This is not just a mannequin!

Today I saw the scariest mannequin ever (handless and in a Marks & Spencer shop window of all places!) It's the type of thing you expect to come alive in a horror film. What were you thinking M&S?

Liberty of London

Somehow, despite many London visits, I had never actually visited the Liberty store. 

"Since 1875, Liberty has been synonymous with luxury and great design. Arthur Liberty's intuitive vision and pioneering spirit led him to travel the world looking for individual pieces to inspire and excite his discerning clientele. Liberty's vision... continues today within the iconic Tudor building." 

The distinct difference between Liberty and London's other luxury department stores, Harrod's, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols is the atmosphere of the 5 floor store. First of all, the staff are ready to help with any quiry. But most importantly, walking around from room to room, I kept wondering what treats would be just around the corner. Despite losing my bearings quite a lot, I was very much willing to overlook this confusion for the wonderful displays of antique furnishings, mannequin styling and fabulous merchandising of gorgeous product.

Return to Topshop

As always, a trip to London wouldn't be complete without a quick visit to Topshop's flagship store on Oxford Street.

Before even entering, there were camp visual displays unlike any I'd seen in Topshop before. The window display mannequins sat upon oversized plastic flowers. Walking into the store, I was faced with garden style platforms and a parked vintage van with mannequins sitting in and around it, dressed suitably for the upcoming music festivals this summer. A bit over-the-top but it definitely grabbed my attention. 

I tried on quite a lot of things and fell in love with a pair of vintage Doc Martens and this dress with a cut-out section under the bust.  But I had to behave, I wasn't there to spend, I was there for the conference! *Sob*

Downstairs there was an interesting use of coloured ribbons strung from floor mannequins to high level displays. I have always found it inspiring how Topshop utilise props, graphics and fixtures to define one area/collection/trend from another. 

The window display for some of the in-store collections featured a more subtle colour palette and upsidedown vintage furnishings - a lot more stylish and less garish on the eye.

NOTE: Just visited the Topshop website and came across this behind the scenes video of their latest 'High Summer' photoshoot.

Mannequin styling gone bad.

When I did a work placement in John Lewis Head Office in London during the summer, one day I was asked to accompany a member of the buying team to a John Lewis store on Oxford Street to report back on where their product was placed, if it was selling and how sales could be increased. On approaching the ladies wear department, I noticed some terrible signs that could have a dramatic effect on the product selling.

Here there are 2 mannequins set up in a key sightline but when you look at what they are wearing it is quite shocking. Both have identical wigs, identical shoes and identical summer floral dresses on. Floral prints had been massive that season so I can understand why they would be displayed. But why do both have the same dress on?? Shouldn't John Lewis be maximising potential sales by having a different outfit? Furthermore, one had a heavy black PVC jacket on. I kid not. It made no sense what-so-ever. The idea of mannequin dressing is to put a credible outfit together that a customer could imagine wearing. This also encourages them to buy the whole outfit rather than just an individual item.

Even worse was when I walked along a bit and (I think it was in the Warehouse section) I saw the worst single outfit on a mannequin ever. The photo below does not do it justice but the mannequin on the right is actually wearing a ra-ra skirt, then the same one again but sitting higher up on the waist, then a top of a slightly different (but i think meant to be the same) colour and again a similarly coloured scarf wrapped round the neck! In the height of summer!


2 nights previously Gok Wan had shown on his Fashion Fix programme, how to make a boob tube ra-ra dress from 2 identical ra-ra skirts. I think whoever styled these got a bit carried away.

What really annoyed me was that this was John Lewis's Oxford Street store so should display the best styling of the best product available. When I commented on this to the design, buying and merchandising team I worked with (who I must add, were all absolutley fantastic at their jobs and helpful) they seemed to be aware of the problem that there was no Visual Merchandising team within the store! If they are looking for someone I'd gladly go down.

Visual Merchandising

In my job with Topshop I am involved in the Visual Merchandising of the shop floor, making sure the the Topshop trends are represented within my own store. This can sometimes be more challenging than people think with concern needing to be shown to what lines of clothing are new in (these are given priority spacing as are best selling lines); giving visual balance (e.g. make sure your colours or prints are represented evenly throughout the space); outfit building (making sure a top is not randomly displayed by itself. It should be partnered with e.g. trousers or skirts and a jacket) and of course considering what is commercial for your store and customer. 

I have some images of merchandising I have done in the past including mannequin styling. I will try to keep taking pictures of everything I do and post them as I do them.