SPECIAL REPORT CHRISTMAS WINDOWS: LONDON
With the festive season just around the corner, it’s time for our annual special report on the best of the best Christmas windows. In Part 1 we travel to London to check out the spectacular displays of Selfridges, Harrods and Harvey Nichols as well as favourites Liberty London and Fortnum & Mason.
From futuristic festivities to bejewelled holiday utopias, from Santa’s elves being replace by cats to entire animal snow kingdom, this year London delivers some of its most fantastical Christmas windows yet.
Selfridges
Selfridges was the first department store in the world to unveil its Christmas windows doing so in mid-October. This year’s theme “A Christmas for Modern Times” is a futurist vision of the season which rethinks traditional fairy tales and Christmas stories to give them a modern spin. The colour palette of silver, white, blue and green is offset with icy materials such as mirrors and crystals. Our favourites? Cinderella’s Ballgown by Christian Siriano and Rapunzel’s tower created in collaboration with Simone Rocha.
Fortnum & Mason
As the home of Christmas for over 300 years, Fortnum and Mason has chosen to emphasise all things traditional with a nod to artist Edward Bawden’s 1950s Christmas illustrations. The heritage brand has gone back to their roots, highlighting artisanal preparations for a very #FortnumsChristmas. In a fun twist, elves have been replaced by cats clad in Fortnum red coats in Christmas settings that feature gold wheels, intricate pipes and whirring machines. It’s everything you need for a royally festive feast!
Liberty London
Inspired by “The Tree of Life”, Liberty’s theme this year is “The Tree of Liberty”. The centrepiece of the store’s Christmas display is a breath-taking bonsai Christmas tree installed in its central atrium. The giant tree, in jewelled tones of teal and pink, is covered with reindeer moss creating cloudlike blossoms. The theme is an homage to Liberty’s Christmas print “Jeweltopia” and its store windows feature an otherworldly festive utopia with exotic animals, lush foliage and festive treasures.
Harrods
Drawing on the idea of the wonder of a childhood Christmas, this year Harrods goes big with a whimsical “Kingdom of Christmas”. With four legged and flying friends as guides, shoppers can discover exclusive and unique gifts in the Knightsbridge store. The kooky mix of animals including bears, leopards and zebras, are the stars of the show. With spectacular snowy settings as a background they surrounded by Christmas gift boxes from leading brands such as Ellie Saab, Carolina Herrera and Brunello Cucinelli.
Harvey Nichols
Harvey Nichols embraces all things Nordic to create a series of contrast this Christmas: light and shadow, cold and warmth, nostalgia and modernity. Projected onto the building’s façade are animations of the Northern Lights enabling shoppers to capture a perfect photo opportunity. Meanwhile the store windows are all about the hygge with cosy scenes featuring bespoke cedar slate panels, gorgeous Christmas garlands and mannequins are decked out in this year’s Christmas collection.
Stayed tuned for Part 2 when we head to New York!
