The last couple of weeks I have visited 2 of London’s best attractions: Kew Gardens, and its summer festival The IncrEdibles and The Serpentine Gallery, the latest Pavilion installation by Sou Fujimoto. Also all the latest VM from the high street.

Love this latest scheme by Burberry, using multiple lenticular images that speak to you as you pass the window.



Retro props at Dover Street Market.



Liberty have collaborated with “We Make Carpets” for their latest window concept ‘party’. We Make Carpets sample everyday objects and transform them in an inventive way to form graphical patterned carpets.



Mirror ball textures.



Tongue n Cheek display at Moschino, a novelty swan pedalo makes a great mannequin display prop.



Selfridges new look denim department opened this week, with luxury brands displayed alongside high street product, with neither price point being superior within the space. Fixtures look amazing and simple repetitive displays spoke for themselves. Sectioned areas for tailor-made services and a self-service till points in the Primark area, this is an interesting concept for a store environment as quality of service is at the forefront for any retailer, so its defiantly a concept to watch develop.



New look Louis Vuitton, gold cladded dinosaur skeletons interact with the mannequins and playful product placement. Nostalgic memories of childhood, visiting The National History Museum.



A visit to Kew Gardens in the sunshine to visit this years summer festival the IncrEdibles, Bompas & Parr have transformed the Palm House pond into a fruit said boating lake, with lots of other great things to see around the gardens, especially loved the display of the mad hatters tea party with lots of amazing edible plants.



The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion installation opened this week, designed by Sou Fujimoto. The latticed structure is made from steel poles, designed as a flexible, multi purpose social space that you can interact with, its a must see.

It’s been a very inspirational week in London, The start of the week saw the opening of the annual Clerkenwell Design Week and Chelsea in Bloom, topped off with a bank holiday treat to The Saatchi Gallery to see Festival des Métiers, a celebration of Hermès craftsmanship and brand heritage.

There were so many amazing things to see at Clerkenwell Design Week, here are my top 4 trends:

Colour

Examples of colour blocking, gradient colour-ways and tonal creations.



Display Details

This street installation has elements of display qualities; the red ribbon acts as a continuation throughout the space focusing your eye to focal points of the installation and fluidity around the space.



Location

The surrounding space or stand design has a huge impact on the objects and pieces being displayed. The raw exposed brick and iron details at the Farmiloe Building acted as a perfect backdrop to some of the minimal designs. While the enclosed space at the House of Detention added an additional level of atmosphere to the exhibitors.



Texture

It was interesting to see texture being used in a variety of ways.



Chelsea in Bloom glistened in the sunshine this week, for the retailers that took part in the competition, here are HMVM’s top picks from this year’s selection.

Exterior

Many retailers opted for the flower sculptures to remove the boundaries and to spill out from the windows, creating a visual impact. I especially love the branded flower boxes at Rag & Bone (Symthsons, Brunello Cucinelli, Basia Zarzycka, Savills)





Objects

It’s always incredible to see everyday objects be transformed into floral creations. The most impressive this year has to be by The White Company and their vintage Rolls Royce display. (Hobbs, Mary Quant, Street Installations, Space NK)





Illustrative

There is something unusual but interesting between the mix of 2.D illustrative images combined with 3.D flowers, they add a focal point to the display and has the ability to bring it to life. The best examples this year are Anya Hindmarch and L K Bennett. (Mary Quant)



Best in Show

HMVM’s top 5 Best in Show are:
Wild-wood sculpture at Massimo Dutti.



Product focus at Space NK.



Attention to detail, (showing consideration to the inner bag lining) at Smythson.



Trend lead window at Kate Spade.



Unexpected detail on closer inspection at Hackett.



To top off the exceptional week of inspirational I went to visit the Festival des Métiers at The Saatchi Gallery, walking around the exhibition provides a fascinating insight to the traditions and values of Hermès crafted objects. Being able to interact with their artisans is a truly unique experience. Showcasing products such as silk printed scarves, watches, handbags and fashion. The space design was simple but effective cocooning the different areas with these curved rods.



Watching large format silk screen printing was a magical experience.



Some scarves are then manipulated with intricate craftsmanship, the lady used a scalpel type object to raised the silk fibers to create textured inserts to the scarf design.



Seeing the different elements that make up their iconic bags.



Artisans were also showcasing hand-made silk ties, women’s fashion, hand-painted home-wares, watches and jewellery.

This weeks post has coverage from Collect: The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects, which was on at the weekend. The latest window scheme from Selfridges and all other display details.

A few inspirational pieces from Collect.



Black and white is still a huge trend and Joseph has done it in a minimal and stylish way, love the use of linear and curved lines.



Window illustrations at Norton & Sons.



Great contrast materials in the step structure at Dover Street Market in collaboration with Damir Doma. Acne has also experimented with wood as a window material.



Disheveled roses chained together to create a frame feature.



Angular props and tonal repetition at Anthropologie.



Fred Perry’s window collaboration with Christopher Raeburn, each design comes packaged with its very own parachute bag, this unique selling point and fab concept that have been translated into the window scheme. (Some images provided by StudioXAG)



Selfridges new scheme picks out the very best summer trends and events, showcasing each with a mannequin army and humorous touches in each window. Especially love the ‘my little pony’s’ and ‘Barbie dolls’ they are a great way to continue the story telling.