Stripe-in 'ell. Lacoste, Office. Birmingham

The Lacoste shop window was looking very stripey, featuring some stripey SS10 garments. The preppy, slim fitted, sailor style is back again and Lacoste have naturally hopped on the band wagon (or yacht/barge!)
très rayure


Office also used the stripe visuals in their VM which is synonymous with the brand identity with the 3D diagonal stripes. The shoe stand I thought was particularly interesting because of the emphasis on geometry and clean lines. The perspex shoe stand makes the shoes look like they are invisibly stacked. Nice

MASS APPEAL - All Saints & Kurt Geiger, Birmingham

'Wha wha what's goin' on...'

Sorry, it was where I got the idea of this post name from so I had to throw in a link// Classic old school tune, love it. LISTEN <<

I saw in Birmingham that both All Saints and Kurt Geiger within the Bullring had gone for the mass product look within their VM, stacked with surgically positioned and perfectly aligned grids which caught my iris'...

Kurt Geiger had gone for something a bit different, whether it was trying to cut costs or to show that they can trust the good and honest Birmingham public (lol!) by having no form of security between the product and consumer. It's interesting using the front of the shop almost just as storage/shelf space, proudly putting the products on show and makes the store feel more open. I liked the geometric style using the shoes almost as pattern being reflected and refracted by the mirrored boxes.

All Saints went for more of a vintage, antique style take with their mass styled VM. About 100 Singer sewing machines stacked in formation could also be a reference to heritage and craftsmanship and relate back to the handcrafted, more unique cut garments produced by the brand and perhaps amplify the vintage quality. I think this was my favourite shop window in Birmingham although the photos don't really do it justice.

Seeing about 100 sewing machines meticulously placed in metal cages in the shop window, under low light, recalls the modernism push of mass production and how it was worshiped pre 1950s and makes an interesting, quriky and charismatic front window.

Halls of Fame - DKNY & Armani Exchange, Birmingham

Step right in...

The thing which interested me in these 2 stores, more so than their clothes! is the 'lobby style' entrance as a halfway point between the outside and the interiors. The hallway acts as a comfort/de-clutter zone almost, taking you out from the hustle and bustle of the busy streets into a more relaxed, cleaner and stylish interior. It sets you up before you go into the store and makes you feel like you are stepping into a different sort of environment where it is actually worth being in, by having an extended entrance unlike the average POP'n'SHOP within the mid-market with a simple door. The space also gives the brand a few extra footsteps to make your mouth water and increase your excitement to get in. This relates to the point I made earlier of brands needing to sell more of an experience within their physical stores because it is so easy to buy online, brands need to increase the incentive for us to get off our back-sides and make the effort to purchase instore.

The Armani Exchange store has also used this idea of a hallway but taken it a step further by making it even more interactive with the consumer, employing a resident DJ to bang out the tunes in the shop window. Personally I have always loved this idea of combining fashion and live music and feel that it can be a really powerful method to talk to the consumer, obviously more so if the brand has a musical/creative personality or connection.
Diesel 'Only the Brave' Block Party, Paris Feat. Common LIVE!
<< My favourite example of a fashion brand and live music COOL_laborating... Common KILLS IT!

I think Selfridges, Birmingham tried to get away with just blaring music from the equipment and no actual real DJ a couple of years ago within the menswear section of the store. I feel that it is pointless just having the equipment and no one actually being DJ, pretty much takes the point away and loses the personal interaction value into just unneccessary loud music.
This whole DJ, Club Anthem vibe fitted perfectly to the brands target consumer at the Armani Exchange and plays out directly to the market of 'clubwear'/weekend smart-casuals. I can imagine the concept being most appreciated by the early twenties/late teens all over Birmingham who will be looking for clothing with a bit more substance rather than your generic, common Henleys, Soviet, Firetrap or GioGoi which would be the young male clubbers 1st point of call. Pretty boy, would've been/could've been semi-professional footballer-chic.
Armani Exchange plays out to the male 'weekender' mainstream, offering a slightly more upmarket, affordable-designer luxury...

As well as offering more space for advertising and offering a slightly different retail environment (a bit like a club!) the idea of using a hallway style space is more interactive, giving a brand a few extra seconds to sell the experience/brand message which could have a massive impact on the consumer! I like it.

SS10 VM Geek chic/90's Prep - DKNY, River Island, Topman

Embrace the martian...

More visual trends, this time within the universe of menswear...
I have noticed a strong influence of space and 90s preppy-American, Seattle style space visuals within current visual merchandise.
Places where I have seen the space theme just land are:
Nottingham Contemporary 'Star City Exhibition'
Star Wars X Adidas Collaboration
River Island, Birmingham
Topman, Birmingham
DKNY, Birmingham
3 White Walls Gallery 'Space Lands Exhibition', Birmingham

A key menswear VM trend, from what I saw in Birmingham specifically, orbited around the idea of alien invasion and space theme. The 3 White Walls Gallery was running a great exhibition called 'SPACE LANDS' by Paul Freeman, coincidentally, which I thought had some really nice photographs which could be used (within in-store promotion, lookbooks, VM etc) by brands which are carrying this message.

DKNY were portraying this theme with the words 'Just Landed' used in their shop window. There was a sense of delivery/industry with packages containing clothes, slightly deconstructed and damaged, perhaps dropped of by a couple of fashion conscious aliens (or am I talking out of Uranus!) The use of a green strobe light within the dark back drop looked different but would have been more exciting with several rather than just the one.

River Island.

Topman.
KiD CuDi - Man on the Moon (The Anthem)
Kid CuDi - Enter Galactic

Kid CuDi - My World

KiD CuDi - Embrace The Martian

SS10 VM Floral/Pastel - Topshop & Oasis Birmingham

Very Viktor & Rolf SS10. It looked like a flowerbomb had just exploded in the shop window.
Nice use of layering and transparent oversized flowers with pastelle blocks of colour on top of the mannequins.

Bang on Spring 2010 as we expect and love of Topshop.

Oh whAt'S thIS?

Above is the shop window of Oasis, inside the Bullring, which I thought had adapted a nice take on the 'floral'_'pastel'_'fairytale' theme I was seeing a lot of in Birmingham, particuarly within the mid-market retailers of womenswear. The stencil style wrapping around the shop sign and intertwined with the main board made more of an impression than focussing mainly on mannequins and product. The store was also using the oversized 'Book of Charms' feature to show off the current collaboration with textile designer Vanessa Harrington which is part of the current movement by the brand to support British textile talent. It all looked very delicate, dainty and floral which may have some connection to the release of Tim Burton's new take on Alice in Wonderland, since everyone seems to be jumping on this b(r)and-wagon. Also the backing of British talent ties in nicely with the idea of brands looking to fullfill the 'new consumer' needs of a local, honest brand image. sweet like tropicana.

MORE INTERACTION - Carphone Warehouse, Birmingham

WELCOME. TO. THE. FUTURE.

This advertisement caught my attention because of the use of video animation within an averagely boring, unexciting shop window. Brands using video is becoming more and more frequent as a form of 'conversational marketing' and being more intriguing to the consumer rather than normal, one dimensional, print advertisements. This Carphone Warehouse example was also more interactive becuase of the wording of the promotion ("Touch To Play") and the animation also read "choose the colour of your life" which is also more personal and collaborative with the consumer. How long untill there is video advertising inside magazines/brochures/lookbooks!?
Fashion brands are becoming increasingly video-savvy with the increase of catwalk streaming to their websites/blogs showcasing seasonal catwalks and fashion shows.

The Burberry Autumn Winter 2010 streaming was billed as the world’s first truly global fashion show, taking place on the penultimate day of London Fashion Week, beamed live in 3D to five global cities, and streamed to the rest of the world via 73 websites, including Vogue, Grazia and CNN, which all picked up the video feed in a global simulcast. It was undoubtedly the most widely distributed fashion show a luxury brand has ever staged, potentially reaching an audience of more than 100 million users. (For further reading click here). In a fitting tribute to Mr. McQueen’s futuristic fashion vision from last September, more brands than ever before experimented with live-streaming, digital innovations and new e-commerce models for their Autumn Winter 2010 catwalks, in respect of a true innovator and forward-thinker.

Alexander McQueen digital tribute at OnOff, London. Source: The Business of Fashion

Aspecto, Birmingham

I only realised this chain of stores existed when I came to uni in Nottingham and ever since have become quite a fan. There is a nice mix of clothes and feature some key players within the urban 'progressive streetwear' realm. The Birmingham store sits within the ground floor of the Pavillion which is more well-known for its Disney store and places to eat rather than decent shops... perhaps this reflects Aspecto's brand image of being slightly off-centred and out of the blue!?
I like the way that Barbour is stocked and arranged so tightly amongst streetwear brands such as Money and Stussy and Clarks (classics!) footwear is on show next to Adidas Y-3's, to me this store portrays today's streetwear/urban inspired consumer in the way that there is an unforgiving attitude to collaborating old with new and taking inspiration from past trends and key styles, mixing them up and spitting them out as something fresh and unique. I feel from looking at the type of consumer I see myself aspiring to or within the urban cult there is a stronger sense of individuality and spotaniety in the way in which people dress/express themselves using clothing. There is a clear move away from the stereotypical XXL, big-brand-bling vulagrity and 'cheese' of the 90s (thank god) which can definately be seen within the music. Artists such as 50 Cent, The Game and the whole commercial club-style hip hop icons have slowly deminished and now we are left with the uprise of (what was) the underground of back-pack rap & elctro-hop with artists such as Kid Cudi, J Cole, Drake, Theophilus London and the super-individual characters such as Will.I.am and Kanye West which now inspire the fashion industry more so than ever! It is now cool to be seen in Oxfam or 'vintage shops' or to borrow your Dad's loafers and deck shoes.

A result of styling becoming much more eclectic with a more open sense to what is deemed fashionable/accepted (which is now pretty much anything)... even Jay-Z came out of semi-retirement to rebrand himself from his old image into a more fashion savvy, upmarket, modest fashionista wearing "ALL BLACK EVERYTHING" This shift has seen a gap in the market for stores such as Aspecto and Size? and local inde's to move into, stocking an eclectic mix of classic and fresh streetwear brands.

That was then...

This is NOW...
"Oversize clothes and the chains... we off that" <<(Listen.)

RESURGENCE OF TRADITIONALISM - Gieves & Hawkes, Birmingham.

Heritage tailoring, paying homage to their Saville Row roots.

Things are continously getting faster - faster trains, faster computers, faster apps, faster days! If you can't keep up with the speed you can even take shots of caffeine and Red bull to stay on point. There's so much more communication and brands trying to speak to the consumer through stealth marketing, guerilla marketing, viral marketing... we are being attacked by branding and advertising, confused by what brands are saying, this equals 'choice trauma'. Therefore brands such as Gieves & Hawkes revitalising their heritage and promoting their roots (brand essence) is acting almost like a friendly, comforting pat on the back to consumers, reasurring them to "calm down and think about what we're famous for". Gucci are also making similar efforts to reinstate their sophisticated, European style as are many other brands such as Pringle of Scotland, Burberry, Fred Perry, Stone Island...

Since the phenomenom of 'technology' and web 2.0 of the last 10 years I think brands have lost track of their brand essence and how to promote this to the consumer. Understandably the rise of such digital communications such as social networking, blogging, video share, chat rooms etc. have been intriguing for brands to play with but perhaps for some brands their heritage and roots don't fit with this 'techno' age, and neither do their consumers. Consumers also are much more clued up on such digital communications now (more so than many brands!) so they can also be more conversational and interactive with what works and what's right. They can let you know if a brand has done something wrong or designed a collection that they don't like and have the power to let everybody know too!

The increase and development of online shopping now also makes the retail store more important to sell the heritage of the brand and the identity/experience in bricks and mortar and to look more local. A really nice example of increasing 'localability' through a brand has been shown by Size? who's new stores look to reflect the history and roots of the city. e.g. the new Southampton store has been given a nautical theme reflecting its coastal roots for recieving shipments from all over the world. Also the Bristol store, which opened back in 2009 kept it local with an oversized horse on the front of the shop, paying homage to the Horsefair in Bristol, where the store is located. (I will go into this local theme in another post!)
OLD'S COOL.

Alife Hi-tops £20!! @ Size, Birmingham

I don't really know what's going on here! I was stunned to find the highly respected, New York streetwear label ALIFE on sale for £20!
(I couldn't take a photograph of the shoes in the store so you will just have to take my word for it). Usually these would be retailed within the region of £100-£150 (RRP) especially this 'all-over' model which is more limited than the standard colourways. http://www.wellgosh.com/acatalog/Alife_Everybody_High_Wine.html

Have Size? Birmingham gone and hired an ex-British banker to mark up their stock?

If you are a fan of the Alife brand or street wear or fancy bagging a bargain or fancy making a cheeky little ebay profit then i definately advise you go down to Size? Birmingham and check out their 'recession-conscious' footwear sale. They also had the other red/white colourway also for £20 and many other big brands such as Pointer, Nike, Clae and Reebok also for around £20-£25. It's a steal!

This can't be good for Alife's brand image within the UK market which it is fairly unkown to, in comparison to the synonymous repect with the brand name in the US. Pricing (supposedly) high end, market leading brands at the same price as Primark can be detrimental to the brand and its price&quality reputation since we tend to always see high price as high quality as consumers. £20 for a pair of Alife trainers isn't speaking true to the brand image or helping it gain the same type of respect that it has across the Atlantic in the US market. I feel that there is real potential for this brand to grow in the UK especially with the growth in retro, ultra-individual, ghetto-chic trends we are currently seeing at the moment especially in streetwear.

> Get Alife here.