solution making self-service shoe buying both visually calming and commercially successful.

 

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Boxing clever and boxing bold Deichmann works with its suppliers, brands and manufacturers to a colour palette that allows a brickwall of boxes to segment the assortment.

Yellow for ladies, blue for boys, reinforces for the not so well at heeled the basic segmentation whilst even the likes of Nike & Adidas conform like foot soldiers, regimented in space for clarity of brand offer.

Against this authority, styles and sellers above the norm, literally and laterally stand out in splendid isolation, no longer just another brick in the wall, but prominent on their cardboard plinths.

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Sometimes simplicity can be the answer to a complicated collective puzzle, and this cost-effective solution shows a little lateral thinking can go a long way for less on a shoestring budget.

 

Fossil Fuelled: Timed for Evolution

Time stands still for no retailer, and Fossil takes it upon itself to look to the future with an evolutionary new store concept which draws on the strength of its heritage whilst looking decisively to the future.

 

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The focal wall is a picture perfect example of this, setting a showcase HD video screen against a sea of classic fossil tins making a massive statement of authority and heritage. Out of the tin and into the future, the store showcases its timeless timepieces in individual cabinets, adding value and luxury from leather straps to personalised pieces and mercurial mechanisms.

The luxury is layered onto its classic casual culture with handbags and leather goods taking a prominent position in a setting not out of place nor out of time with a Selfridges or a Coach. Glass case corridors create a museum landscape, but the modern music ensures this concept is no Natural History.

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Future Facing. Watch this space!

Hello Beautiful: Selfridges Showcases its Inner Beauty

With a now customary late Spring in its Step, Selfridges strides relentlessly onwards in its role as retail event destination in London.

 

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In a sequence of mega shows in a traditionally calm calendar month the premium department store has re-created everything from Carnival Brazil to Las Vegas Ostensicity and the celebrated BodyCraze voyerism that has been enshrined into the folk-lore of London’s lifestyle. Hello Beautiful brings to the fore the sizeable assortment of beauty brands that tread its hallowed boards, adding sparkle and magic in a month long celebration of outer and inner beauty.

A parade of pure inspiration, Selfridge windows cover every angle in beauty dust from hair extensions to food preparations, body art to mind science in its quest to unearth everyone’s beauty weak spot. A basement exclusive houses The Beauty Project where invited brands explore the future of looking good, whilst in the wonder room, marvel at the Fragrance lab where everyone is invited to explore their sense of smell, from evocative childhood memories to distinctive personal perfumes.

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Selfridges, looking good and feeling beautiful, with the help of a few fabulous friends, and the continued involvement and adoration of the populace of London.

Sports Brands: Go Direct to Oxford Street

Sweet music for sports brand fans in the site of the old HMV on Oxford Street as Sports Direct opens its new flagship store.

 

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The discount sports brand retailer has big stores already but this three floor testament to sporting testosterone celebrates every activity from fitness and training, through to trecking and fishing with a sizeable assortment of fashion thrown in for good measure.

On its home turf of sportswear and performance footwear, a resounding victory can be anticipated as the familiar discount prices are supplemented with powerful brand statements, physically from floor to ceiling, and emotionally cementing brand presence and authority from Adidas to Nike, from Lonsdale to Reebok, from Everlast to Slazenger.

Every statement is large and dominant;  football replica kits paint walls with familiar colours and motifs, categories of caps as far as the eye can see and a department for bags and luggage that stretches to any destination.

Perhaps even more impressive is the retailer’s away form, fielding appropriately a new, expanded and spectacular outdoors assortment, with Karrimor the star of the show from footwear to fleeces, supported admirably with everything from fishing rods to camouflage suits, and the decisive move into casual fashion with a dedicated denim department, Pulp t-shirts, fashion footwear brands and a surprise re-appearance of the SoulCal fashion brand.

 

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With a background team well on the ball and sporting services such as shirt and footwear customisation, this familiar face will be sending shockwaves through the sporting establishment.

Stand & Stare: Pull & Bear Take to the Road

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The anti-corporate momentum builds…

 

as recognised brands balance the safety of recognition and loyalty with the excitement of individual assortments, personal enhancements and store environments that look like they come off the back of a lorry rather than the end of the corporate conveyer belt.

Pull & Bear, from the biggest brand house about, have a new store, urban and improvised, re-stressed and distressed. The logo is viewed through the glass blocked windows of the municipal shelter, whilst tiles and timbers, the remnants of a ruined landscape, are used to create the tables, fixtures and focal points.

The assortment is mixed with originality, imagination and unusual juxtapositions away from historical categories, whilst unit depth, table piles and the order of colour and fashion position are all for experimentation for the pleasure of the modern customers delectation. The abandoned Beetle drives a solitary path through brand convention as this innovative emporium tests the limits of brand conformity, and the battle for loyalty enters an ever more familiar territory.

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…is your brand stuck in your corporate past, or responding to customer trends and forcing the market with innovative store environments and creative customer engagement?

 

VM-unleashed has worked with retailers to develop commercially based but innovative store environments.

Nike Pinterest Gallery of “His Magista is in Town:” A Beast of a Boot

A beast awaits for the unwitting soccer star too big for his boots.

 

In Nike Town there’s only one hero in a store that celebrates many, waiting to catch any passing would-be superstars tempted in by the promise of miraculous skills, fabulous footwork and a future in the fantasy world of football footwear. The Magista is the new “super-boot” from Nike, worn by the rich and famous from the privileged echelons of the glorious game.

 

Follow VM-unleashed! Ltd’s board His Magista is in Town: Nike’s Beast of a Boot on Pinterest.

 

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Selfridges Denim Devolution: Browse the Pinterest Gallery

Destination denim stretched its legs and stepped out as the World’s largest dedicated denim studio.

No idle fascination this 2500 square metres throws a curved ball at the conventions of category collections with Selfridges claiming jeans from £11 to £11,000 in a range of over 11,000 pieces. Denim journeys unfold past acrobatic mannequins and parades of pillars bedecked in blue.

 

Follow VM-unleashed! Ltd’s board Legs 11: Selfridges Denim Devolution on Pinterest.

 

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Cap in Hand: A New Era in Headwear

To be head and shoulders above a crowded category requires dominance of range and unparalleled choice.

 

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A New Era has dawned in the competitive market for souvenir and sporting caps inspired by the vast array of US sporting franchises whose merchandisers market everything from replica kits, memorabilia and the ubiquitous baseball cap.

The central London store has an urban feel with brick wall to brick wall cap displays expanding the experience from sporting team allegiance to blockbuster films, superhero insignia, city branding from across the globe to a spectrum of smartly styled caps, free from fraternity in a striking colour spectrum.

The design cleverly hides available sizes in pull-out drawers behind the displays, shaving centimetres from the store, adding category claustrophobia and an even higher intensity to an unsurpassed assortment.

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Hats off. Respect is Due.

Twist of Fate: Louis Vuitton on a Different Level

Twist of Fate: Louis Vuitton on a Different Level

 

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An important catalyst in the re-invention of Selfridges was the phase 1 introduction of escalator wells at either end of the store, which with the central centrepiece of lifts and existing escalators transport customers on a myriad of customer journeys exploring every corner of every floor of the world famous emporium, opening up an unparalleled assortment of brands and attractions.

A new addition to the vertical transport fraternity is the addition of the unique Louis Vuitton twisting lift joining the 2 floors of the brand in a truly innovative and intimate way. The spectacular open structure reveals a golden lift that turns serenely as it makes its way from one level of luxury to another equally unparalleled Vuitton universe.

The lift is marked by two rotating display cases that transcend the space from floor to ceiling housing the highlights of the accessories collection and forming an appropriate guard of honour for the brand patrons as they make their way up to that great label in the sky.

 

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