Retail Vision:
London at
Christmas.
Festive spirit in the Capital.
Being a retail design agency, it is important for us to keep up-to-date with what’s happening in the industry.
With Christmas being one of the biggest events in retail, we thought we would take a trip to the UK’s largest city and see what was happening. We didn’t have to look too far to discover the festive spirit in the capital with Christmas songs spilling out onto the streets and twinkling fairy lights everywhere. London is truly magical at this time of year and here’s three of our favourite stores;
Topshop.
Topshop’s flagship store on Oxford Street is nothing short of enormous at 90,000sq ft! Having so much retail space allows for lots of exciting features in store, as-well-as over 50 partner brands including Beyoncé’s Ivy Park, Calvin Klein and Adidas. Thankfully they have a personal shopper service to help you make the all-important decisions.
Glitz & glamour.
The store was dressed for Christmas and sparkling throughout. With sequin clad pillars, fluorescent snowflake lighting and large shiny disco balls hanging from the ceiling, the ground floor was a sea of pink and silver metallic decorations, encapsulating the Christmas party vibe with glitz and glamour.
Many permanent features in the store add to the shopper experience during the festive season. Personalised gifts and a Japanese inspired ‘giftshop’ dedicated purely to gifting.
Christmas shopping can be pretty tiring, but with an in-house blow dry bar, nail bar, brow bar, and a piercing booth there’s no shortage on pampering possibilities in preparation for the party season.
Hamleys.
Everyone knows that Christmas is about children and so there isn’t a more appropriate time to visit Hamleys, than during the festive season.
Christmas
is about the kids.
The first thing you see when arriving at the store are the charming window displays. The winter wonderland scenes that are set behind the glass show various Beanie Babies sledding in fake snow and collecting Christmas trees on the back of trucks, evoking ideas of traditional festivities.
The staff were all dressed up as Santa’s elves, welcoming visitors and posing for selfies.
The inside of the store was just as exciting with a bubble machine, various demo areas giving children the chance to try out new products, and an in-house wafflemeister filling the air with a mouth-watering aroma – who doesn’t like a sweet treat at Christmas!
Harrod's.
The main attraction of London at Christmas time has got to be Harrod’s. Every year without fail Harrod’s go all out with their decorations. With a reputation of luxury and extremely high standards to uphold, the store is dressed to the nines and wrapped from floor to ceiling in fairy lights and garlands.
The magic of tradition.
This year’s theme was based on the idea of animals being figures of magic or escapism and the fantasy worlds dreamt up by children’s writers. Luxury brands were asked to choose an animal that reflected their heritage and product aesthetic which resulted in some really interesting, impactful windows.
A huge Christmas tree is placed outside on Hans Crescent and decorated with traditional gold baubles. Inside there is an interactive AR Christmas trail, traditional Christmas fare in Harrod’s famous food hall and stunning decorations throughout the entire store. It looked beautiful and really embodied the sentiment of Christmas.