It's Chriiiiiiistmas!

We've already taken a look at Christmas adverts this year, and now one of my favourite Christmassy thing..shop windows! Every year the big retailers spend a good year coming up with their concepts and ideas for their Christmas windows, I enjoy seeing what they've made and who's is the best! 


John Lewis

John Lewis have attempted to "wow shoppers young and old" , with their animal themed winter woodland windows. The store wanted to create inspiring displays to delight whilst still ensuring products remain the focus. They have done this by creating animals made of their products, which include a Dyson reindeer, a bear fashioned from furniture, a utensil rabbit and Turkey made from towels.

Harrods

The department store has chosen to go with a large steam train , 'The Harrods Express' for their festive window this year. Each window shows passengers in a different carriage of the locomotive.  Each luxurious carriage showcases the stores clothing, accessories and homewards.The carriages are complete with digital screens that show outside scenery and snow falling as if the train is actually moving.Apparently it took 500 hours to build and features an £80,000 dress by Ralph & Russo.

Liberty 

Liberty's Christmas windows this year show cartoon style explosions of gifts, with fairy lights blasting from the middle. This was inspired by the dazzling flash created from the pull of a christmas cracker. Gifts are displayed in the middle of the flashes on polished chrome shelves, whilst jewel-encrusted mannequins show off the party wear from this season. The store has kept with this theme and has a giant cracker bursting above their main entrance.

Selfridges

The Selfridges windows feature a giant bottle of Viktor and Rolf's Flowerbomb perfume and a host of other oversized Christmas gifts for this season, plonked on snowy mounds, surrounded by Christmas trees as though they have just dropped out of the sky, I love this window especially the giant tub of play dough thats pouring over the snow.

Harvey Nichols

Harvey Nichols' Christmas windows are colourful, glitzy and sparkling with light this year. They have used coloured bulbs to add a warm, subtle glow to the displays which feature mannequins dressed in the latest clothing from this season.The substantial amount of glitter, dangling snow flakes and brightly coloured stars give the windows a tacky christmassy feel, but thats not a bad thing! here they are..

My favourites this year are Harrods luxurious Harrods Express window display and Selfridges huge gifts on the snow window display, I can't decide which I prefer! What's your favourite festive display this year?

Making Liberty

Later on this year channel 4 will be airing their fly on the wall documentary, making Liberty. A three-part series showing behind the scenes footage of the department store based in London' Regent Street. 

Channel 4's commissioning editor Emma Cooper said of the show: "Liberty is the last bastion of eccentric, eclectic design and is jam-packed with a wonderful cast of colourful characters."

Last year Mr Selfridge aired on ITV last year, a drama series based around the creator of Selfridge & Co, and the store as it opened. Perhaps Liberty is taking a leaf out of their book, by having their store on television they are promoting it, and as it will be broadcast this Autumn, its just in time for people to do their Christmas shopping. This will be good for the store which has been transformed in recent years from nearly going bankrupt to a commercial success story! The show is also expected to be broadcast internationally so will encourage tourists to visit whilst in London. The store are hoping Making Liberty will bring new customers and encourage people that haven't visited the store in a while to return. As they believe they're " A brand that thrives on innovation and we have something for everyone."

#REGENT TWEET!

Saturday 22nd June saw the third  'Regent Tweet' event. Bloggers from all over the world are invited to the annual digital event. The bloggers spend their day participating in masterclasses,competitions, attending talks,entering competition, receiving goodie bags, and shopping! This year also saw the introduction of male bloggers to the event!
42 brands from Regents Street participated, including Liberty, Oliver Sweeney,Coach, Karen Millen and Michael Kors!   

Guest speakers on the day included the hugely successful Susie Lau, from Style Bubble and British write Christopher Riley.In between shopping and blogging, the bloggers enjoyed lunch at American steakhouse, MASH and took a break to tweet and tell their followers about the event, followed by masterclasses in sushi,cocktail making and cake decorating. The day ended with a drinks reception at MASH, competition winners were announced(prizes included 5 pairs of tickets to the David Bowie exhibition),and bloggers enjoyed canapés and cocktails to see the day out.