GFW Hits Harrods of London

We checked in with GFW Media Coordinator Melanie again this week, she tells us how our promo meeting went at world famous Harrods Department Store in Knightsbridge, London.

Let me start off by asking did you know that Harrods sells pets? I truly did not, you know you hear the saying, "You can find anything at Harrods". Yeah, no joke! They've got 1500 GBP (multiply that by $1.65 for USD) pet guinea pigs, dogs, cats, rats, rabbits, fish...and then two floors down are the Prada and Mui Mui departements. Too crazy! Sadly it wasn't cuddle time when I was on that floor.

I'm back home from a long afternoon of trepsing and touring with part of the core team at Harrods. I got to learn a bit about their fantastic window displays; or as we in TV call it, staging. I hope you can see the amazing detail with my crappy camera, these are my street photos. This season's theme is "Wonderland"  as in Alice; perhaps in keeping with the recent movie release, the season of Easter and/or bunnies. Nonetheless the bigger, the better and the more outstanding - that's really what Harrods is all about.

How cool is this crystal-studded turntable!!!

So each platform display, which covers the circumference of the store, is decorated in a different theme. Windows and signage have a little something smaller but similar, like a bunny on top of the new Balenciaga perfume (which by the way, smells great!!!). The platforms take a different scene from the story.

 

Alice's "hearing" by The Queen of Hearts at high court...or

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party where Rabbit is late for a very important date (would have been cool to use the real rabbits from upstairs but I guess that would smell like nobody's business).

So you get the idea of what this design team does. Similar to your GFW Team they come up with seasonal themes, they plan and style accordingly and "Make it Work!" because really, you only start with the mannequins. Did you know mannies in the UK are insured while some employees at a certain chain department store are not? (not calling any names). Yes, I had to wait on the "Still Fitting Specialist" to come grab my size down from the mannie since it wasn't covered in the regular guy on the floor's wages. 

All in all a creative afternoon and can I just say, a possible celebrity sighting could have taken place but no one was as interested as me. I come out of Harrods and a few doors down there's a HUGE, heavily-tinted Rolls Royce and 7 series Beemer parked outside of Giogrio Armani. Complete with uniformed driver polishing the back glass. I thought if the person were that important they would have locked the shop, but the doors were wide open so I guess I'll never know...I didn't want to look like a nosy American tourist.

See you at Fashion Week!!!

Melanie.