This past week I have been teaching the weekly Visual Merchandising Short Course for The London College of Fashion, at their new campus in Stratford, East London. This course was part of the University of the Arts Short Course program running during the Spring break.
The short course focused upon an introduction into Window Dressing and Visual Merchandising. Where we explored current consumer trends within the retail industry and how retailers are creating the ultimate retail experience.

This month I am back at The University of West London in Ealing to teach the 8 week Visual Merchandising module to the students enrolled on the Level 5 Fashion Branding & Visual Merchandising Course.
As part of the 8 week module we will be focusing upon an introduction in to the Visual Merchandising industry and looking at current consumer trends & behaviours within the retail industry.
The two part assessment is focused upon the students designing their own pop up shop for the Selfridges Corner Shop space.
Students will be designing the Oxford and Duke Street window spaces. Then focusing upon designing their in store floor space and creating VM planograms to assist with practical installation.
My theory classes are complimented by Photoshop lessons, which will assist the students in gaining further knowledge of using the design program which they will be using to design their assessment drawings.

It was important for us to visit the Corner Shop at Selfridges in person, to assist students with the understanding of the space and how this is used to create an experimental space for the customer.

For my first blog post of 2024, I am excited to have been asked to teach the Visual Merchandising Module with fellow Lecturer and VM Specialist, Sarah Bailey at Conde Nast College in London.

It was great to meet the students last week at our first lesson together and I look forward to teaching them again in February. My lectures are focusing around the importance of applying the key Visual Merchandising principles both in store and via digital channels. Exploring new technologies which are assisting our customers to have the ultimate multi sensory experience in store and through interactive window displays.

As 2023 draws to a close, I wanted to write my final VMC blog post of the year and where best to finish the year in Braemar, Scotland at the beautiful, Fife Arms Hotel. As I write this final post Fife Arms are in the full swing of the New Year’s celebrations with their Hogmanay celebrations !

It has been a fantastic festive period and I have been very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with so many brilliant retailers and customers this year.

My final job, just before Christmas week was working at the amazing, Fife Arms Hotel with a longtime colleague, Milly Talbot Dunn. Milly asked me to assist her with redressing the hotel’s collection of Christmas trees, to ensure these are ready and looking their very best before the Christmas festivities. Christmas tree’s were located in each of the hotel’s restaurants and decorated with dried fruit and textures from Scotland, taking inspiration from the hotel’s Victorian heritage.

Finally, as we enter 2024, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and custom this year, it is truly appreciated.
Wishing you a very Happy, Peaceful and Abundant New Year 2024

Following on from the lead up to the forthcoming Christmas period working with Longleat Safari Park and Tower Bridge, I have been supporting their retail teams with setting up their Christmas shops, window displays and in store experiences. 

I wanted to share my 10 Visual Merchandising Top Tips for a successful Christmas Shop launch, these have been published as a blog article by Ankorstore to help offer support and tips to their Independent Retailers this Christmas.

If you are opening your retail store during the Christmas season, here are some key tips that you should keep in mind to successfully attract customers to your window and inside your store.

You can read the blog article which is available via the Ankorstore website :

Deck the Halls of Retail: 10 tips for a Successful Christmas Store launch | Ankorstore

It is with great pleasure to be working again this year, with Moodart School of Fashion Communication based in Verona, Italy. During their student visit to London this month, I joined the group to run a Visual Merchandising Workshop around our city.

The workshop commenced with a short lecture introducing the student’s to the fundamental principles of Visual Merchandising techniques and how current consumer trends can be incorporated within retail. We also discussed how Visual Merchandising can be effective when creating today’s Pop Up Shops and concepts. We looked at the luxury fashion brands who are creating a visual and sensory experience to drive interest back to physical retail due to their creative Pop Up concepts across the globe.

Great to be back teaching at UAL’s Central Saint Martins this week teaching the five day Visual Merchandising Interiors Short Course.

During this short course the student’s learnt how interior retail spaces can be arranged in ways that attract customers, maximise their engagement with products, and motivate them to buy. Student’s received an overview of visual merchandising techniques for interiors and explored how current consumer trends can be incorporated within retail. I explained how the fundamental principles, inspiration and techniques involved in Visual Merchandising for retailers creates a visual and sensory experience to drive interest back to our high streets.

This month it was great to be back teaching an in person, practical Visual Merchandising Course for the lovely retail team in their new store at The River & Rowing Museum in Henley on Thames. The Museum is currently undergoing renovation works and the new site will reopen later in the Spring, so our Visual Merchandising workshop was perfectly timed to assist the retail team with planning their new store layout and product merchandising techniques. The Museum also features a brilliant children’s attraction themed around the story of “Wind in the Willows”, we wanted to build a connection from the attraction into the gift shop and bring through the theatre which can be found through the exhibit.

his month we have been creating a Visual Merchandising Manual for some lovely new clients at the Essex Wildlife Trust. Creating bespoke VM guidelines which will help to achieve effective and consistent presentation standards across their retail sites.

The manual contains lots of easy to implement visual examples, giving the user an overview of the key VM principles and how these can then be successfully implemented across the shop floor. Techniques are clearly explained within the visuals to ensure effective implementation, even for staff members who are not professionally trained in Visual Merchandising.