Global Retail Visuals – Deep Impact

18 Nov

Last Tuesday, I went to a WGSN SINGAPORE Seminar held at Furama Riverfront Singapore. The speaker was Sue Evans, Senior Fashion Editor from WGSN London. I must admit that the first half of the seminar had me almost dozing off not once or twice, but many times. I blame it on a hearty breakfast of MacDonald’s. 

However, as Sue started on the second half of her presentation, I was intrigued by the case studies that she showed us while we were on the topic of the importance of visual merchandising. There were a few shops that captured my interest immediately. After I went back to office, I went online and did a search for some of the shops that Sue had mentioned. The follow are the shortlisted stores and the information I found so far. THEO FENNELL is a celebrity jeweller and his celebrity fans include Victoria Beckham, Liz Hurley, Elton John, etc. The store that was mentioned in my seminar was actually his Show Off! jewellery exhibition, which showcases his jewellery creations in a a dramatic setting. The main structure would have to be a full-sized guillotine with the severed head of Marie Antoinette, whose earlobes were adorned with a 55-carat Burma ruby and diamond earrings worth 395,000 pounds. Sue showed us a picture of the guillotine with the severed head, and thinking that this picture could be found easily online, I searched for it. Alas, I couldn’t find it.

 Theo Fennell Creations

Theo Fennell Creations

The other displays were as bizzare as the guillotine. A woman in an electric chair, a corpse on a gurney and a tableau of heaven in which an angel’s wings have been chucked into a dustbin in favour of a far greater temptation — a ruby horned heart. Mythological figures such as cherubs, murderers, snakes, scorpions, bats and skeletons were all used as props to showcase the magnificant gemstones and diamonds.

However, one interesting fact that Sue divulged was that this exhibition was only opened for four days, but took 11 months to prepare.

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